France

France is a great country for hiking. There are many friendly car and truck drivers. The highways cost money, and at some Péages (toll points) you can get a hike easily.

At some Péages all the traffic has to stop and pay - these are excellent spots to get a long ride further. Most cities next to a highway normally have a Péage where all trafic has to stop. Asking for a ride just in front of the Péage, before cars choose their queue, is mostly the best option.

You can get free maps in the Péage offices - these also indicate where you can find the "all-stop-Péage".

Some Péage are really good, some not so good. If you've been waiting for a while with an indication of where to go, drop it and try with your thumb only. And also, you can try to get a ride to the next good spot in the wrong direction.

Most of the French don't speak English. So have a map to show them, where you want to go. If you know any French word, use it! French people like it, if you try your best. Say "Bonjour Monsieur/Madame", to show that you are friendly. If you're heading to Germany, you maybe need to know that Germany is "Allemagne" in French.

Online maps

mappy is a good online map for France, it shows you (to) where you can take public transport.

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 List of arrondissements of France and French vehicle registration plates at Wikipedia.

Cities

• Paris, the capital, hiking out of here is really difficult.
• Bordeaux
• Calais - the main ferryport to the British Islands.
• Dunkerque
• Lyon
• Marseilles
• Rennes
• Strassbourg
• Toulouse

This article is a stub. This means that the information available to us is obviously insufficient. In these places little information is available or the description is severely outdated. If you have been there, whether hitchhiking, for travel or as part of an organized tour − be sure to extend this article!