Renting a car at Lyon Airport (LYS): what you need to know

At Lyon-Saint Exupéry the rental desks are not in the arrivals hall: the companies are grouped in a rental centre away from the terminals, reached by a free shuttle from the arrivals exit. So allow a good half hour more between the baggage belt and the steering wheel, book a full-to-full fuel policy, and do the état des lieux, the handover condition report, with your camera in hand before you leave the parking space.

The rest comes down to three habits: knowing exactly what your price includes before you pay, checking the desk's closing time for the return, and comparing an airport pick-up with one in the city or at a station. That is where the final bill is decided, far more than in the daily rate on the screen.

From the baggage belt to the wheel: the real route at LYS

Whether you land at Terminal 1 or Terminal 2, the logic is the same: you collect your bags, you walk out, and you look for a shuttle stop that is not always well signposted. Many travellers lose ten minutes circling the hall before they realise the desk they want is somewhere else entirely. The shuttle ride is short, but it adds to the queue at the counter and then to the time spent in the car park checking the vehicle. Assuming you will be driving a quarter of an hour after landing is the surest way to rush the condition report.

• Follow the signs marked Location de voitures, car rental, as soon as you leave baggage reclaim: the rental shuttle stop is outside, along the arrivals kerb.
• The shuttle is free and runs from early morning until late evening; outside those hours an intercom at the stop lets you call the driver.
• Ask for the rental shuttle, not the car park shuttle: they are different vehicles and they do not go to the same place.
• At the rental centre the desks sit side by side, and the queue builds in waves, in step with arriving flights.
• If you come by train, the airport's TGV station adjoins the terminals, so you follow exactly the same path.

Airport, city or station: where to pick the car up

Picking up at the airport is not always the right call, and it is not only a question of price. An off-site agency, in town or near a station, often runs a smaller fleet but answers the phone, which changes everything when a flight is delayed. Conversely, if you are heading up to the Alps the same day, every hour counts and the airport is unbeatable on opening hours.

The extras that inflate the bill

The daily rate is almost never the price you pay. At an airport a series of lines gets added to it, sometimes at the desk, sometimes when the final charge goes through. Knowing them in advance means you can say no calmly, or at least not discover the amount on your bank statement two weeks later.

• The airport surcharge, or terminal pick-up fee, which pays for the company's location and does not always appear as a separate line.
• The young-driver or new-licence loading, which often applies to drivers who have held a licence for under 3 years.
• The additional driver, charged per day, even though that is exactly what lets you share the drive up to the Alps.
• Equipment: child seat, ski rack, snow chains, booster seat, each billed separately and rarely available without being reserved.
• The excess reduction offered at the counter, often presented as a formality although it changes the final price.
• Out-of-hours return, drop-off in another city, and prepaid fuel, which is never refunded if there is diesel left in the tank.

The condition report in the dark: the decisive moment

The first flights leave Lyon before daybreak, and that is also when many cars are collected. In a badly lit car park, a scratch on a grey sill is invisible. This is the only moment when you can still prove anything: once the car is back, you are arguing against an assessment you never saw being made. Take the few minutes it needs, even if the desk is rushing you.

1. 1Before getting in, walk right round the car filming one continuous video, without stopping, saying the place and the time out loud.
2. 2Switch the headlights on and use your phone torch for the dark areas: sills, wheels, bumpers, windscreen, roof and boot.
3. 3Photograph the lit dashboard so the fuel gauge and the odometer appear in the same image as the contract.
4. 4Have every existing mark written onto the condition report, and leave with a signed copy, on paper or digital.
5. 5At return, do exactly the same; if nobody is there, photograph the car in its space, the odometer, and the keys in the drop box.

Fuel, tolls and giving the car back

The airport zone is not the easiest place to fill up just before handing the car back: better to stop before you enter the airport complex, and keep the receipt. For the return, the desk's closing time matters as much as your flight time, because a late drop-off can be billed as an extra day.

• Choose a full-to-full policy, and turn down prepaid fuel unless you plan to drive down to the reserve.
• Most French motorways are tolled, the péage: you pay by bank card or with a télépéage electronic badge, handy if you are chaining trips to Burgundy or down the Rhône valley.
• Ask in writing, before booking, whether an out-of-hours return is possible and how the keys are to be left.
• Keep the fuel receipt, the return condition report and your photos for several weeks, until the deposit is released.

Driving out of Lyon: the Alps, Burgundy, the Rhône valley

Lyon is an ideal base, and that is often the real reason to rent there. The Alps are a morning away, Burgundy lies north, and the Rhône valley runs south towards Provence on roads that are busy in summer and during the winter holidays alike. Three different settings, three different kinds of driving: passes and shifting weather on one side, country roads and villages on another, dense motorway to the south.

Speed limits

• On the autoroute the maximum is 130 km/h in dry weather and 110 km/h in rain.
• On a dual carriageway with a central separator it is 110 km/h dry and 100 km/h in rain.
• On ordinary two-way roads the limit is 80 km/h, raised to 90 km/h on some roads by the département; in built-up areas, 50 km/h.
• In fog, or as soon as visibility drops below 50 m, 50 km/h applies everywhere.
• If your licence is under 3 years old you are held to 110 km/h on the autoroute and 100 km/h in rain.

Alcohol and mandatory equipment

• The blood alcohol limit is 0.5 g/L of blood, equivalent to 0.25 mg/L of exhaled air.
• For a licence held under 3 years the limit is 0.2 g/L: in practice, zero tolerance.
• A warning triangle and a high-visibility vest must be carried in the vehicle: check for them in the car park, not on the hard shoulder.
• Priorité à droite, priority to traffic coming from the right, still applies at some unmarked junctions, especially in older towns and on small roads.

ZFE and the Crit'Air sticker: how the mechanism works

Several French cities, Lyon among them, operate a ZFE, a zone à faibles émissions or low-emission zone: access depends on the vehicle's Crit'Air class, a sticker grading it from 0, for electric, to 5. The principle is simple, but the rules, the perimeter and the penalties change often, and a rental car registered elsewhere in France or abroad is not exempt. Before setting off, look at the Crit'Air class of the car you are given, and check the current conditions on the official French government source as well as on the Métropole de Lyon's own. Do not rely on what was true last year, or on what you are told at the counter.

What DRIVO changes for the renter

DRIVO is a European marketplace for renting vehicles directly from trusted independent and local rental agencies, and from private owners, across Europe and North Africa. France is the current focus market. For an arrival at Lyon-Saint Exupéry the point is mainly to see the complete price before you pay rather than at the desk, and to be able to deal with a human-sized agency rather than the big chains.

• Upfront pricing: every cost is shown before you pay, including a DRIVO service fee on the rental, shown as its own line and refunded with a free cancellation or an agency cancellation.
• Instant confirmation, and free cancellation up to 48 hours before pick-up.
• You see the security deposit and what is included before you book, which removes the last-minute discussion at the counter.
• An optional full-protection add-on can be added at checkout to lower the excess, with nothing to negotiate on site.
• Listings and support in five languages, with WhatsApp and in-app concierge support; beyond cars the marketplace also covers vans and utility vehicles, motorhomes and campervans where local supply exists.