Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Just a quick heads up, strikes starting tomorrow and gilets jaune are kicking off again, fuel was low here in charente but managed to fill up today. Don't know about other areas but keep an eye out if travelling to France.

...also, from experience over the last two years of trips through France, a lot of the petrol stations are now automated and card payment only. Some seem to suffer from randomly not accepting some credit/debit cards ...which caught us out in the Pyrenees and also about 100 miles south of Paris . No doubt one of the ABR forumites who live there will know more about why that happens or if it's a regular problem...?

Scott..... More to do with the old machines some supermarkets use rather than card faults,... Always keep 20euro safe as the French will happily fill up your bike on their card...

byewayrider wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 12:43 pm Scott..... More to do with the old machines some supermarkets use rather than card faults,... Always keep 20euro safe as the French will happily fill up your bike on their card...

...yes, that makes sense, thanks

In my experience some of the automated fuel pumps and toll booths don’t accept pre-paid credit cards.
That was back in 2016 and earlier so things may have changed.

OnHellas wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 12:54 pm In my experience some of the automated fuel pumps and toll booths don’t accept pre-paid credit cards.
That was back in 2016 and earlier so things may have changed.

...that also makes sense, thanks . One of the cards that we had problems with this year was a pre-paid Visa.

Don't want to rattle anyone's cage , but my point is there was no fuel here yesterday!!!!!!! Huge queues at pumps, regardless if your card works or not, as from tomorrow the national strike is on so be warned

chunky butt wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 3:25 pm Don't want to rattle anyone's cage , but my point is there was no fuel here yesterday!!!!!!! Huge queues at pumps, regardless if your card works or not, as from tomorrow the national strike is on so be warned

Thanks for the heads-up . By chance, eurotunnel have emailed me offering a £25 return ticket but I think I'll wait until it's over.

Just returned from taking the wife to Nantes airport 400 klm round trip, fuel is available but rationed to 30€ per customer

Bellac Intermarché and Carrefour both had gazole and essence deliveries today. Bit of queueing, but nothing serious. There's rationing in Limoges apparently - 20 litres per vehicle. It doesn't look like a big, long-lasting strike.

As to the issue of using cards to fill up in France. We use a Credit Agricole debit card - never a problem, but sometimes an HSBC credit card - never a problem. It's just the weird less well-known foreign cards that occasionally throw up an issue.

If anyone with cash ever asked me to put some fuel on my card for them I'd do it without question. Saves a trip to the cash machine...