Please note that IF (and I hope you don't) break down on a French motorway, besides telephoning your insurers, you must use the roadside phone and the POLICE send a breakdown service ............ the local companies work on a rota system with the police, (especially at weekends where there is only one on call for any particular area of motorway) and they will tow you off the motorway to their garage, and then you can negotiate what happens next - with a significant delay at the weekend because you will have to wait until they open on a Monday.

Please make sure that your insurance will cover you with accommodation payment and possibly food costs for any delays in continuing your journey if you do breakdown, and cover for cancelled hotels or unused ferries as well ................

Thanks for th einfo about how to contact breakdown service. Good point about weekends - we will be travelling on a Sunday (Friday return). The quotes I have include accommodation but vary in amount.

IF you do breakdown on the Autoroute system and you can nurse your car off the autoroute you must get away from the acess roads too

We had the misfortune to blow a turbo hose whilst towing and managed to limp off the autoroute so that the Caravan Club agents could help
An autoroute mechanic helped us bodge a repair to get off (€40 please) as we were in a service aire when it blew
but then we had to drive around 3/4 of a mile to get to a safe place to get a tow truck to us away from the Autoroute