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[[Image:Perpignan bridgeoveronramp.jpg{{infobox Country|thumbcountry = France|rightmap = <map lat='47' lng='1.5' zoom='5' view='0' height='320' country='France'/>|250pxlanguage = French (regional languages: Alsatian, Occitan, Breton, Corsican, Basque, Catalan, ...)|On ramp bridge near capital = [[Perpignan]]Paris]]|pop = 68,0 million|currency = Euro (€)|hitch = <rating country='fr' />|BW = FR}}European '''France''' is part of the [[European Union]] as well as the [[Schengen Agreement]]. It is usually a great country for hitchhiking. There are many friendly car and truck drivers. The highways cost moneyDrivers have to pay toll on motorways (except in [[Bretagne|Brittany]] and at some other places), and you can get a ride quite easily at some ''[[Péage|barrières de péage]]'' (toll pointsstations). When hitchhiking on local roads, you might face some difficulties sometimes, though. One of the commonly known barriers for traveling in France (as in many foreign countries) is the language - you can get a ride easilymight want to learn some basic phrases before you off on the road in France.

Finding a good spot Like everywhere in Europe, walking on the motorways is illegal and thus it's just legal to hitchhike on service areas and at the key beginning of getting on-ramps before the best rideshighway sign. For instanceHitchhiking at the péage next to the barrier is forbidden, in [[Montpellier]] but police and highway staff mostly turn a blind eye if you stand there are two spots very close to each other. The first one Moreover some experience shows that French people will more often stop in a place where it is easy to reach, nevertheless, the second one isn't much more difficult, but the chances of being picked up are much betternot normally allowed than in other countries.

==Péages==[[Image:peageOn Sundays, only trucks with frozen goods are allowed to drive.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A typical big péage in France]]A '''péage''' is a tollway Keep in France. They mind though that trucks are often placed near cities on autoroutes (motorways). At some péages all the traffic has not allowed to stop and pay go more than 90 km/h and are excellent spots to get a long-distance ride. You can get free maps in the péage offices - these also indicate where you can find "all-driver must stop-péages".Here it's for a map of south of France highway network : http:45 min break every 4 1//www.asf.fr/shared/pdf/CarteReseau.pdf In black letters where it's written "peage de....." it mean it's a big peage where all 2 hours, which can make the trafic have to stop. The faster way to travel is only to go from this "all-stop-péages" to an other onetrip much longer.

[[Image:Derek_hitching_at_péageThe ''"Michelin 726 National"'' map of France is a good choice for a hitchhiker in this country.jpg|thumb|left|175px|Derek hitching at a It shows all the major ''barrières de péage near '' and [[Valencerest area|service stations]]]]===Getting a Ride===* . You can thumb immediately after the péage;* If you prefer get a direct approach you can dash across the lanes one at a time until you're at a busy lane and stand next to the toll machine and talk to drivers when they stop to pay (as pictured to left);* You can wait before the free map in péage, just where the drivers choose their lane. There is mostly enough space for cars to pull over hereoffices.

Some péages are really good== Asking people ==If you want to ask for rides, some not so good. If youcan say sentences like: "'ve been waiting for a while with destination sign'Excusez-moi, drop it je vais à [name of the city] en stop. Allez-vous dans cette direction ?''" and try with your thumb only. Also, if you can try to get a ride positive answer, just ask "''Pourrais-je venir avec vous ?''". It may be also good not to tell a city but the next good spot in the wrong directionyou want to go: "''Excusez-moi, je fais du stop vers le sud.Allez-vous dans cette direction ?''"

===Legality=Autoroutes, péages and barrières de péage ==There are no prohibitions about hitching in France, apart from the restricted access roads, i__TOC__'''Péage''' ([http://cs1.eimtranslator. expressways and motorwaysnet/SL/Free_Projects/169679760/cs_10132017_15_58_47_1. Péages are also considered part of the motorway, and normally one wav?param1=001024 audio]) is not allowed to solicit rides therea French word for ''toll''. However, this It is not really enforced and since 2004, also commonly used as referring to [[User:Daniel|Danieltoll station]], was only told once to get off the tollbooth and ask for a ride on the parking nearby (what was difficult because there was no services except toilets). But the risk is relatively lows.

==Language==Most In France, most of the French donmotorways are toll roads (''autoroute''t speak English, so have a map ) which are the fastest way to show them where you want to gohitch across the country. If you know any French, use it! French people like it if you try your bestThere are two types of toll stations on péages. Say "Bonjour Monsieur/Madame"First, there are big ones where all traffic has to show that you are friendly. If you're heading stop to [[Germany]], you maybe need pay a fee (or to know that Germany is get a ticket) - these are ''Allemagnebarrières de péage'' (and usually they are excellent spots to get a long-distance ride and make it really easy to hitchhike during the night. They are often located near big cities on the autoroute. Another type is a side barrier situated on all-ay-man'ye) exits in Frenchthe toll part of the motorway. On latter ones traffic is much smaller, therefore one can expect a longer waiting time, although sometimes congested toll stations of the first type can be difficult to hitch from due to heavy traffic.

It To reach the ''barrière de péage'', you may also need to walk along the motorway; with a help of a proper map check if the distance needed to be helpful walked is not too long. It is illegal to put walk on a side lane of the motorway (same is valid for some parts of national roads (''voie express''or 'S.V.P.'voie rapide'' after your destination ) in France); if police sees you, you use may be driven somewhere safe and may be fined for 11 to 40€. Péage toll stations are considered a signpart of the motorway, and legally you do not have the right to solicit rides there. ItYou may be asked to wait in the parking area which is after each 's shorthand for ''s'il vous plaîtbarrière de péage'' . In practice, this is rarely enforced (sih-voo-playmaybe 5% of the time)--please in French, most toll station employees simply want to make sure you're not endangering yourself or others.

==Online maps==[http://mappy.fr mappy] Having a sign with your destination (or the next city) is recommended and will distinguish you as a good online map for Franceserious hitchhiker, and not a vagrant. You will definitely need it shows you (if the road splits. The fastest way to travel on a péage is from one ''barrière de péage'' to) where you can take public transportanother.

==License plates==French number plates end with the number of the ''département'' the car is registered in. For example, Parisian cars end with the number 75. See [httpHitchhiking options are://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_arrondissements_of_France List of arrondissements of France] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_vehicle_registration_plates French vehicle registration plates] at Wikipedia.

==Cities==[[Image:Mrtweek mzenzes hitching in france.png|* You can thumb|right|250px|[[User:Mzenzes|Martin]] and [[User:MrTweek|Philipp]] hitching in France]]immediately after the ''barrière de péage''* [[Paris]]If you prefer a direct approach you can dash across the lanes one at a time until you're at a busy lane, stand next to the capital, hitching out of here toll machine and talk to the drivers when they stop to pay (usually it is not allowed to hitch from the toll machines but it is really difficultoften tolerated).* Just say "''Bonjour, je vais à [[Agen]name of the city]''".* [[Bordeaux]]* [[Calais]] You can wait before the ''barrière de péage'', just where the drivers choose their lane - the main ferryport there is often enough of space for cars to pull over to the British Islandsstop for you.* [[Dunkerque]]* [[Lille]]* [[Dijon]]* [[Lyon]]* [[Marseilles]]* [[Rennes]]* [[Strasbourg]]* [[Toulouse]]* [[Montpellier]]* [[Perpignan]]* [[Reims]]

While on a toll road, you can always try hitchhiking from one [[lhpetrol station hitchhiking|petrol station]] to another, either asking drivers while they refill, or thumbing at the exit of the service area. The staff usually doesn't mind hitchhikers. == Personal Experiences ==''In my experience it's pretty much impossible to go hungry in France. While hitching I almost ALWAYS get 10 or 5 euros thrown my way, and once even 60 euro! The key is to imply you have no money (helps the guilt if you actually don't have any like I did). Ask where you can use the internet or a phone, but WITHOUT PAYING, and 90% of the time they'll tell you "I'll drop you off at the station/road/town with 10 euros, alright?" It's not really possible without having a good standard of communication though, so either hope they know English or learn some French! I also wouldn't recommend doing "it" if you have no money or already had access to the internet or a phone, solely because of guilt. Even though I was genuine in my requests I didn't feel happy taking their money, but food is food!'' - Aaronishappy  ''France is great because it has roundabouts, which makes for slow traffic on the smaller roads. Of course, the big highways are off-limits in many cases, but that's alright. Beautiful countryside, good people. For me I enjoyed eating lots of cheese and lots of baguettes, as cliche as that may sound.'' - [[User:FRChael777|Chael]]  ''Don't be afraid to approach people at service stations just because your French is weak (or, like me, non-existent). After a quick 'bonjour', or 'vous allez ou?', people were happy to help. Many people didn't speak English, with some I got by in Spanish, and with 3 or 4 we had no language in common at all. Nevertheless, people were still kind and willing to help.'' - [[User:Justunein|Justunein]]  ''My Hitch in France went marvellously! Check this, I was walking along the street in Nimes, minding my own business, and a woman pulled up in a car and asked me if I wanted to hitch to Marseille! She asked me!! When we got there, she showed me around and I slept on her sofa (whenever I tell French men about this they invariably respond 'Did you ''fork'' her?'). The next day, I got 5 hitches from Marseille to Limans, and for 3 of them all I had to do was hold up a cardboard sign and the first car that came picked me up. I was going to write that it's like taking the bus, ''but you have to wait for busses!'' As a bonus, the people who I hitched with were really nice, so much so that one of them lied and said that my French wasn't so bad! Oh yeah, and the bit about French bakeries is incomplete. They have pastries round the back too!!''  ''I can also said France is very good country for hitchhiking, people are very friendly. Even that they do not speak a lot of English, they will try to help you. One driver also take me in one restaurant near high way even that I did not want that he spend money to by me something to eat. It was nice to cross from Spain to Germany in two days with hitchhiking.''  ''I started my first hitchhike tour in France and found out that most French people are very kind and in most cases they are happy to take you with them. But I think it's really helpful to speak even a little bit French so you can say want you want and where you want to go because most of French people don't like to speak english or maybee they are not able to. Espacally in the south of france it's also possible to travel short distances by train for free, because most of them are not controlled. In case of controlling you can say that you're out of money and in most cases they will not send you a bill because it is to complicated for them to find you in your home country. And even if you are in bad luck and they will find you the price is not even higher than the ticket for the train.'' Hitchhikernick - hitched several times through France over the years with the latest being January 2024 from Chamonix to Andorra whilst the farmers protests were happening. The protests slowed things down a bit, but still managed to get to Andorra in just over 2 days. Very rarely given any money or bought food. Average waiting time 1.5hrs. Mixture of highways and national roads. == Main cities ==- [[Paris]]- [[Marseille]]- [[Lyon]]- [[Lille]]- [[Toulouse]]- [[Bordeaux]]- [[Nice]]- [[Nantes]]- [[Strasbourg]]- [[Rennes]]- [[Grenoble]]  == Links ==  * [http://www.asf.fr/shared/pdf/CarteReseau.pdf Le Réseau ASF], a PDF file that shows all ''barrières de péage'' on major routes in Southern France.* [http://www.vinci-autoroutes.com/system/files/pdf/2012/12/carte_reseau_vinci_autoroutes.pdf Service Stations Network], a pdf file that shows all service station on major routes in southern France. == Nomadwiki & Trashwiki == {{nomadwiki}}   {{wikilinksCities France}}{{Regions France}}{{Template:Europe/countries}} {{IsIn|Western Europe}}__NOTOC__  [[Category:France| ]][[Category:Western Europe]] [[de:Frankreich]][[es:Francia]][[fr:France]][[pl:Francja]]