Hourly chauffeur hire: a driver who stays with you
A transfer takes you from one address to another. Hiring a chauffeur by the hour is different, because it is measured in time: for as long as you have booked, your chauffeur drives you from place to place, waits while you are in meetings and is ready for the next stop. It suits days that string several addresses together, and days when you would simply rather not think about getting around.
The car, an executive saloon or, for a group or plenty of luggage, a van such as the Mercedes V-Class, is provided by a member of the Federation, according to your request and subject to availability.
- Duration
- A few hours, a full day, several days
- Itinerary
- Planned with you, set out in the quote
- Vehicle
- According to your request and members’ availability
- Confirmation
- A voucher reaches you before departure
Planning the day: what to tell us
The more precise the plan, the more accurate the quote. A rough outline is enough to start with; the details are then settled in writing. Please let us know:
- the date, the pick-up time and the likely finishing time;
- where the day starts and ends: hotel, office, villa, station or airport;
- each stop in order, with its address and the time of any appointment;
- the number of passengers and bags, and any child seats needed;
- your preferred vehicle and anything else that matters to you: discretion, a late dinner, stops you would like to keep open.
If part of the day is still open, just say so: the quote can then set a framework, in time and area, within which the plan remains flexible.
A few ideas for the day
- A business day in Marseille. A first meeting in the Euroméditerranée business district, lunch near the Old Port, a site visit in the afternoon, then Saint-Charles station or Marseille Provence Airport at the end of the day.
- An afternoon in town. The Mucem and Fort Saint-Jean, Notre-Dame de la Garde, then the shops on Rue Paradis, without having to find somewhere to park.
- A day in Aix. The Cours Mirabeau and the old town on foot, a gallery or a museum, lunch at a country house outside Aix: see our page on a chauffeur in Aix-en-Provence.
- Cassis and the sea. The harbour, a boat trip to the calanques from the quayside, lunch facing Cap Canaille, then the drive back: see Cassis and the Calanques.
- An evening out. Dinner, a concert or a Festival d’Aix performance in July, then back to your hotel with no need to look for a car afterwards. For several cars, see our chauffeurs for your events.
We do not give journey times: around Marseille, traffic varies a great deal with the hour and the day, so the plan leaves some margin between stops.
Local rules worth knowing
Some constraints depend neither on your chauffeur nor on us, and are best known before the plan is settled.
- Aix-en-Provence. Much of the old town is a pedestrian zone closed off by bollards: vehicle access is restricted to badge holders and, in the morning, to deliveries, and parking is prohibited (City of Aix-en-Provence). Your chauffeur drops you off and picks you up at an agreed point on the edge.
- Marseille, near the Old Port. The Opéra district and the lower Canebière are pedestrian zones with automatic bollards, where parking is prohibited; during certain events, part of the Old Port quays is also closed to traffic (City of Marseille). Drop-off points are chosen accordingly.
- The Calanques and the hills. From 1 June to 30 September, access to the forested massifs of the Bouches-du-Rhône, the Calanques included, depends each day on the fire risk; the prefecture publishes the next day’s map at around 6 pm. A walk is therefore best confirmed the evening before.
As our terms and conditions provide, parking, tolls and charges for access to restricted areas are payable by you unless the quote states otherwise.
When the day takes to the sea or the air
A yacht outing, a helicopter flight to the Luberon: on request, we arrange these too. They are carried out by the chosen operator, under its own licence and its own responsibility; your chauffeur, a member of the Federation, handles the journeys on the ground. Work on such requests begins once a file has been opened, under our terms and conditions: see yacht, helicopter and private jet. All our services are set out on our Services page; for any question, visit our Contact page.