Was it perhaps "take ticket"?

When you enter a stretch of motorway which is "payable", you take a ticket; and then present the ticket and pay when you leave the motorway, or when it becomes a free stretch, typically around the large cities.

That's exactly what it means. We just got back from driving across France, with our viamichelin directions. A "ticket purchase" means that you collect a ticket from a toll booth (no humans there) and then turn it in to pay your fee either at the next toll booth or when you get off (hence the amount for the "toll").

By the way, the viamichelin direction were INCREDIBLY on the mark as to where the speed cameras were, how much the tolls were, etc.

Cybored

There are two systems on the motorways in france. The ticket you take on entry and pay as you go off or toll booths every so many miles. These are what cause gigantic road blocks in august when people paying to go faster are held up for hours to pay for the privilege.

I just back late Sun from France - yup those are the toll tickets - and in some places it could get expensive too - like 15euros at times.

But i would agree that driving is the best way to explore France once you get out of Paris.

Rent a GPS (i got mine from Lowergear.com) - that has the information too (plus those speed traps).

LBBarron

PS: try the Drodogne Valley if you get a chance.

I would suggest you buy a GPS. I bought a Garmin with both US and Western Europe maps. I used it extensively over two weeks in France last year and it was just about perfect. Unlike pre-printed directions, you can change your plans on the fly, look for restaurants, hotels, gas stations and attractions, etc. With some practice, I was able to use it as a walking map in the city as well. The good thing is the price has come down by more than 50% since I bought it 12 months ago. It is now less than $200.

A couple of weeks ago we drove from CDG to Bayeux to Tours to Paris.

I printed out directions from viamichelin and mappy.fr and they were great up until 10 - 15 minutes of the final destination and then seemed to sputter.

I wish we had had a GPS and, figuring the directions would be enough, I hadn't searched out a detailed enough map. Some kind of road atlas would have made my life much less stressful than the decreasing radius method!

Connie

I had printed out the directions on Viamichelin.com to get from CDG to Giverny. They were invaluable in that conglomerate of unfamiliar roads, I suppose a gps would have been as useful.

Otherwise we used the big Yellow Michelin map and the road signs, which in many ways were better than the map.

Even so we ended up lost a few times, once in Nancy where we must have missed a sign telling us to turn and wandered around the whole city trying to get out, and the other in Chartres, where the way out was closed due to a bike race.

My advice? Printed directions are great, but have a back up.