Driving Manchester to Paris.

Trebor16

Richard53 wrote: »

A lot of petrol stations in France are unmanned (especially in rural areas) and ask you to put your credit card in before drawing fuel. However, some of them will not accept UK bank cards. I would recommend always carrying €40-50 in cash, just in case you can't get fuel any other way. If it's card-only, at a pinch you could ask a local to use his card and pay him back in cash. Around the ferry ports, look for the pump which has a Union Jack on it - that's the one that will take your UK card.

That situation has changed considerably in recent years and filling up at card only petrol stations is not the problem it used to be. I have been to France three times this year and had no issues filling up at some petrol stations that were in rural areas which were pay by card only.

Richard53

Thanks guys - seems I am a bit out of date (not for the first time). Problems I had were a few years ago, and I was using a UK debit card. In the last few years I have used a credit card and - yes - not had any problems. You still see a lot of Union Jacks on petrol pumps near to the ferryports, though, so I assumed the issue was still, er, an issue. Glad to be corrected.

WTFH

WTFH wrote: »

Another vote for the M40 over the M1, and for Auchan. Diesel was €1.309 at the Grande Synthe one (near Dunkirk) on Monday, also that store is a bit further from Calais so they have a few more wine offers than the Calais branch. I can't remember the petrol price, I think it was 1.529, but I'll check in Thursday on the way home from work.

Also, Auchan's wine offers run from Thursday to Wednesday, so the biggest selection is on a Thursday.

It was actually €1.489 for 95 unleaded.

OddballJamie

WTFH wrote: »

It was actually €1.489 for 95 unleaded.

Going by Travelex.com rates petrol is actually 1p a litre cheaper at my closest Lime garage.

property.advert

Get the plane and rent a car when you get there, if you can think of a rational reason why on earth you'd want a car in Paris.

OddballJamie

property.advert wrote: »

Get the plane and rent a car when you get there, if you can think of a rational reason why on earth you'd want a car in Paris.

OP isn't going into Paris centre, he's going to Disney. Would think flights for a family plus car hire is going to cost a bit and miss out on the adventure.

Flying-High_2

GFs Family's Bought property to renovate in France... Pre Book the Crossing... Mega £££ difference if I wanted to go tomorrow rather than a months time... Its approx a 1250 Mile round Trip for Me and I use the Eurostar. Pick up goes through best part of 5 tanks if towing and I'll aways roll into france on fumes and fill up there and before I leave.... Loads of Info about driving in France on about france.com... GF traeted it as if we were off to space first time we went haha...

WTFH

OddballJamie wrote: »

Going by Travelex.com rates petrol is actually 1p a litre cheaper at my closest Lime garage.

€1.489 is roughly £1.269 at trade rates
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=148.9&From=EUR&To=GBP

But yes, the price in France for petrol is very similar to the UK (contrary to what some people will tell you about the UK being the most expensive in Europe).
Belgium is more expensive by about 15 cents a litre.

Diesel, on the other hand, is not taxed as highly in the rest of Europe as it is in the UK, which helps lorry drivers, etc. So my fill up in Dunkirk would be £1.116 if I got bank rates on the exchange.

Alias_Omega

Burnleyfc wrote: »

Hi,
I will be driving from Manchester to Paris in a standard 1.6 05 Astra using the ferry from Dover.
How much will it cost in fuel do you think?
Have you any tips for driving in France as well?
Cheers

The speed limit on the way down from Calais is 85mph. This will eat your fuel, as it did in our Mondeo ST.

Just be prepared for an extra cost.

zagfles

One thing which catches a lot of Brits out is that town signs with a red border means a 50kph speed limit. There are usually reminder (rappel) 50kph signs in the town but the speed limit starts at the town sign. Someone at work got done for speeding because he didn't realise this.