You should have no problem on the major routes, where there are proper service areas with fuel, shops and cafe's. There are very few of them between Calais & North Brittany.

The one we use is Aire of the Somme for a bite to eat and a fill up. It's near Abbeville on the A16.

France on a Sunday is like Wales used to be! Off the motorways, you will find self service petrol at small filling stations and supermarkets. The rub is that they are usually unmanned and only take French credit cards.

You could end up in a bit of a pickle in France on a Sunday if you didn't plan your refuelling in advance!

Peter

I second what Peter has said. France is not like the UK when it comes to services available on a Sunday. You should look for motorway service stations for refuelling - the problem of using UK credit cards is very widespread, and boulangeries are open until 12 at the latest. Finding McDonalds open should help if you can find a McD ... and Sunday lunch at restaurants can take quite a long time. Better make plans ahead or even bring a picnic for the human refuelling, for the car, perhaps the AA at Calais can help you best.

More about the petrol problem can be found HERE

Peter

Thanks for the info folks.
Anybody else with anything to add.

Rob

We travelled between Calais and Annecy on a Sunday last summer.

We bought petrol in Calais using a british credit card without a problem and stopped at motorway service stations on the way down. We also used our credit cards to pay for the tolls but in the manned booths not automatic machines

Will you actually need to buy fuel? We drove from Zeebrugge to Carnac with a heavily laden car and roof-box last summer and did it on a tank and a half. We broke the journey overnight at Houlgate (east of Caen) and still had a quarter of a tank left. I had probably done 60 miles on this side before we got on the ferry. We had 2 small children with us so had to stop several times and several of the services we stopped at had petrol stations.

Hi Loobs

We bought petrol in Calais using a British credit card without a problem

Yes, but was it at a manned kiosk or putting your card in a machine?

The problem is the latter. We have found the machines won't accept UK cards, although ones in Calais could be an exception due to all the booze runs.

Peter

A lot of French card Terminals will not accept the new English cards although a manned booth will ask you to sign for goods

We tend to take a cool box (ith lots of ice packs) for our trips down through France even in the Week (and even with the caravan on the back too) as it does speed things up as French food service is slow but that's how the French like it

but a car with only a roof box should only need refuelling once so the Aire du Somme is ideal and it's very popular with travellers going to and from Brittany

We used credit card at a manned kiosk.

Incidentally as we have a diesel car we made sure we crossed the channel with only as much fuel as we needed to get to Calais as Diesel is significantly cheaper in france than in the UK. Last summer I think it was about 17% cheaper

We found the price difference for petrol was negligible the last couple of years so we haven't bothered coming home having filled up in France/Belgium.