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I will be driving through France on my own soon and was thinking about how I would manage to pay at the tolls, do I jump out my car and up to the booth window, climb into the passenger seat and reach over? any ideas..

Some of the toll areas have 'British' booths on the right side. Also you can get an electronic badge so you can drive straight through, there's info about it on

http://www.languedoc-holiday-guide.com/telepeage-badge.html

(I just cut and pasted the address - not sure of the rules about recommending other web pages but perhaps someone will put me right!

last yeat when i was drvng and my oh was asleep  manage to do it by undoing my belt and leaning over her. A bit of a stretch but manageable

As previous mentioned the amount is displayed for you to see , so all you need is to do is get a brush stale fasten a suitable size lid with sides, secure this, then hey presto. even keep on your dash at the ready, you dont need to move from your seat. Enjoy .Harold

Make sure you do your seat belt up again before moving off; the police are keen sometimes at tolls. I've heard of folks getting done for just moving a few feet.

TT.

Quote: Originally posted by NickW on 01/2/2007

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I like the Telepeage idea.Which is the nearest to the Spanish Border? (either West or East)

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I bought mine a few years ago for 30€.  It took ages to sort out as all the paperwork was in French and although I can speak a bit, reading all the legalise was a pain.  There were 3 contract options when I got mine and they are very different contracts, so please take care!

Once you get the gadget, there's no way of knowing if it is working or not (no switch, no light) until you go through a toll booth.  Then it either beeps and the barrier goes up or it doesn't work and 4 irate French businessmen who have pulled up behind you are forced to stop swearing at the 'English idiot' and reverse so that you can get out.  Then you either have to reverese perhaps 30 cars to join a pay-queue or try to push in and get sworn and honked at again!  ;-)

The gadget gives no indication of whether it is live and the whole thing is sealed, so there's no battery to test or replace ...... you just wait until it runs out and doesn't work.

These things are also a prime target for thieves, so the French (not that many French other than business people have them) tend to leave theirs hidden in the car and wave it at the scanner.  Then they carry it with them when they leave the car.

If you do stick one in the windscreen you have to be careful as stated in the accompanying literature (all in French!) to make sure you put it in a clear area so the signal can pass.  How do you find a good spot in a car like mine with wires running through the windscreen to heat it?!!  I wave it through the sun roof.

Any communications such as accounts are in French - as was the website.  If it is incorrect you can only query it by a visit or by phone.  The phone system is horrendous (press button 1-9 etc) and said so quickly and in such poor quality that even a pretty fluent speaker had trouble understanding it.

When your credit card runs out they expect you to post them all the details of the new one (though eventually they accepted part e-mail and part fax and managed to tie the two up together!) ...... there is no web updating facility .... and they won't just accept that that the card has been renewed and has a new expiry date, they want all the info again!  Eventually I got a French friend living in France to sort out a problem with mine and he was pretty peeved as it took 10 minutes to get to talk to somebody and then 20 minutes to sort it out ...... the staff were not very helpful.

The transponders (badges) are a great idea and when working they are great as you simply sail through the booths - as long as you are going far into France they can be worthwhile.  However, I have had a few problems with them and the staff and systems are not at all helpful.  I did say to them a couple of years ago that they were missing out on business by having everything in French and asked how they expected to capture more English customers .... and got the usual nonchalent shrug in response as they think we should all be fluent in French!  But when I last looked some of their web pages were in English - though not the contract!  Hope it's sorted out now.

BTW, when you hit Spain the gadget beeps but the barrier doesn't go up ...... and then you wonder if you are paying twice to use the same stretch of Spanish motorway!  So now as we approach the Spanish booths the gadget goes in the glove compartment.

I was visiting France 6 - 10 times a year, but my work has changed and I don't go as often.  Having a transponder purely for holidays seems hardly worth the hassle.  If they've improved their systems and there's no hassle, then great.  But even last year the gadget let me onto a motorway and then wouldn't let me off.  So I stopped at the next SANEF shop to sort it out and guess what ....... it was closed for lunch!  So, I went back to paying cash at the booths and joined the ever-jumping queues.  Then I tried to sort it out by phone from where we were staying and eventually gave up as the response I got sounded as though it was being read from a card by somebody who didn't have a clue!  The identical answer in very fast French, every time, despite me saying that I am English and could she please slow down.

The transponders are a great idea and if the system was sorted out they would be wonderful.  Then everyone would have one and at a 10 booth peage more than just one or two would be a 'T' booth.  (BTW, at some exits there is only one toll booth anyway - so you have to join the queue and wait ..... you just don't have to pay cash).  They were ahead of the rest of us with this system but the technology is probably outdated already .... just like their electronic info system (what is it called?!!) which was overtaken by the internet.

Fishing-net idea is good, but not much help for the start of a section when you need to pluck a ticket out of a machine before the barier will lift!

I ordered one of the beeper things from the Sanef website, using a credit card, as I had begun to do a lot of motorway driving alone in Northern France.  It came within a couple of days, and is brilliant!  You have to pay a 30E deposit (which you would get back if you returned the thing).  I pay 2E a month for the months I use it, plus the tolls.  So if I do not use it at all during one month, I don't have to pay the extra 2E.  But I think the system has been changed now, and you have to pay 24E a year flat fee, plus tolls.

Don't stick it to the carrier to the windscreen until you have tested the best position for the beeper by holding it in position as you approach the barrier.  Some people say it should go in the bit of the screen that's covered with black dots.  But try first.

You can call in to one of the Sanef offices (there's one at the big Herquelingues peage, near Boulogne) and they will organise it for you on the spot (needs to be within working hours, though!).  You can run it with a UK credit card, as I do, but you MUST tell them when your card is renewed (as mentioned above). Or it will stop working and that would be v embarrassing.  I am pretty sure I managed to do this via the website or email though.

I don't know how you would know it was running down, and I must admit that's a worry...  If it starts not to work properly, you can stop at a Sanef office and they will swop it for a new one, apparently.

If you were going to do a lot of French motorway driving on your own, I would say it's invaluable.  Just for one trip, probably not worth it financially (though it's great fun sailing through the dedicated telepeage lane!)

Oh, and if you don't speak Fench, you might find it pretty difficult to work your way through the website...

Angela