France continues to be good value, especially as the cost of petrol and diesel continues to fall, whilst the exchange rate against both the US dollar and the Euro continues to improve. We are not far off getting 10 Francs to the Pound Sterling in old money - and yet I can remember the horrors of getting FF7,70 or less to the £! Travelex currently (21 Jan 07) are offering €1.47=£1.
Hence if you are avoid most autoroute service areas and major oil compnay branded service stations - and check out hypermarkets and supermarkets (e.g. Intermarche, Super U, Leclerc etc) you can get good value such as
Unleaded (sans plomb 95) €1.169 = 80p/litre
Super unleaded (sans plomb 98) €1.199=82p/litre
Diesel (gazole) €0.987 =67p/litre
However, you may pay more (or less) depending on where you are in France - there is a price comparison site at www.prixalapompe.com (in French) which shows that 62 Pas-de-Calais and 40 Pyrenees-Atlantiques are the most expensive departements (averaging about €0.99/litre) whereas 63 Puy-de-Dome (around Clermont-Ferrand in the very centre of France) prices can be as low as €0.90/litre =61p/litre for diesel.
