last minute hints and tips for France- first time planning a holiday

cjmc11

Hey all,
First off, please mods don't merge this with the France ferry deals thread, thanks.
Heading to France on Saturday, hiring a car and travelling to Paris, Bordeaux and Lille, and a few places in between.
Have flights booked, boarding passes printed, passport checked, car booked, voucher printed, licence checked, travel insurance and excess insurance purchased, accommodation booked for the 3 cities through airbnb, have contacted first host to confirm all is ok.
Anyone have any other advice on things I need to get done in the next couple of days?
First time planning a holiday and starting to get a bit nervous that I'm forgetting things to get done!
Thanks

Spanish Eyes

I think you have it all covered. Well done. You haven't mentioned money though, but I'm sure you will have a wallet full of dosh and cards!

Only thing I can advise on is in rural France EVERYTHING shuts down from about two pm till five or so. And I mean everything. Same on Sundays. So stock up!

I'm guessing you are going to the Euros. Have a blast.

cjmc11

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I think you have it all covered. Well done. You haven't mentioned money though, but I'm sure you will have a wallet full of dosh and cards!

Only thing I can advise on is in rural France EVERYTHING shuts down from about two pm till five or so. And I mean everything. Same on Sundays. So stock up!

I'm guessing you are going to the Euros. Have a blast.

Thanks, ya well I have about a grand in cash, plus credit and debit card, but most of the limit on the credit card will be taken up straight away by the car hire, as they put a 1500 euro hold in case of any damage. Is a grand too much cash to bring in one go do ya reckon?I've informed my bank as well so at least they'll be keeping an eye on the account so no unusual spending happens. Also was in at Vodafone with regards roaming, have France maps downloaded to the sat nav on the phone, it'll work offline so no data usage. Any good tips for driving on the right hand side?, its probably the most thing in worried about tbh. Staying in saint Denis part of Paris, only about 2km from stade de France, looks like a straight enough drive in from Beauvais airport.
Just any other tips, even small things just to add piece of mind I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks

Spanish Eyes

With a hire car it is much easier than with a RHD. Take your time to figure out all the bits in the car, and do a little run around first before heading out on the main road.

€1k sounds like a LOT of cash to be carrying, but then again, as long as you don't lose it or have it robbed on you, it's your choice. If you are using a card anytime, do not let it out of your sight EVER. Although they have the wireless card machines now so it's a lot easier. Use cards for buying fuel. Make sure you have cash and coins for any tolls and parking fees.

Other than that off you go, you will get used to the LHD soon enough, careful on the roundabouts!

Strumms

Maybe an obvious one but don't keep all your cash in the same location, on your person or otherwise... Say if you wallet got robbed you would be minus cards and cash... I always stick a couple of hundred plus in say the middle of a book that you might keep in your carry on and just leave that tucked away in the apartment in a bag when you get there for an emergency. Also only take out what you need for the day and have another stash for the bulk of the dosh back at the apartment. If you are not used to being away and not as traveled you might not be wary to the risks of pick pocketing which can be a problem in Paris and especially so during the Euros.... Otherwise you seem set, cant say im not jealous ... go and enjoy !

schemingbohemia

Don't bring that much cash, use your debit card instead.
Lots of the tolled roads have timed journeys so if you get to the next toll before you should have you will get a fine. French police can force you to accompany them to an ATM to pay the fine.
Tolls can be very expensive so depending on how much of a rush you're in try and find non-tolled roads (usually of decent quality) between the cities.
Don't try to drive too far, take breaks every few hours and/or switch drivers.
Don't drive in the overtaking lane, you will end up with someone flying up your jacksie. Also be aware of the very long on ramps, you might think someone is flying along up your inside but the merging road sections are much longer there than here.
Don't worry too much about driving on the right it becomes second nature very soon.
Don't move the hi-viz jacket out of the glovebox, if police stop you and you've put it in the boot you'll get a fine.
Enjoy, I'll be over just for the Belgian game.
COYBIG!

ProudDUB

cjmc11 wrote: »

Thanks, ya well I have about a grand in cash, plus credit and debit card, but most of the limit on the credit card will be taken up straight away by the car hire, as they put a 1500 euro hold in case of any damage. Is a grand too much cash to bring in one go do ya reckon?I've informed my bank as well so at least they'll be keeping an eye on the account so no unusual spending happens. Also was in at Vodafone with regards roaming, have France maps downloaded to the sat nav on the phone, it'll work offline so no data usage. Any good tips for driving on the right hand side?, its probably the most thing in worried about tbh. Staying in saint Denis part of Paris, only about 2km from stade de France, looks like a straight enough drive in from Beauvais airport.
Just any other tips, even small things just to add piece of mind I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks

Buy an excess car insurance policy. That covers you for the first 1500 quids worth of damage to the car, that isn't covered by the regular insurance coverage. That'll prevent the 1500 euros hold being put on your credit card. There are plenty of companies offering it online. Print off the details of your policy and present it when you pick the car up.

If you are using public transport (especially trains)to get about France at all, allow for 5 times the normal amount of time to get anywhere. Was listening to Off The Ball earlier. The lads were all talking about how long its taking to get from A to B, due to all the rail strikes. Allow for extra traffic on the roads, due to all the buses/cars doing the work of the striking train workers.

ted1

ProudDUB wrote: »

Buy an excess car insurance policy. That covers you for the first 1500 quids worth of damage to the car, that isn't covered by the regular insurance coverage. That'll prevent the 1500 euros hold being put on your credit card. There are plenty of companies offering it online. Print off the details of your policy and present it when you pick the car up.

.

Rental companies don't care , they want to sell you their policy , if you have your own policy they'll still look for a deposit , then if there's an incident they take off your deposit and you claim this from your zero excess policy. To be honest your better off staying with the hertz, all the Mickey Mouse companies appear much cheaper but require lager deposits, higher insurance , charge you fit a full tank and tell you to bring it back empty etc

ProudDUB

I have never been hit with a large deposit on my card credit card, as long as I had rental car insurance (bought from the car hire company) and an excess insurance policy, bought from the car hire company themselves, or my own third party policy.

cjmc11

Thanks for all the tips, keep them coming.
I've excess insurance purchased from auto Europe, from what I can gather I'll still have a hold put on my card by the hire company (firefly) and if they take some of the 1500 off me for any damage, I'll have to apply to auto Europe for the money to be reimbursed, this sound correct?
What's the story with roundabouts? Apart of course from driving anticlockwise around it any other things I should look out for?
Thanks

coylemj

ProudDUB wrote: »

I have never been hit with a large deposit on my card credit card, as long as I had rental car insurance (bought from the car hire company) and an excess insurance policy, bought from the car hire company themselves, or my own third party policy.

The action of withholding money on your credit card is an invisible transaction unlike what happens with a debit card where they actually take the money from your account and you have to wait a few days before they give it back.

What happens with your credit card is that your credit limit gets reduced when you rent a car or check into a hotel, this is how they're able to ringfence an amount of money just in case you damage the car or (in the case of a hotel) you manage to bust your spending limit on holidays and your credit card is refused when you go to check out and settle the bill. It doesn't show on your bill so in most cases you're not even aware that it happened.

ProudDUB

coylemj wrote: »

The action of withholding money on your credit card is an invisible transaction unlike what happens with a debit card where they actually take the money from your account and you have to wait a few days before they give it back.

What happens with your credit card is that your credit limit gets reduced when you rent a car or check into a hotel, this is how they're able to ringfence an amount of money just in case you damage the car or (in the case of a hotel) you manage to bust your spending limit on holidays and your credit card is refused when you go to check out and settle the bill. It doesn't show on your bill so in most cases you're not even aware that it happened.

I'm well aware of how "holds" on credit cards work & how they differ from debit card freezes. I am 100 % certain that no such hold was put on my credit card, during my most recent car rental transactions,

On my last rental, I had the full balance of my credit card available to me during my entire trip. I think I notice if I was suddenly missing €1,500 in spending power. On the rental before that, the card only had a limit of €500, so they couldn't have hit me up for €1,500 even if they wanted to.....which they didn't, as what is the point of buying excess insurance from them, if they are going to put the hold on your card anyway? That makes zero sense. I got it in writing from them that no such hold was going to take place. (Or they just ticked a box on a form, I forget which.) Sure enough, it wasn't, as when I paid the hotel bill 3 days later, all €500 was available to me.

Maybe we just use different companies. I use Green Motion a lot & have never had any issues with them.