A personal account of renting an electric car in rural Provence
Having access to a car is essential in Provence as some of the best sights you’ll see are the stunning countryside between hilltop towns.
I’ve had quite a few people ask me recently if renting an electric car in Provence would be a good idea. As I have no personal experience with this, I asked someone that I knew had just completed an extensive trip to Provence focusing on small villages in the Luberon.
For anyone that might find this useful, here is her personal account:
Renting an Electric Car in Provence
“These are the opinions of one 50 year old, reasonably intelligent American woman who drives an automatic at home and is comfortable in all driving settings in the U.S. – inner city (e.g., NYC) and rural. Take the below advice with a grain of salt.
I do not recommend renting an electric car for a vacation through Provence, especially if you don’t have extensive experience at home driving electric cars.. I discovered that electric cars are better for keeping at home to toot around town, short distances, doing errands, where you have a charger at home. EVs are not good for extensive travel in a foreign country, for a condensed period of time where every hour and even minute is precious.
Absolutely, positively do not rent an EV in Provence for vacation unless your French is excellent. My French is superb and I still had a massively difficult time. You will want to speak French for reading the charging station instructions and most importantly, asking for help from fellow car chargers that you might see at the charging stations.
Rental car company may leave you with the impression that it will be super easy to deal with your EV. Do not believe them.
Charging Station Map Apps
In my experience, none of the many charging station map apps available (and I tried them all) were helpful in Provence. Problems included lack of signal, slow/stalled response, map can’t find your location, map is difficult to read and inaccuracies as to location of the charging station (e.g. map says there’s a charging station at such and such place but there’s actually none anywhere in the vicinity). I was counting on charging my car at a charging station supposedly walking distance from Les Baux de Provence. In fact, when I got there, I learned that the charging station did not exist. The parking attendant told me that he had met others who had encountered the same mystery. The charging apps make it seem like there are more charging stations than there actually are.
Forget trying to “plan a trip” using the charging apps.
You cannot count on being able to charge your car from where you’re staying, e.g., an airbnb house or apartment. This is a major disadvantage to using an EV while traveling/sightseeing.
I found that charging stations in Provence were not numerous and always out of the way. If you are going to go ahead and rent an EV anyway, large grocery stores like Aldi or the French version of Costco are good places to try.
Wasting Precious Vacation Time
I wasted too much of my vacation time figuring out how to charge my car at each charging station I encountered (they’re all slightly different.) Instructions are not user-friendly, intuitive or comprehensive. They assume you know a lot more than you will (unless you’re an experienced EV driver). For some stations it may seem like you need to have a special charging card for that particular vendor but you probably don’t. Usually you can use your credit card, if you can figure out how.
I wasted too much time sitting around waiting for my car to charge once I had already wasted excessive time figuring out how to use the charging station.
It was stressful having to plan how far you could drive (distance or time) before you had to charge again. The first half of a full charge seems to drip down slowly, but the second seems to rapidly vanish.
Some charging stations don’t accept certain credit cards; you should have multiple cards available to try.
Getting Used to Electric Cars & Navigating
It is tricky getting used to driving an electric car; there are many differences from driving an automatic or manual transmission. Once you get used to it, it’s ok, but it took me a week to get used to it. There are lots of beeps for which you don’t know the cause, it’s not easy to figure out how to turn them off, and they’re super annoying when you’re trying to concentrate on navigating.
Speaking of navigating, the GPS map in my EV was not always, but frequently wrong.. Very wrong. For instance, the map would say exit right on the fourth exit of the roundabout but there are only three exits. Or the map will tell you to drive right when you were really supposed to make a left. You must have your phone GPS on as well so that you can compare the two. Sometimes they’re both wrong, sometimes one is wrong and the other is right. If the map contradicts a road sign, follow the road sign (e.g., a sign pointing to town center)..
I would highly recommend that whatever car you decide to rent in France, have a travel partner who can help you look for signs and generally help you navigate so that you can concentrate on the road and the INSANE (read: reckless).French drivers that will be threatening your existence at every turn (especially on those Provençale mountain roads).”
My Experience Driving in Provence
In response to this personal account I have to just comment on how the French drive. I personally do not find the French drive more wildly than others (though I did live in Italy for a time so my perspective is probably skewed- growing up in Montréal may not have helped either…ha!). However, I do find that on small roads where visitors are less common locals can understandably become impatient if you’re going much slower than the speed limit or seem to be dawdling. I have a lot of experience with this as the Austin Mini pictured above was my car for seven years. I got used to veering to the side of the road when I was aware the car was going too slow (sometimes hills were tricky) or even stopping completely to let others pass if I wanted to take in some scenery.
Some Tips
Don’t rent a manual car if you haven’t driven one in many years. Provence is hilly! You’re supposed to make your life more easy on vacation, not more difficult.
Rent the smallest car possible.
Have another credit card other than American Express if you’re going on the motorway (for tolls). Or, even better, have some euros on you. Cash is still king in France.
Pay for a good phone plan that allows you to use Maps on your phone. GPS in cars, I’ve noticed, is often not updated.
If you’re not used to roundabouts the joy is that you can keep going around them until you’ve made your decision of which direction to take. Take your time. (Your numberplate will usually indicate that you’re driving a rental car; locals know to be more patient).
Familiarise yourself with a few village/town names to get your bearings. Road signs often indicate these towns rather than direction of North etc. I actually find this easier once you have a general idea that Avignon is north, Aix is South East from where you are etc.
I would recommend against driving on back country roads at night here in Provence if you’re unfamiliar with the area. There are few road lights and locals sometimes take these roads too quickly (especially after a glass of wine).
Also, avoid driving around Avignon- quite tricky. Oh, and don’t put in your GPS the town hall of somewhere like Aix or Provence or Avignon. Put in a parking lot. I’ve heard of people that have done this and they’ve ended up in medieval city centres that are often tricky to navigate or pedestrianised. These were of course people not familiar with Europe. Keep in mind most old towns have winding small streets.
Rent that car!
Do not let this deter you! I have had countless clients (for my photoshoots and itineraries) that have encountered no problems at all (with non-electric cars).
If budget allows, you could also hire a chauffeur for your time in Provence. If this is something that interests you, send me an email and I can recommend a couple.
curiousprovence@gmail.com
