I know this has ben covered in 2cvGB mag but I can't find it

So, what fuel do I put in the car whilst going through Francy, Germany, CZ, etc...

And does anybody know of a good site that tells you the current cost abroad, is it more or less?

Assuming you're talking about a 2CV or derivative then I find petrol works best.

Seriously though, they have the same petrol as us, unleaded in two flavours, and whatever name they give it I'm sure the octane numbers will be on the pump.

Agreed, I don't know much about it but I've never had a problem anywhere in Europe, it's all the same stuff, except it smells better in france than in the UK.

*ding*

Three nozzles at the pump.
One black.
One green with "95" written on it.
One green with "98" written on it.

Seriously, I tend to go for 95 in the UK but 98 in France. There's a much smaller price difference over there (couple of cents per litre) and I've found on several occasions that cars that run fine on 95 here can ping & run on badly on 95 there.

France also seems to have moved heavily towards E10 (10% Ethanol) for 95 this year. I don't _think_ it should be a problem (Our 95 is about 5%) but, given the small price difference to 98, it's just another "Why not...?"

I run mine on 98 when abroad too, for the same reasons as Adrian. Every car I've taken abroad always seems to go better for some reason when we are over there, even the 435 van was rocketing along on the way to Roachfort last year!

Unleaded 95 and 98 is fine on all A-models
Our Belgium 2cv friend totally hooked on 98 from TOTAL rang us, very upset that Total 98 will be taken off the market.
Don't worry about additives, it only makes the compaines involved richer.
The 2cv head valves and seats are hardened and can run unleaded 95 without problems.

There's two issues.

Valve seat recession - agreed, not a problem.
Octane - that CAN be a big problem.

Are you getting confused with one hit wonders of 1989?

If you refer to pinging, yes that is a problem but a well serviced engine does not have any problems running on octane 95 or lower.
Raiding the Australian outback, only 91 or lower is available and correctly serviced 2cvs can run on it even in very hot conditions. However badly serviced cars with pinging is asking for trouble

I have seen many blown pistons like this one, purely caused by lack of service. Additives does not reduce piniging, octane booster is needed but not a cheap option. Better is fixing the reason and not dealing with the symptom.

I'm really not sure I'd associate pinking/pinging/knock with the quality of servicing alone.

A 9.0:1 engine, when new in the UK, was recommended for 98 octane "Four Star" petrol. To run that on 95 requires the timing taking back a fair bit - and the optimum timing is different now on modern volatile unleadeds to what it was when new anyway. To run it on 91, the spark would have to be gently nudging the piston.

Even an 8.5:1 engine, set up to not pink on UK 95 unleaded, will pink - IME - badly on French 95.