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Checklist for travel in France - advice appreciated
- Thread starter spon88
- Start date
Just back from France and a quick observation about the tag use, in our case Emovis. We found it a bit inconsistent and needed to be manipulated a bit to get us through. Some of the scanners are overhead whereas other stations had them overhead and at the side. The boss got quite adept at spotting the scanners and pointing the tag at them - this really improved the performance. If you do go the manual route and don't mount the tag, be sure to point it backwards as if it was actually mounted - we realised this after struggling at the first couple of gates. A lot of the locals seem to go with a manual presentation, not sure if this is due to the consistency of scanning issue or if they're using the tags in more than one vehicle. There are also some stations where you can drive "at them" at up to 30km/h. These seem to work well (good job!) possibly because they have more scanners in place.
Will be helpful if you quickly add a picture for others as there is some confusion about which way to clip this to the visor.
What’s your realistic assessment as to how much time you saved using a tag compared to paying at the gate?
Are the toll charges and cheaper with a tag?
Just considering as to whether it’s worth the hassle of getting one or not.
I’ve always paid using cash/ card etc., The only difficulty is sometimes in remote parts they don’t take cards - it has happened few times - so you need cash all the time as back up. May be tag is a good alternative for those scenarios.
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
For me its:
Risk kerbing wheels / side panels!!, driving close enough to the large concrete barriers (on passenger side) so that my, small, passenger can reach the ticket/payment machine
Passenger having to wake up, if asleep, to pay
Queue time, when busy, for cars in front of me
For a solo-driver, in RHD, the additional would be getting out of car and walking round to the machine ... apart from the few locations, near port, which have "either side" toll machines
The Emovis UK operation has been very little hassle. Quite a lot of extra expense vs paying with car, but very little hassle...
I got one for the same reason. Plus the wife getting grumpy with me for not getting close enough to the ticket machine because I don't want to take a chunk out of the car...
I got one for the same reason. Plus the wife getting grumpy with me for not getting close enough to the ticket machine because I don't want to take a chunk out of the car...
There are usually a few tag only lanes that have no traffic through, compared to some other busy toll gates where you'll be queueing for up to 10 mins.
That with the ease of use, not skimming your wheels, and most importantly not waking up the wife were good reasons for me.
We did the leg down without and at one stop I literally could not get my wife to wake up so had to get out, tap my card and run back around, probably to the amusement of many french drivers.
No cheaper with the tag apparently. However, you save up to a couple of minutes per gate depending on the length of the queue - I guess maybe only 15 minutes or so in a 700 mile journey. That said, the traffic tends to flow quickly through the tag gates but I have seen the odd snarl up at the pay gates where folk have got cards stuck or some such. It is also quite nice to boot the car after the gates to leave the rest of the queues behind
If you subscribe to the Bip&Go Electric offer (specific to EV) you get 5% discount on tolls in northern France for a year.
Apart from that, no discount as said above. Just the convenience of centralised billing (so technically you are saving the non-sterling credit card fees each time) and benefit from the speedy dedicated lane. That’s worth the 2€ fee in my book.
Apart from that, no discount as said above. Just the convenience of centralised billing (so technically you are saving the non-sterling credit card fees each time) and benefit from the speedy dedicated lane. That’s worth the 2€ fee in my book.
Wattsisname
MY Red/White/Gems
The tolls are not cheaper and you will pay for the privilege of the Tag.
Have you driven through France during August?
I notice that at some of the toll plazas, the number of Tag gates are greater than the pay as you go ones many of which are automated.
If you consider the process of getting a Tag a hassle, then give it a miss for now and be guided by this years experience without a Tag when considering your next trip to or through France. IMHO, you may have a low " hassle threshold".
Wattsisname
MY Red/White/Gems
If ever there was a " no brainer".
Now then SWMBO says.... " You will be discussing the relative merits of breathing next
".
On a road trip, try to keep the cables/adaptors etc in the frunk where they can be easily accessed. We normally keep them in the space below the boot for day to day at home, but transferred them to the frunk for the European trip.
The (2023) MY lights didn't adjust automatically and are higher on the left side (not flat), so I've had to manually adjust and click them considerably lower to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic. Don't know if it's the same for M3.
We got the official Tesla Schoko adaptor for the granny cable and it works fine, in Germany and Serbia so far and hopefully Greece tomorrow by which time it will have paid for itself.
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I have found this thread really useful, thanks to all contributors. I have received my Bip&Go tag and the Crit'Air sticker is on the way. I wouldn't have thought to have either of these without this thread. I'm driving to a location about 40km outside SW Paris and it's useful to be covered if there's an incident on the Peripherique and I need to divert.
I need to check the contents of the emergency kit in the car to see if there's anything missing that I'd need. Should have an old hi-vis lying around from a previous visit so that's covered. I've cycled in France a lot (3-4 thousand miles in total, I reckon) but have never driven there so it's going to be new.
I need to check the contents of the emergency kit in the car to see if there's anything missing that I'd need. Should have an old hi-vis lying around from a previous visit so that's covered. I've cycled in France a lot (3-4 thousand miles in total, I reckon) but have never driven there so it's going to be new.
We actually run an MYP now but with changed rims and tyres to make it a bit more resilient. We're not long back from a French road trip and exclusively used superchargers on the way there and back. Like you, we had main cables accessible in the frunk but didn't need to use them, the Tesla network was absolutely fine with a bit of pre-planning. Back in the UK we store everything in the sub-boot and/or the space designed for cables in the Y. We have the usual type 2 cable, a 10m "Tough Leads" extension and various adaptors for European travel. Charging at the holiday rental was all done out of the window using the granny charger, extension lead and adaptors. They didn't say we couldn't
We didn't need to adjust the lights although we were rarely driving in the dark. Again like you, I think I'd just scroll them down 3 or 4 notches if needed and not bother trying to stick on beam deflectors - I couldn't find any Tesla specific ones anyway.
Overall a relatively simple process and in a ten hour drive, we estimated an extra 75 minutes to accommodate finding and using the superchargers. We'd certainly do it again.
I think the "certainly do it again" applies for us too. Have never desired to do a trip in any of our ICE cars but the Tesla is just all fun. The other fun part is becoming fluent in Tesla French. No more shall I think of a church as learned in School to be Eglice but I think Tesla's pronunciation as Egg Lice just brings a smile to my face.
Just so you know there's a Tesla hi Vis jacket in the emergency kit. I stuffed it into the glovebox as it "needs to be accessible within the car"
Other option is somewhere in centre console or door bins as they're both quite large
Also already planned another trip in winter.. this time will just need some snow tyre socks
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