I don’t own an EV so still have to visit the quintessentially classic / old fashioned* petrol station every now and again to keep my car running. I don’t mind it really… It gets me out of the house, and it makes me feel I’m doing what I can to help out the Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti economies.
It’s also a chance to practice my French with my fellow gas guzzlers… although I often can’t hear what they’re saying over the noise of the pumps, but I’m sure they’re being friendly really. Whenever I’ve driven past those new fangled EV charging thingies, I’ve seen the people there talking to each other about their electric cars… maybe because they’re younger their hearing is better than mine.
They also don’t need to wear those disposable gloves or appear to be bothered by the smell when they’re filling up their EVs… I wonder why that is. Anyway, I digress.
I’d be interested to know what your favourite petrol station is - either here in France or whichever other country you’ve visited. We’re fortunate enough to have so many of them, of all sorts, that you must have those you like and those you’re less fond of.
I’ll start the ball rolling… although I’m perhaps being a bit controversial as my favourite one no longer exists. It was in between Birmingham and Bromsgrove in the UK, and it looked a bit like this one:
I have an appalling but absolutely true story about petrol stations.
Sometime in the 1970s I was working in Ibadan, Nigeria. We had to employ a local driver because our employer would not let us drive ourselves.
On one occasion, passing through a village, we came across an accident where a petrol tanker had tipped over turning into the station that was to be refuelled. Petrol was running down the street and people were swarming around filling water bottles stealing the petrol for their personal use.
Our driver pulled over intending to join in the bean feast. He was persuaded otherwise by our hysterical screaming to keep going and get away as fast as possible.
It was reported that, later that day, the petrol caught fire and 32 people were killed together with half the village burning down.
In the context of France, my favourite petrol station is any one that doesn’t make you go inside the shop, queue up at the desk and give them an estimate of how much petrol you need and pay for it before they will unlock the pump…
It means you never get to fill up the tank to the top, which is less of a big deal in a car but on a motorbike that only has an 11 litre tank capacity is really annoying.
The one in the Médoc is on the single Route Nationale that links Bordeaux with the ferry at Le Verdon going to Royan. In the summer, it’s heaving with foreign vehicles heading in both directions.
To be fair, the sign on the petrol pumps handily explains the procedure … but it’s only written in French You can imagine the delay as people stand there wondering why nothing is happening as they try to fill up their cars.
Tiny little place, drive in, fill up and stop at a little hut on the way out where sits a nice chappie with a smile, who slides out a tray with the machine for you to flash your iphone at, and off you go.
The only place I know where you do not go into a shop nor have to carry an outdated plastic card.
Yes, 'twould be better if they had someone do the filling up as well…
You can imagine the delay as people stand there wondering why nothing is happening as they try to fill up their cars.