Stress free rental

The first car we got ended up with a flat on the road, and none of their cars come with spare tires, so we spent about three hours waiting for roadside assistance, going back to the branch, and swapping the vehicle. The branch didn’t have many cars available, so the lady at the counter needed some time to arrange a replacement for us. Just a heads-up: the roadside assistance and customer service staff basically don’t speak English. On the plus side, the branch doesn’t aggressively push extra insurance, and apart from the time lost changing cars, we were overall pretty satisfied.

Extremely satisfied.

I booked because the pick up was close to my hotel and I chose a Ford Focus because I drive one at home and would have found it easier to drive than another car. I was offered an 'upgrade' - a Jeep in bright metallic blue with all sorts of flap-doodles that I did not need. Luckily there was still a stick shift Renault Clio available and I opted to take that. There is always the assumption that the customer wants a 'new' car and every extra but having driven in French cities before one quickly notices that almost the only new cars are hire cars and that local drivers drive beat-up bangers and regard driving as a contact sport. I would be happier driving something that looked less conspicuous. In fact we were so anxious that we asked for the insurance 'up-sell'!

Although the contract specified a full-to-full fuel tank, when we'd driven away we realised that the tank was only three-quarters full.