French Autoroute tolls and bikes!

[NigelHutson]

Hopefully this will be a bit of advanced warning to those lucky enought o be venturing over the water this summer. We have just returned from a holiday near Annecy, and on the way down there I thought how much the tolls had increased. At the third toll booth I noticed that we were being charged at Class 4 rate (the same as artics, coaches etc). As nearly all the booths are now un-manned, there seemed little that we could do about it (unfortunately neither of us is perfectly fluent in French).
Our Moggie Minor is just under 2m high, and we had bikes on the roof which would put it over 3m high in total.
On the way back, I put the bikes inside the car, and we were consequently charged at the correct Class 2 rate.
Therefore, if you are carrying bikes on the roof of a larger 4X4 or MPV (or Moggie Minor!), please be aware that you might be stung for higher toll charges as you cannot question machines, and neither do they have discretion or common sense.
Nigel.

 

[JoannaLesley]

Does that mean that motorhomes are likely to be charged at the class 4 rate? Or perhaps they are already? (I don't have one - just an interested enquiry)
Jo

 

[NigelHutson]

I have done what I should have done before we went (but I'm a man and don't look at instruction manuals!), and looked on the website.
Seemingly, 3m height is the cut off, so if a motorhome exceeds the 3m, then yes, it looks likely that it will be charged at the higher rate.
Nigel.

 

[ValA.]

Too late for Nigel, but it mey help others to know that even on the unmanned booths there is a button you can press to contact someone - just press it and say 'Classe 2' or whatever you think you are and they will remotely reselect the class you're charged. That's all the French you need.

 

[NigelHutson]

Yes, Val, it was too late when we saw those things (I'm sitting on the wrong side of the car - the right one of course, when we passed through the booths) but a good point. A lesson learned by me, and one that hopefully we can save others the expense of. Progress I suppose.