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 As you will know you have the choice of paying a per day rental charge for a rental car, or you can pre-purchase a car under a leasing scheme, which involves you receiving a brand new car. The differences can be quite noticeable.

I have noticed that travel agents in general try wherever possible to book you lease car schemes, rather than booking a rental car. More often than not a lease car is sold to you by an agent when you book your airfares, but my advice is to leave the vehicle choices until the very last, when your whole itinerary is in place.

Firstly you need to realize that with a leased car you are not economically better off unless you lease the car for a period of over three weeks to a month. There are many differences between the two schemes:

• A lease car has a stand-out white and red number plate, whereas with a rental car you have a local number plate.
• A lease car has a French language toll free help line, whereas a rental car has an English language help line.
• If a lease car breaks down then you can not be issued with another vehicle, but must remain with it until the repairs are completed – I have heard from clients who had to wait for two weeks for their vehicle to be repaired! If a rental car breaks down (near a town) you will generally be re-issued with another vehicle within an hour.
• A Lease car scheme has pick-up and drop off points in only a select number of cities, whereas a rental car scheme allows pick-ups and drop-offs in almost any small towns and all cities.

My own advice is to leave your decision about vehicles until your whole itinerary is completed. Price is only one issue in choosing which scheme to use – sometimes paying a small premium for a rental car may be preferable. For anyone needing a car for long periods over a month in duration then the cost of a lease scheme vehicle becomes very attractive when compared to a rental vehicle.

Make sure that you ask your travel agent for both options whenever you book.