Looking to venture across the pond, france 1st , for my 1st european adventure I was just wondering what paperwork to take with me and also do i need a credit card or visa debit card , for fuel and tolls etc , i shall be packing light really light , but just want to make sure i take the correct paperwork and cards with me , cheers .
AA website has useful info on documents, bulbs, hi viz etc etc etc. I take colour copies of things where possible and leave originals at home. As for cards i always take visa debit for cash withdrawls and mastercard+amex credit cards for everything else.
Passport,driving licence,you could take both cards really,as some of the bigger towns and cities will take debit cards.Take the credit card with you,just in case
Licence, Insurance, V5, Yes to credit card - acceptable for tolls / fuel etc. Also , if you wear glasses, you must carry a spare pair with you, and now of course, a Hi-Viz ( approved) vest. There must be other stuff, just cannot think of it at the moment.
Lots of useful info here regarding the best ways to use foreign currency: Travel Money: The best foreign exchange rates - Money Saving Expert Generally, Credit Card is best when paying for shopping in supermarkets, buying meals etc - the French seem to use them for everything. Debit cards can work out considerably more expensive. I usually rely mainly on credit card - as long as you settle the bill in full, there should be no interest to pay unless you use it to draw cash. For cash I've found that Thomas Cook, if you have one local, is a nice easy way to order online (no commitment, but they give you a better rate if you do this) and then turn up to collect before you go away, and pay for the currency in £ cash. I've also used a FairFX card as a way to buy foreign cash via ATM abroad but I'm not convinced it saves me much - useful "last resort" though, now that Traveller's Cheques are effectively dead.
Sounds fun - where are you heading for ? You'll need a cash machine card for when the police escort you to the nearest cash machine to pay your fine . Although I think the French police now have card readers in their vehicles Seriously you'll love it and on our last 1500 mile trip we only saw one police person
Ignore the credit/debit card debate as here in France they are Visa, Mastercard or CB, in other words payment cards. My French bank does not, as far as I know, even offer a credit card. There is no rule which says carry a spare bulb kit in France, but there is a rule, the same as the UK, which says all lights fitted must be working. Garages in both countries sell bulbs. You now need to carry with you (not wear) a hi-viz vest on a bike in France, but the fine for not having one is €11 and I very much doubt that anyone will ever ask if you have one, neither me nor my wife will bother carrying them on our bikes. If you want to venture in this direction then send me a PM and I'll help all that you want.
Note that with the impending in/out referendum in the UK, sterling is dropping against the Euro, it has lost over 10% in the past few weeks. That could make your trip costly.
It's a good idea to carry an EHIC card (they are free) in case you need any medical treatment. An EHIC gives you the right to access state-provided healthcare on temporary stays in other European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland at a reduced cost, or sometimes for free. It will cover immediate and clinically necessary state-funded treatment until your planned return home to the UK: Apply for a European Health Insurance Card - GOV.UK Apply for a free EHIC card - Healthcare abroad - NHS Choices
Bob is quite right - €11 for not carrying a hi-viz, but if you breakdown and do not wear one, it's another €135 on top.
I take my credit cards as they're different I.e. Visa, MasterCard, Amex. I've found places (as in individual vendors, not whole towns) where certain cards haven't worked before. Think it was a Total services north of Dijon that I couldn't find appropriate payment at. I'm also not cash rich so for unavoidable expenses like fuel and tolls I use the next month cards. Leaves more beer tokens available on the this month card. The best thing is when you have to buy the fuel up front and have to take a punt on how much you reckon you need. Never quite worked that one out, is that France as well or just Spain?
But vendors here just see a card, they don't know if it is a credit or debit, nor do they care. There used to be petrol pumps and card machines that would not take UK cards, but you would be hard pressed to find one these days. What? You put your card in the machine first, select your fuel and put the PIN in, then remove the card and fill up, your card is debited with the amount of fuel that you have put in. That is the way it has worked in France in every petrol pump that I have used in the 11 years that I have lived here.
It's a good idea to read the "Debit cards from Hell" section at the link I provided earlier. A French resident, naturally, would have a debit card from a French bank with an account holding Euros - so no problem. BUT, use a debit card from a British bank, and a sterling account, and you may be surprised at how much it costs, especially for small transactions (£1+ added by many UK banks to a foreign debit card transaction, regardless of the size of payment). In contrast, credit cards usually don't have this type of charge, e.g. for fuelling up. The EHIC card links above are the right ones to use - the card is free, so it's important to avoid getting caught by scam websites that look similar but make a charge for "helping" you with your application. Re speed limits, it's worth noting that in France there is usually a warning notice before you go past a fixed one, but they are less visible than in the UK and, strangely, at ground level (perhaps Bob can explain why I have never seen a vandalised one?). I suspect they trigger with zero tolerance, because in recent years I have been struck by the fact that the French seem to respect all motorway and built-up-area speed limits meticulously. It's illegal to have any sort of speed trap detector, including SatNav warnings; so if you have SatNav with that feature you are meant to disable it.
You would be surprised at how many of us have UK debit cards from UK banks that contain sterling! But you are correct in that they can be expensive, but that is because the UK has its own currency and every organisation in the UK is trying to make money out of you. Speed cameras usually have a absolutely huge sign warning you about 250 meters before the camera. Most of the cameras face the front of the bike so there are no worries. There are very few cameras around in this rural part of France and they do get vandalised but not very often. You will find that radar detectors are illegal, but the places that fixed cameras are positioned are published on government websites and all the information is also on any route planned in ViaMichelin : Itinéraires, Cartes, Trafic, Météo et Réservation d'hôtels en France et en Europe If you use that for planning and make sure that you click the bike button, it will also tell you what the tolls might be. If you are travelling south then take the motorway down to Limoges and on to Brive as most of that is free. I have speed camera warnings in my GPS but no police man can legally ask you to switch it on to check. Speed limits here are as they are there is no tolerance, your speedo reads over anyway and if you are caught at 53 in a 50 limit then your speedo was probably reading 60 anyway. If you get stopped by our police then just be humble and respectful and you will find them to be very human and not very strict. I have been here for 11 years and both the wife and I have extremely loud pipes on both the Ducatis and her BMW, (no MOT on bikes here), we do many miles a year but in all of that time we have only been stopped by the cops once for a document check, and that was not very thorough. It is a good job that they never saw me at 245 kmh for 15 minutes on the Brive motorway!
Oh, And you're supposed to wear 4 reflective areas on your helmet of min 18cm2 area each. There are more precise details available if you google it. Many people do not have these, but again, it's €135 for non-compliance if you were the 1 in a million chance of being stopped by a jobsworth.
