Never let your tank get less than quarter full when travelling out of shoping hours

[Renaud]

We landed at La Rochelle, reclaimed luggage and got taxi to the garage who had been nursing my elderly car. Sigh with relief, as we made it to the garage shortly before it closed for the day at 7pm. Whizzed to a supermarket to stock up for supper and breakfast. Hit the paeage and looked forward to arrival. Just before Saintes realised that the petrol tank indicator was most of the way through the brightly lit warning light - this is hidden by the steering wheel. (Doh)! The next aire with petrol was another 10 to 15 kms.

What to do? Try and get there and risk running out of petrol en-route? Or look for fuel in Saintes? Consult daughter, who opts for the less adventurous option. Go to Saintes and find a 24 unmanned set of petrol pumps at a Supermarket. Sigh with relief, but then find that the pumps will not take UK credit cards. Remember that our credit card for French bank account at the house we are travelling to. Tour Saintes on dwindling fuel looking for a manned petrol pump. No luck. Return to supermarket petrol pumps and try to use the UK cards in ever more ingenious ways. No luck. No petrol.

So what to do?

The next time a French driiver turned up I persuaded him to put 50 euros of Petrol in my tank after giving him a 50 euro note. He could not have been more charming.

As we drove off, daughter remarked "You always cheat by getting the French to help you".

[Kitty]

We had a similar experience at 2 in the morning and, luckily, persuaded someone to take cash in exchange for use of their credit card.  In our case, we were driving to Dinan casulty department because our daughter was very sick (she stayed for 10 days but has since recovered).  Talk about a frightening experience.

We didn't learn from that and had another (not so serious) crisis on a Sunday, forgetting that stations are closed except for Carte Bleu holders.  We now have French CB cards...