Postscript… unexpectedly Leclerc has proactively refunded our deposit for the hire car that they refused to lease to us, on the grounds it was being taken across borders. I’m frankly amazed Leclerc did this without even being asked. It must be a first for a French business in our experience.
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To which I hope you replied, "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is in Europe.
Oh yes that’s a famous one! Such a daft setup they have there…
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We hired cars from both LeClerc and Carrefour for about 10 months while we were waiting for our new car to be delivered (Covid delays) and learnt a lot about 5hese 2 companies:
Leclerc has a number of franchises that operate their car hire - on the whole the T&Cs are pretty similar but not all between the different franchises. We definitely always had to have proof of residence in France for all drivers; we were not allowed to cross any borders, and we had to bring the car back in a pristine condition else there was a charge. The parameters for being pristine varied between the different franchises.
Carrefour: pretty much the same though very little flexibility with mileage limits.
Provided you’re aware of these constraints, I can thoroughly recommend them to anyone. We’d certainly use them again - overall they were pretty good and a lot cheaper than the big brands.
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Provided you’re not driving a long way.
It appears that Leclerc stores have their own policy variants on cross border hiring, according to our nearest Leclerc. Stores in adjacent towns here differ markedly - one store (in Dieppe for example) has no restrictions on taking a hire car across borders, including the UK, whilst the Leclerc in a nearby town forbids the practice. I wonder if the hire operations are franchised, and franchisors can choose their own policies within parameters set out centrally by Leclerc. The lesson I take away from this issue is to check with the particular Leclerc store you wish to rent a car from, and establish whether it permits cross border hiring.
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I think that’s what it says in the Ts&Cs on the website.