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'''France''' is a member state of the [[European Union]] as well as the [[Schengen Agreement]]. It is usually a great country for hitchhiking. There are many friendly car and truck drivers. Drivers have to pay toll on motorways (except in [[Bretagne|Brittany]]), and you can get a ride quite easily at some ''barrières de péage'' (toll stations). When hitchhiking on local roads, you might face some difficulties sometimes, though. One of the commonly known barriers for traveling in France is a language - you might wanna learn some basic phrases before you off on the road in France.
There are no hitchhiking prohibitions in France, apart from the restricted access roads (''Allemagne'' (all-ay-man'ye) in French). Moreower some expierience shows that french people will more often stop in a place where it is not normally allowed.
It may also be helpful to write '''S.V.P.''' on your sign with a destination name - it is short for ''s'il vous plaît'' (sih-voo-play) which means ''please'' in French.
== ''Autoroutes'', ''péages'' and ''barrières de péage'' ==
'''Péage''' ([http://french.about.com/library/media/wavs/peage.wav]) is a French word for ''[[toll road]]'' in [[France]] and other French speaking countries (not to mix with ''autoroute'' which means "motorway" in French and is not necessarily a toll road). Hitchhikers usually use this word as referring to [[toll station]]s.
In France, most of the motorways are toll roads which are the fastest way to hitch across the country. There are two types of toll stations on péages. First, there are big ones where all traffic has to stop to pay a fee (or to get a ticket) - these are ''barrières de péage'' and usually they are excellent spots to get a long-distance ride. They are often located near big cities on the autoroute. Another type is a side barrier situated on all exits in the toll part of the motorway. On latter ones traffic is much smaller, therefore one can expect a longer waiting time, although sometimes congested toll stations (the first type) can be a difficult place to hitch from, too.
