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LPG availability in France


Tony Jones

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We have a "Gaslow" system, and up to now haven't had any trouble refilling on our French trips.

 

However, this time we noticed a number of service stations which had stopped selling it - you can see the empty slot on the price board where it used to be. I very much hope this isn't a trend.

 

Travelling back northwards on the Clermont-Ferrand "free" route (ie leaving the Autoroute at CF) we passed quite a lot of these former GPL stations, including many supermarkets, and had to make do with our emergency CampingGaz901 at one point!

 

Eventually we filled up at a BP station - they all seem to sell it, both here and in France.

 

Anyway, just a warning for all Gaslow-ers: once you get to the point of "wondering" how much longer your supply will last, fill up at the next opportunity, even if it's not the cheapest you've seen - it's still a heck of a lot cheaper than C'gaz!

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No, that's my concern really. There seemed to be so many, of different brands, with those blank spaces on their price boards.

I hope they've not found it uneconomic - after all, it certainly wouldn't make economic sense to maintain pumps for the likes of us, they need plenty of people using LPG to run their engines. If that's not taking off as expected, we could all be up the creek without a gas supply!

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Please don't let this get out of proportion - it's just my own "anecdotal" experience from one journey.

I wouldn't want to start a big scare, and we DID find LPG in the end, just not as readily as last year.

Just make sure you fill up when you have chance, don't leave it until you're desperate, at least until we see whether this is a "trend" or just an unfortunate set of co-incidences!

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Hi all, you may know or not put if you ask in any french filling station etc that sells LPG they will give you a free map of LPG locations. I think that some poor sells of gas as lead some dealers to stop selling it. I know that a few years back there was 6 filling points within 10 miles of my house, now there are 3. one reason to have larger cylinders in the motorhome.

terry

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terry1956 - 2010-04-28 9:19 AM

 

Hi all, you may know or not put if you ask in any french filling station etc that sells LPG they will give you a free map of LPG locations. I think that some poor sells of gas as lead some dealers to stop selling it. I know that a few years back there was 6 filling points within 10 miles of my house, now there are 3. one reason to have larger cylinders in the motorhome.

terry

 

I have noticed a number in this country are now not selling LPG. Same give away a blank space in the price list on the sign. Calor POIs lists places that no longer sell autogas or are no longer there and the phone numbers have been diverted to the local Calor Centre. (Darlington site closed and number diverted to Bishop Auckland Calor Centre)

 

I normally phone before turning up at a new location to check. I did this just before Christmas and was told that they stocked it and the time they closed. When I turned up they had not stocked it for 4 years and the person on the phone didn't know this.

 

Some locations are also impossible to get my 7m Motorhome too. (Griesbeck in Cumbria, gap between the pumps not wide enough for a 7'3" vehicle and I would have to go against the traffic flow to get to the pump if it was wide enough).

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Looking on the site that niton has posted the link to seems to bare out what Tony has said. If you look under the 'News' tab it shows many more closures with red dots than openers and the 'trend' graph shows a diminishing open station bar. Unless of course I am misreading something!

 

Bas

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Could it be that with the ever increasing percentage of diesel cars (and vans) on our roads that the demand for LPG is decreasing to the point where retailers find it uneconomical to stock?

If this is the case then you may find LPG even harder to find without going out of your way to places such as heating gas suppliers.

To back up my point if you think back 10 or 15 years very few cars were diesels and those that were were slow and underpowered. At that time a lot of M/H's were also petrol engined, how many are now?

 

Food for thought?

 

Keith.

 

PS We carry 2 Calor 13 kg Propane and use less than 1 per year so cannot justify the cost of refillables as they would save us less than £12.00 per year.

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Do not see the problem here. We have two 6kg Gaslows with an auto change over. One lasts around 4 weeks in the summer and I take a look every couple of days to see if first has run out. When one shows empty have four weeks to find a refill, cannot ever see this as a problem. So their are a few less selling gas, when numbers reduce enough to make it viable again for remainder their will still be plenty of outlets.
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Keithl - 2010-04-29 6:25 PM

 

PS We carry 2 Calor 13 kg Propane and use less than 1 per year so cannot justify the cost of refillables as they would save us less than £12.00 per year.

 

So even with that saving they would still pay for themselves over their 15 year lifespan and you don't have the back breaking hassle of changing the cylinders!! :-D :-D :-D

 

Bas

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  • 2 weeks later...

hi everyone

 

we have travelled to french/italian border at frejus tunnel via chateau thierry/soissons/annecy ..

not using m/ways

and haven't encountered any problems getting lpg..

 

dearest..........72c

cheapest........57c

 

average about 64c

 

cheers

berti

 

 

 

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