Page 416 - Lonely Planet France’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

and conditions (ie the fine print), the most Deals can be found on the internet and
important thing to check is the franchise through companies such as the following:
(deductible/excess), which for a small car is Auto Europe (%in USA 888-223-5555;
usually around €600 for damage and €800 www.autoeurope.com)
for theft. With many companies, you can re-
duce the excess by half, and perhaps to zero, DriveAway Holidays (%in Australia 1300
by paying a daily insurance supplement of 363 500; www.driveaway.com.au)
up to €20. Your credit card may cover CDW Holiday Autos (%in UK 020 3740 9859;
if you use it to pay for the rental but the car- www.holidayautos.co.uk)
hire company won’t know anything about
this – verify conditions and details with your Rental cars with automatic transmission
credit-card issuer to be sure. are very much the exception in France;
Arranging your car hire or fly/drive they usually need to be ordered well in
package before you leave home is usually advance and are more expensive than
considerably cheaper than a walk-in rental, manual cars.
but beware of website offers that don’t For insurance reasons, it is usually for-
include a CDW or you may be liable for up bidden to take rental cars on ferries, eg to
to 100% of the car’s value. Corsica.
International car-hire companies: All rental cars registered in France have
Avis (%08 21 23 07 60, from abroad 01 70 99 a distinctive number on the licence plate,
47 35; www.avis.com) making them easily identifiable – including
Budget (%08 25 00 35 64; www.budget.fr) to thieves. Never leave anything of value in
a parked car, even in the boot (trunk).
EasyCar (%in France 08 26 10 73 23, in the
UK 0800 640 7000; www.easycar.com)
Europcar (%08 25 35 83 58; www.europ BRINGING YOUR OWN VEHICLE
car.com)
Hertz (%01 41 91 95 25, 08 25 86 18 61; Any foreign motor vehicle entering France
www.hertz.com) must display a sticker or licence plate iden-
tifying its country of registration. Right-
Sixt (%08 20 00 74 98; www.sixt.fr) hand-drive vehicles brought from the UK
French car-hire companies: or Ireland must have deflectors affixed to
France Driving guiDe BRINGING YOUR OWN VEHICLE
ADA (%08 99 46 46 36; www.ada.fr) the headlights to avoid dazzling oncoming
traffic.
DLM (www.dlm.fr)
France Cars (www.francecars.fr)
Locauto (%04 93 07 72 62; www.locauto.fr) MAPS
Renault Rent (%08 25 10 11 12; www.
renault-rent.com) Michelin’s excellent, detailed regional driv-
ing maps are highly recommended as a
Rent a Car (%08 91 700 200; www.renta driving companion, as they will help you
car.fr) navigate back roads and explore alterna-
Priority to the Right
Under the priorité à droite (‘priority to the right’) rule, any car entering an inter-
section (including a T-junction) from a road (including a tiny village backstreet)
on your right has the right-of-way. Locals assume every driver knows this, so
don’t be surprised if they courteously cede the right-of-way when you’re about to
turn from an alley onto a highway – and boldly assert their rights when you’re the
one zipping down a main road.
Priorité à droite is suspended (eg on arterial roads) when you pass a sign show-
ing an upended yellow square with a black square in the middle. The same sign with
a horizontal bar through the square lozenge reinstates the priorité à droite rule.
When you arrive at a roundabout at which you do not have the right of way (ie
the cars already in the roundabout do), you’ll often see signs reading vous n’avez
pas la priorité (you do not have right of way) or cédez le passage (give way).

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