Anticipating a desire to upload daily
posts during our fall holiday something miraculous came over me (us) that
hadn’t happened in almost 12 years. We totally ‘let go’ and almost didn’t care
about time except for check-in times. Even got lost a bit along the way and
found ourselves undisturbed by these events with a strange sense of calm. Even missing exits and having to drive
sometimes another 10-15 kilometers before the ability to turn around never took
away the sheer joy of traveling together again in France and beyond. Accept having to pay another toll, LOL.
This first entry was meant to be general
in nature and not detail adventures along the way. I’ve always looked at this
Blog as a place to share the good and sometimes not so great occurrences along
the way.
With that in mind while proofing this post the title actually became
obvious as we have a bit of a love-hate relationship with SANEF. The French SANEF Autoroute network of
highways, as lovely as they are, were probably the single most annoying part of
France travel this time around especially on day one or any day that a toll had
to be paid.
Keep in mind one can drive
through Belgium and the Netherlands and even Switzerland without paying a toll
(was shocked about Switzerland) but Italy and France whoya! Keep the credit
card or debit card handy.
 | |||
| TAKE A TICKET |
Ignorant of their now unmanned 'peage'
toll booths, add some jet-lag and not reading signs clearly because of heavy
traffic all contributed to our 30+ minute ordeal for a three euro forty cent
toll. In essence SANEF will pick your
pocket unless you realize that there are many alternative roads that often run
parallel with the ‘pay’ Autoroutes.
The last time we drove through
France tollbooths were still manned by living, breathing people. Today there are a few ‘persons’ walking about
when you can spot them, like a rare species, but you are truly on your own if
you had something occur as it did to us… and pressing the assistance button
will only help if you understand fluent French.
 |
| 1 PLACE TICKET IN SLOT; 2 ENTER CREDIT CARD |
If driving on the toll roads pay close
attention to these photos. What you shouldn’t do is allow this post to
keep you from driving period in France as it is one of THE biggest thrills you
can experience. However, Getting in the wrong lane entering the ‘peage’ (where there
are only 25+ lanes and truck lanes) can cost you time, frustration, and anger
from not only yourself but dozens of drivers behind you and maybe some euros as
well.
If closer to a major city upon entering
an Auto route, you may just be asked to pay a toll and the amount will be
displayed immediately and may or may spit out a ‘TICKET’. Hopefully you paid attention to whether you can
pay in cash OR credit card. Typically
when just asked to pay a toll you most likely have NO TICKET, but there will be
either a credit card slot OR a place to enter bills or euro change. No big deal.
Additionally you should know when
entering the Auto route you may see toll ‘peage’ area where signs say ‘TICKET’.
As you roll in to the lane behind a gate
down across the path of your car you will press the button that says TICKET,
should it not just spit out at you automatically. Don’t lose this TICKET under any circumstance
or you won’t get off the Auto route! LOL
At some point whether it is the exit you want
or travels take you far enough that it is time to pay the toll, be certain the
lane you enter takes credit cards OR CASH.
More lanes will take cards over cash.
And should you get in a credit card lane only even though there is a
slot to enter euro change the change will spit right back out to you. HA. Tough
luck since you put your ticket in the slot and it is now gone forever.
I go into such detail as we
entered a credit card only lane and stubborn hubby refused to use the credit
card in the toll system (this untrusting American with new chip card actually
forgot we had the credit card) we entered our TICKET that we obtained about 25
km back.
There was a place for euro
bills and change but it would not accept them initially. Then we started
entering euro coins again and it kept them but the gate would not go up. The toll was 3 euros 40 cents. The machine has just taken about 8 euros in
change. In the meantime, at least 5-8
semi’s were behind us and after 15 minutes they began backing up. We ultimately backed up ourselves and drove
about 4 traffic lanes over. As we had already entered our TICKET in the truck
lane we now had NO TICKET to enter in this lane. More traffic lined up behind
us, people got out of their cars and came up to try and assist and then THERE
WAS THE SANEF PERSON…standing in front of our car asking where our ticket
was. Explaining in poor French and
excellent English that the TICKET was 4 lanes over, after another 15 minutes
they were SO concerned we might have driven further then we stated, hence could
be losing precious tolls they actually went to the other lane to get our ticket
and then let us pay AGAIN (after feeding the other lanes coin box) 3.40 euros.
It was actually more than 30 minutes getting through that ‘peage’.
In hindsight we take most of the
blame for this one but it certainly nailed the point to pay close attention to
what lanes we entered. Had no further
problems after that and ended up using my debit card. Also managed to collect receipts by pressing
the receipt button to match up with my statement. These helpful website will assist in planning your next driving holiday in France.
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