Traveling to France: Beware of Rural Gas Pumps

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

While driving in a remote part of Brittany on a pleasant Sunday morning we were getting very low on gas. We had driven around 30 miles and there wasn’t a gas station to be found. Panic attack! We envisioned our car sputtering to a stop on this isolated road with a day of our precious vacation shot. Finally, we came to a self-service gas station outside a small town. There was no station attendant because it was Sunday. I drove up to a gas pump and inserted my credit card. It was rejected. I tried 3 other credit cards, still no luck. We didn’t dare drive any further because we were on empty. We decided we had no choice but to stay there, whine at the evil gas pump that wouldn’t take our credit cards, and hope for the best.




Within a half hour, (I told you this place was remote), a lady motorist stopped to fuel up. We asked for assistance with our credit card thinking there most be some magical way Frenchman inserted credit cards into gas pumps that we were ignorant of. She looked at us a little suspiciously, but decided she’d try and help us with our credit card. No luck. She examined our credit card. “Ah,” she said, “This is not a French credit card. This station does not accept foreign credit cards.” Luckily, I had some cash with me and the lady filled up our tank in exchange for cash.

So when driving in remote areas of France, make sure you fill up your tank on Saturday and always carry some cash. Sometimes in remote areas, credit cards aren’t worth the plastic they are written on.