Day 29 – France and the joys of hiring an electric vehicle

May 21, 2026

Glorius French food - Confit of duck in cream and moreilles with aligot and salad

The flight from Milan was interesting we took to the south and then circled to fly parallel to the Italian alps for about ten minutes. I assume that was to get sufficient height to fly over the alps which rise to around 15,000 at their highest. I had a wonderful view of them and then we turned west still climbing to go to Paris.

We said goodbye to Graham at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport as he was returning to Ottawa and went in search of our plane. I made an error of thinking we were meant to be going to Terminal 1. We had arrived in Terminal 2 and should have just stayed there but I insisted it was terminal 2. When I realised my mistake we were out of the secure area and had to go back through security. There was a long line and their technology for scanning is years behind that in a New Zealand and Australia. Eventually we were boarding our aircraft to find that we had been bumped out of our seats to make way for a mother and child. We ended up sitting separately. The plane was full in contrast to the half full flight from Milan.

We arrived at Lyon airport and were shuttled to the rental agency (Europcar). The fun then began.

“Bonjour” the service agent said.

I replied “Bonjour, je loue un voiture ….. "

He interrupted in English, “You have car reserved? Could I have your driver’s licence and passport please”.

There went my first attempt to use my limited French to communicate.

“I see you have rented a car electrique. Do you still want to rent one?”

“Yes please, the car I booked was a VW ID3.”

“Today we have Citroen C3 and it has a 200 kilometre range. Do you still want an car electrique?”

I was rather shocked to discover that they were giving me a car with such limited range. The advertised ID3 had a range of up to 400kms.

I responded, “When I booked the car the one promoted had 400km range, it was an ID3 and I deliberately chose that car for its range. If you have and ID3 I will take that. The implied promise was a vehicle with a 400km range.”

“The Citroen C3 is the same class of car and the website said or similar when you booked it.”

“It is not similar if the range is half that promoted. I would expect an electric car with a similar range in that class.”

“We don’t have one here but I could rent one with up to 350 kms range and it will cost you 20€ a day. The car is a different class”

I was somewhat shocked by that amount but after more haggling I got the extra cost down to 5€ a day. I figured that as the longest stretch of driving we doing was about 200 kilometres that the Citroen C4 would have sufficient range for what we would be doing over the 12 days we had the car.

This is the second time that Europcar have failed to deliver on what was ordered. I didn’t want to go with them but sourcing an EV from a rental car agency was very difficult. Tesla was the main brand available and not at every rental agency.

After spending time figuring out how the vehicle worked and changing languages we were ready to go. Initially, I was going to avoid the toll routes as driving the motorways is not as interesting and while it is quick it can be a little expensive. However, Because it had taken so long to sort out the car we chose to take the autoroute. It is also quicker to acclimatise to a new car as you are not racing down narrow roads and making lots of turns.

Driving at speed on a motorway chews up electricity in the same way as a petrol car although you do claim a bit back when going downhill or braking. The car was very quiet and the suspension soft giving a very comfortable ride.

We turned off the autoroute about 20kms from Thiers, our first stop. It is a small town with a medieval village on a ridge and the commercial centre in the valley. We quickly found our accommodation which was in the medieval part of the town.

Looking out from the medieval village to the hill opposite

We needed to top up the car and I had found a charge point just up the road. When we got there we found that someone else was using it. I pondered what to do and while we were there the people came back and showed us what we needed to do to get it charging our vehicle. They had finished so we plugged in and wandered into medieval part of town to find somewhere to eat. First of all though we bought some breakfast things from a little supermarket we found and then went exploring. Fortuitously we came across a rather nice restaurant. They were just opening so we took a seat and before long we were served a rather nice meal. After the fare in the previous three countries we had been in it was a joy to behold.

When we returned to pick up the car it was nearly 100% full.