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Tobysmumndad

I have been advised that when filling up in the UK, to watch the counters on the pump carefully and stop at the first sign of slowing down. There is just a suspicion that positive shut-off sometimes isn't happening at 80%. There is no such reported problem on the Continent.

I've always found this to be the case when filling up in France. There is positive shut-off. However, on our trip to Provence this Easter, we came across a type of nozzle which was new to us. It's a black sleeve surrounding the nozzle which you slide forward to couple on to the adapter. Everything was hunky-dory and the gas went in fine. However when the time came to uncouple, and I pulled on the sleeve, instead of the normal bang-hiss, there was a tremendous bang, and I was totally enveloped in a freezing cloud of garlic-fumed vapour. Very disconcerting!

On the way home, six weeks later, we had two unsuccessful attempts to fill with this type of nozzle. The first attempt was abandoned when we couldn't get a gas-tight couple-on, and the second attempt was abandoned when, having got the nozzle seemingly gas-tight, the pump wouldn't deliver when I pressed the button! There are five or six studs around the inside of the nozzle, which of course don't match anything on the adapter. Has anyone else had any problems?

We did finally get filled up without any problem at the BP Station d'Angres on the A26. Even there they've replaced the beautifully simple nozzle, with the spade handle which you pull back on, with a more complicated device which requires careful studying of the instructions on the pump!