To cancel my half term driving holiday to France???!!!

[RollupRollup123]

Omg. So been looking forward to this holiday.our plan was to drive quite far south😂 Reading reports of stranded Brits is making me scared. What would you do????

We drive across France and Switzerland regularly. Which bit exactly is making you want to cancel??

Fuel strikes isn't it?

I might be inclined to. A number of friends in the south of France have been talking about queues and fuel rationing.

1 quarter of all petrol stations are closed or running short of fuel, most news reports say.
Which means 3 quarters are fine.

Friends have just got back and made it across the channel on fumes. It's very unpredictable - I don't think I'd go tbh

Can you go to Belgium/Germany instead? I've seen pics on fb of the queues & it sounds like there will be loads of strike action including trains in the near future too.
Maybe cross the border to France for a couple of days?

Apparently, 40% of petrol stations are now experiencing partial or total shortages. Here is a map which shows petrol stations and whether they have run out or not. mon-essence.fr/blog/2016/05/19/penurie-de-carburant/

Am French, it's fine. Enjoy your holiday.

Good excuse to buy an electric car ;)

I thought I could buy one of those Petrol carry things, or a couple, then I could go. But I'm scared of bursting into flames.

We are in the south west of France and apparently there is no actual shortage (there is fuel at the depots), but problems are being caused by panic buying. We weren't able to get diesel yesterday, it was available today but queues were long.

If you have a petrol engine car it may be better - round here petrol has been available.

I wouldn't cancel anything yet, personally. Where are you going?

I live in the east of France and no problem here as yet... there are slightly longer queues but I don't think anything has run out. I thought it would all be back to normal at the weekend anyway, unless things have changed?

No shortage here in central France - have you been reading the daily fail?

I'm surprised there isn't more in the British news about this.

Who exactly is in dispute?

Remember the tanker drivers dispute in 2000, and how close UK came to a total shut down?

Now, it's likely that no country would reach that point, but if you're going to France at all whilst the issue is still unresolved, you probably do need a contingency plan

The shortages are patchy, it's been bad in Brittany and there was no diesel to be had anywhere round us last night (rural area south of Toulouse) . Better today apparently, and things are improving generally. I really wouldn't cancel yet.

We are heading there too, Hhmmm, in 2 minds but going to keep watching news...

Not just the DM:

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-fuel-strikes-leave-petrol-stations-dry-and-pose-threat-to-euro-2016-a7047311.html

uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-politics-protests-idUKKCN0YG0PE

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/24/french-police-water-cannon-strikers-marseille-fos-sur-mer

And though the strikers may well not give a stuff about holidaymakers, there's been references in reports from several sources that the timing ahead of Euro16 is deliberate.

www.itv.com/news/2016-05-25/french-strikes-how-could-the-fuel-shortages-affect-british-holidaymakers-and-the-euros-2016/

Just don't do what one British holiday maker did here last night: filled up his enormous camper van and TWO large jerrycans in front of a long queue. He drained the reservoir so no one else could fill up, and there was lots of muttering about shameful behaviour by British tourists.

I'm heading to central. I drive a large Volvo Disel. I wonder how many tank fills it takes to get there??

It's unlikely that'll happen again Mistigri - ITV are reporting that there's a transaction limit of €30 in quite a lot of petrol stations in France now.

And it's a pretty bad idea to carry petrol in jerry cans in your vehicle.

Again from ITV, quoting AAand RAC:

"But the AA warned that ...
'We are strongly advising our members heading to France to fill up their tanks before crossing the Channel and moderate their driving to get the best miles per gallon from their fuel. The only silver lining might be less traffic that will allow a car to travel further, typically 300 miles on one tank of fuel'

'Simon Williams, the RAC's fuel spokesman, says: "Anyone currently in France is going to struggle to find fuel for their return journey and probably shouldn't even attempt to get home unless they can do so on one tank.

"We suspect finding somewhere to fill up in the worst affected areas will be extremely difficult."'

I live here, and you need to be sensible and fill up when you find it. Lots of stations limited to 16 or 20 litres. Don't go for the motorway as I think those ones probably will be empty.

5 out of 8 refineries are being blockaded. It is getting out, and they are using stocked stuff at the moment. But......this is France and in 20 years of being here the government has never not backed down once the fuel is threatened. I'm not worried particularly.

Hummmm. I strongly dislike the jerrycans idea.

No petrol yesterday or today in South of france around me (near marseille.)One or two stations locally have had deliverys but the queues are terrible, and i think they have really run out.