Renting a van in Nantes: the practical guide

To rent a van in Nantes you almost always need nothing more than a valid category B licence, an ID document and a bank card in the main driver's name: nearly every van offered for hire can be driven without a heavy-goods licence. And going through a small Nantes agency or a private owner is often far cheaper than a removal firm, provided you choose a size that actually fits the street you are delivering to.

Because in Nantes the vehicle is not the problem; the city is. You have to cross the Loire, come in or out through one of the named portes of the périphérique nantais, the city ring road, and then finish in streets that were never drawn for a van: those of the Bouffay quarter, the quays along the river, or a new building on the île de Nantes whose underground car park has a height bar.

Licence and paperwork

A van is hired much like a car: the agency checks the licence, the ID and the means of payment. The only real limit is the vehicle's maximum authorised weight, written on the registration document; below the light-vehicle threshold, a category B licence is enough. These rules change and depend on where your licence was issued, so check them with the official French government source.

• A valid category B licence, held for as long as the agency requires, usually longer for the biggest vans.
• An ID document, sometimes proof of address; for a licence issued outside the European Union, a translation or an international permit may be asked for.
• A bank card in the main driver's name: it carries the deposit hold, and a prepaid card is often refused.

Choosing the size: what fits in, and what fits through

Forget the technical sheets and think in furniture. In Nantes the question of volume comes after the question of access: a large van that cannot get close to the building will cost you more trips on foot than it saves you in journeys.

Crossing the Loire and using the ring road

The périphérique nantais circles the conurbation and is signed by its portes, each named after a place: porte de Rennes, porte de Vannes, porte de la Beaujoire, porte de Rezé, porte de Bouguenais for Nantes Atlantique airport. Work out yours before you set off: in a van, an improvised turn in a suburban street is expensive in time.

The bridges, the wind and the île de Nantes

Every move in Nantes ends up crossing the Loire. On the ring road, the pont de Cheviré and the pont de Bellevue carry the main crossings; the first is high and very exposed to the westerly wind, which you feel clearly at the wheel of an empty van. In town you reach the île de Nantes by the pont Anne-de-Bretagne, the pont des Trois-Continents or the pont Willy-Brandt, while Pirmil leads towards Rezé and the vineyard country. At peak times they all clog up.

Parking and loading in the centre

This is where hires get complicated. The centre mixes filtered pedestrian zones, the medieval streets of the Bouffay, tram tracks flush with the road surface and paid parking almost everywhere. A van is tolerated there, not expected.

• Aim for a loading bay in front of the building and respect the permitted time; the windows depend on the district and can be checked with Nantes Métropole.
• Never stop on the rails: tram lines 1, 2 and 3 and the busway cross the centre, and a badly placed van on the cours des 50 Otages blocks the whole line.
• In the Bouffay and around Decré, access is filtered by retractable bollards and limited to set hours: load early in the morning.
• Read the height bar before entering an underground car park: many buildings on the île de Nantes and in Beaulieu will not take a high-roof van.

Low-emission zone, Crit'Air and the road rules

Nantes Métropole operates a zone à faibles émissions, a low-emission zone, as other French conurbations do. The mechanism is always the same: every vehicle gets a Crit'Air sticker grading it from 0 for electric to 5 for the oldest, and the local authority decides which classes may drive, where and when. Older diesel vans are targeted first, and exemptions exist. The perimeter, the timetable and the penalties change often, so ask the agency which sticker the vehicle carries and check the official French government source, because no low-emission zone rule is ever permanent.

• Motorway: 130 km/h in the dry, 110 km/h in the rain; dual carriageway with a central separator, 110 km/h and 100 km/h in the rain.
• Ordinary two-way roads: 80 km/h, raised to 90 km/h on some roads by the département. Built-up areas: 50 km/h.
• In fog, as soon as visibility drops below 50 m, 50 km/h applies everywhere.
• Licence held under 3 years: 110 km/h on the motorway, 100 km/h in the rain, and 0.2 g/L of alcohol instead of 0.5 g/L of blood, which is 0.25 mg/L of exhaled air.
• A warning triangle and a high-visibility vest must be carried on board. On the motorways towards Rennes or Angers the toll is paid by card or by a télépéage badge, and priorité à droite still applies at some unmarked junctions.

Deposit, insurance and excess

This is the real subject of a van hire, far more than the headline rate. A van gets damaged in the two places nobody looks at: the roof and the underside. Many contracts exclude precisely those two areas, or apply a higher excess to them.

• Ask what the excess is and what it covers, roof, bumpers and underside included, before you sign.
• The deposit takes the form of a hold on the main driver's card: know what will be blocked and when it will be released.
• Do the condition check with the agency, photograph the roof, the rear corners and the windscreen, and take the same pictures when you hand the vehicle back.
• Check the fuel policy, the mileage included and the drop-off point. Ask whether a sack truck, straps and blankets are provided; on the Atlantic coast, add a tarpaulin.

When to book: the Nantes calendar

Demand is highly seasonal. Leases change on the first of the month, so the end and the start of the month are tight, Saturdays above all. The start of the university year brings a second wave: students and young professionals moving in near the Tertre, Lombarderie and Chantrerie campuses, or into the new buildings on the île de Nantes. Summer adds families and departures towards La Baule or Pornic. On a Tuesday mid-month you will have your choice of size; on a Friday evening in late August, much less.

Small agency, private owner or big chain

Around Nantes the supply is not limited to the counters of the big chains: independent agencies in Saint-Herblain, Rezé or Vertou hire out well-kept vans, and private owners make theirs available between jobs. DRIVO is a European marketplace for renting directly from these trusted local agencies and from private owners, across Europe and North Africa; France is the current focus market. For a van in Nantes:

• The full price is shown before you pay, including the DRIVO service fee, which appears as its own line; that fee is refunded with a free cancellation or if the agency cancels.
• Confirmation is instant, and cancellation stays free up to 48 hours before pick-up.
• You see the security deposit and what is included before you book, and an optional full-protection add-on can be added at checkout to lower the excess.
• Listings and support exist in five languages, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Arabic, with WhatsApp support and an in-app concierge.