These terms govern every chauffeur-driven journey sold by Ilan CHALEF EI, trading as Explore Riviera. The fare confirmed when you book is fixed, and it includes tolls, parking and fuel. Passenger transport is excluded from the French distance-selling rules by article L221-2, 9° of the code de la consommation, so there is no fourteen-day cooling-off period, but cancellation is free up to 12 hours before a transfer and 24 hours before an hourly hire.
1. Purpose and scope
These terms set out the rights and obligations of both parties whenever you book a chauffeur-driven journey with Explore Riviera.
They apply to every booking, however it is made: through the booking flow on this site, by telephone, on WhatsApp or by email. Booking means accepting them. The acceptance box in the booking flow is never pre-ticked; you tick it yourself.
The version that applies is the one online on the day you book. The update date appears at the top of this page. A later change to these terms does not affect a booking already confirmed.
If you book for someone else, you are responsible for the passengers’ compliance with these terms.
2. Who you are contracting with
Ilan CHALEF EI, sole trader, 20 avenue Montclar, 06100 Nice, France. Registration 833 263 148 R.C.S. Nice. Business identifier (SIREN) 833 263 148. EU VAT number FR31833263148. Activity code 49.32Z.
Telephone and WhatsApp: +33 6 42 06 14 47. Email: contact@exploreriviera.com.
The business is entered on the national register of VTC operators held by the French transport ministry, under article L3122-3 of the code des transports. Full details are on the Legal notice page.
3. What we sell
Two services are sold at a displayed price.
Airport and point-to-point transfers. One pick-up, one drop-off, one fixed fare. Any journey time we quote is an estimate based on normal traffic. It is not a contractual commitment.
Hourly hire. A car and chauffeur reserved for you for a chosen period, four hours minimum, in one-hour steps. A 50 km radius around the pick-up point is included. Beyond that radius the journey is quoted first.
Three vehicle classes are available: the premium sedan, up to 3 passengers and 2 large cases; the Mercedes V-Class van, up to 7 passengers and 6 large cases; the exceptional vehicle, on quotation only.
The car assigned is one of the class you booked. The exact model is not guaranteed. If we assign a higher class, you pay no more.
Some requests cannot be priced automatically: oversized luggage, more than seven passengers, an animal other than a small animal in a carrier or a guide dog, an exceptional vehicle, multiple stops. These are quoted.
We take requests 24 hours a day, every day of the week, and the quotation reaches you within one hour. No time of day is carved out of that undertaking: there are no “working hours” narrower than the availability advertised on this site.
4. Booking and when the contract is formed
What is actually live, as at the update date shown at the top of this page. Online payment is not open, and no automatic email is sent. The booking flow shows you the fare, the vehicle and the options, then puts the summary of your request on screen; you send it to us on WhatsApp or by telephone, and we confirm in writing at the fare shown. That written confirmation is what forms the contract, whichever channel it reaches you by. The rest of this section, together with sections 7, 8 and 9, describes how things will work once online payment opens. This page will be updated before it does.
Online booking runs in three steps: route and fare, vehicle and options, your details and payment.
Before you validate, a summary restates the essential features of the journey and the total price payable. The validation button reads “Commande avec obligation de paiement”, the wording French law requires. Both the summary and that wording are required by article L221-14 of the code de la consommation.
The contract is formed when you receive our written confirmation. Once automatic sending is live, it will come from reservation@send.exploreriviera.com; today it reaches you on WhatsApp or from contact@exploreriviera.com. Your replies go to contact@exploreriviera.com, which is the address to use for anything concerning your booking.
A booking taken by telephone, WhatsApp or email is formed the same way: it exists only once we have confirmed it in writing, restating the route, the date, the time, the vehicle class and the fare.
Until that confirmation reaches you, no journey is owed and no money stays with us. If we cannot meet a request, everything you have paid is refunded in full within fourteen days at most.
5. How far ahead you can book
Six hours or more before pick-up. Online booking is open. Confirmation is immediate.
Between six and three hours before pick-up. The booking is recorded but confirmation is not automatic: we check that a chauffeur is available and confirm on WhatsApp within fifteen minutes. The contract is formed only at that confirmation. If no chauffeur is available, everything you have paid is refunded in full.
Less than three hours before pick-up. Online booking is closed. These requests are handled by telephone or WhatsApp.
All times are Paris time, Europe/Paris.
6. Fares, VAT and what is included
6.1 A fixed fare, shown before you book
Fares are in euros and include all taxes. You see the fare before you give us a single contact detail.
The fare confirmed when you book is fixed. It does not move on the day, except in the three cases listed exhaustively in 6.5.
The minimum fare is 50 euros for a sedan and 60 euros for a van.
Hourly hire is 70 euros per hour for a sedan and 90 euros per hour for a van, four hours minimum.
6.2 When the fare is not yet fixed
Above 400 euros or 250 kilometres, the figure shown is an estimate, flagged as “fare to be confirmed”. Online payment is replaced by a quotation request, which we answer within one hour. The fare becomes fixed only on our written confirmation.
The same applies to destinations whose flat fare has not yet been validated: the price is shown as a “from” figure and confirmed within one hour.
6.3 Value added tax
Passenger transport falls under the reduced 10 % rate, under article 279, b quater of the French code général des impôts.
A passenger transport service is taxable in France only for the distance travelled in France, under article 259 A, 4° of the same code. For a journey to Italy or to Switzerland, the applicable wording is therefore “Prices include VAT as applicable to the route”, not “VAT 10 %”.
Monaco sits inside the French VAT territory. French legislation is brought into force there by sovereign ordinance, and the Franco-Monegasque tax convention of 18 May 1963, as supplemented by its amendment of 26 May 2003, makes the two countries a single territory for this tax. A journey between France and Monaco is therefore not an international journey in tax terms: it is taxable in France on the whole of its price, and the 10 % rate applies to all of it. A Monaco page carries the 10 % wording, exactly like any domestic journey.
Your fare stays fixed and tax-inclusive: this rule changes how the fare is split for tax purposes, not the amount you pay.
6.4 What the fare includes
- Tolls, parking and fuel
- Baby seats, child seats and booster seats, as many as needed
- Water and refreshments on board
- Wi-Fi and chargers
- Meet and greet with a name sign
- Flight tracking, with your pick-up time adjusted automatically
- One hour of airport waiting, counted from actual landing
- Thirty minutes of waiting at a station
- One short stop along the route
A night supplement of 15 euros applies to any pick-up between 23:00 and 07:00 Paris time. It is added last, after rounding, and appears in the summary before you pay. There is no public holiday supplement.
A return journey is charged as twice a one-way fare, with no discount. The night supplement is assessed separately on each leg.
6.5 The only three possible extras
- Waiting beyond the included time, under section 14: 25 euros per thirty minutes started for a sedan, 35 euros for a van.
- A stop, a detour or a route change requested on the day, beyond the one short stop included. Any extra is quoted to you and accepted by you before it is applied.
- Overrunning a booked hourly hire, charged at the hourly rate of the class booked, per hour started.
Nothing else is charged. In particular, traffic, a longer route of our own choosing and a delayed flight never change the fare.
7. Payment
What is actually live, as at the update date shown at the top of this page. Online payment is not open. No card payment is taken on this site, no card is saved on it, and no card data is collected by it. The fare is settled by whatever means we agree with you in the written confirmation. The rest of this section describes how payment will work once it opens, and this page will be updated first.
Payment is by card, through our provider Stripe. At no point do we have access to your full card number.
Two options are offered, on equal footing.
Pay now. The journey is paid in full when you book. Confirmation is immediate.
Save my card, pay after the journey. Nothing is charged when you book. Your card is saved with strong authentication, and the charge is taken after the journey, under section 8.
Money paid when booking is payment of the price of the service. It is not a deposit in the sense of arrhes under article L214-1 of the code de la consommation, whose application the parties expressly exclude, and it is not an instalment on a continuing contract.
Late payment carries interest at the French statutory rate, after a formal demand left unanswered for eight days.
8. Card-on-file mandate
What is actually live, as at the update date shown at the top of this page. Saving a card is not open. No mandate is therefore taken, no card is held, and no charge can be made against a saved card. This section takes effect when the option opens, and this page will be updated first.
If you choose to save your card instead of paying immediately, you tick a box in the booking flow. That box is not pre-ticked, and it reads:
I authorise Explore Riviera to charge the saved card for the fare, for late-cancellation fees and in the event of a no-show.
The mandate covers three cases, and only three:
- the fare, charged after the journey;
- late-cancellation fees under section 12;
- the no-show retention under section 14.4.
No other charge may be taken on that card. The mandate ends when nothing further is owed on the booking concerned. You may revoke it at any time for the future by writing to contact@exploreriviera.com; revoking it does not undo a charge already authorised for a journey already carried out or a cancellation that has already occurred.
Every charge is notified to you by email, with its amount and its reason.
A charge taken while you are not present may be declined by your bank for lack of strong authentication at that moment. If that happens, we send you a secure payment link for the amount due. A declined charge is neither a waiver of the debt nor a dispute about it.
9. Your receipt
French order no. 83-50/A of 3 October 1983 on the display of service prices makes a receipt compulsory as soon as the price of the service reaches 25 euros. That threshold comes from the order itself; its article 3 sets out what the receipt must carry:
- the date it was drawn up, that is, the date the receipt was issued;
- our name and address, our SIREN and our EU VAT number;
- your name, unless you object;
- the date and place the service was carried out;
- an itemised breakdown, by quantity and price, of each service supplied, the price excluding VAT, the VAT amount and the total including VAT;
- a sequential number derived from your booking reference.
Below 25 euros a receipt is optional, but we give you one if you ask.
What is actually live, as at the update date shown at the top of this page. Automatic issuing of the receipt is not connected. We send it from contact@exploreriviera.com, or hand it over on request. Once automatic sending is live, the confirmation email will serve as your receipt and will come from reservation@send.exploreriviera.com.
We keep a duplicate. A further copy is sent on request.
10. No cooling-off period
Contracts for passenger transport services are excluded from the French rules on distance and off-premises contracts by article L221-2, 9° of the code de la consommation.
You therefore have no fourteen-day right of withdrawal on an Explore Riviera booking. This is not a term we chose: it follows directly from a statutory exclusion attached to the nature of the service.
That same point 9° expressly preserves article L221-14. Its requirements still apply, and you meet them in the booking flow: the summary of essential features and total price appears immediately before validation, and the validation button reads “Commande avec obligation de paiement”.
Having no cooling-off period does not stop you cancelling. The cancellation terms in section 12 are contractual and more generous to you than the general law.
11. Changing a booking
Send change requests to contact@exploreriviera.com or on WhatsApp, quoting your booking reference.
A change of time, address or vehicle class is accepted subject to availability. It is free when requested within the free-cancellation window in section 12 and it does not change the fare.
If the change raises the fare, the difference is quoted to you and accepted by you before it is applied. If it lowers the fare, the difference is refunded.
A change requested outside the free-cancellation window and refused by us for lack of availability is treated as a cancellation, under section 12.
12. Cancellation by you
Cancel by email to contact@exploreriviera.com or on WhatsApp. Cancellation takes effect when your message reaches us. Keep the acknowledgement we send you.
Transfer. Free up to 12 hours before the pick-up time.
Hourly hire. Free up to 24 hours before the start time.
Outside those windows. We retain 50 % of the fare. The balance is refunded within fourteen days.
No-show. We retain the fare on the conditions and the definition in section 14.4, and within the overall cap set out below.
Force majeure. Nothing is retained. Everything you have paid is refunded within fourteen days. Section 21 sets out what force majeure covers.
Overall cap on any retention. Whichever clause provides for it — this section, section 14.4, section 17 or section 18 — a retention can never exceed the whole of the fare up to 400 euros, then 50 % of the part of the fare above 400 euros alone. The cap applies article R212-2, 3° of the code de la consommation, which presumes abusive any clause imposing on a consumer in breach an indemnity of a manifestly disproportionate amount.
Burden of proof. Proving the facts a retention rests on is our job, not yours. The evidence we rely on — the chauffeur’s arrival time, the record of call attempts, the reason for a refusal or an interruption — is given to you on request. If we cannot produce it, no retention is due and everything you have paid is refunded.
A journey cut short. Where a journey has started and ends before the drop-off, the retention is pro-rated: only the part of the fare matching the distance already covered stays due, plus any evidenced travel costs. The balance is refunded within fourteen days.
These retentions reflect a car and a chauffeur held for a slot that can no longer be resold, and travel costs already incurred. They are not cumulative with any other compensation.
13. Cancellation by us
We may cancel a booking for a legitimate reason: the car is unavailable, the chauffeur is prevented, or a circumstance makes the journey impossible or unsafe.
If that happens we tell you as soon as we can, and we offer you either an equivalent replacement journey at our cost, or a full refund within fourteen days.
If the cancellation is our fault and you do not accept the replacement journey, you also receive compensation equal to the amount we would have retained had you cancelled at the same moment. That reciprocity is deliberate: a retention in our favour with no equivalent in yours would be one-sided.
No compensation is due where the cancellation results from force majeure under section 21, or from a breach on your side.
14. Waiting time, delays and no-shows
14.1 Waiting time included
At an airport, one hour of waiting is included, counted from actual landing rather than the scheduled time. At a station, thirty minutes are included. At any other address, fifteen minutes are included from the agreed time.
14.2 A delayed flight or train
Give us your flight or train number when you book. We track the flight and move the pick-up time accordingly. An airline delay is never charged and never triggers an extra.
Without a flight number we cannot track anything: a delay is then treated as ordinary waiting, under 14.3.
14.3 Waiting beyond the included time
Beyond the included time, waiting is charged at 25 euros per thirty minutes started for a sedan and 35 euros for a van. The chauffeur tells you before the meter on waiting starts.
14.4 No-show
A no-show occurs only where all three of the following are true:
- you are not at the pick-up point when the included waiting time ends;
- you cannot be reached on the telephone number given when booking, after at least three call attempts by the chauffeur spread across that waiting time;
- you sent us no cancellation before the pick-up time.
We then retain the fare within the overall cap set in section 12: all of it up to 400 euros, then 50 % of the part above 400 euros.
Proving those three conditions is our job, on the terms set in section 12. If any one of them is not met, nothing is retained and everything you have paid is refunded within fourteen days.
14.5 If the chauffeur is late
If the chauffeur is more than thirty minutes late for a reason attributable to us, you may cancel free of charge and be refunded in full within fourteen days. A delay caused by an outside event falls under section 20.
15. Passengers and child seats
Passenger numbers cannot exceed the class booked: three in a sedan, seven in a van. A child of any age counts as a passenger.
Seat belts are compulsory for all passengers under French road traffic law.
Children travel in a restraint suited to their height and weight. Baby seats, child seats and boosters are provided at no extra cost: tell us the children’s ages and the type of restraint needed when you book. Without that information we cannot guarantee the right restraint is on board, and the chauffeur may have to refuse to carry the child.
16. Luggage
Capacity is 2 large cases in a sedan and 6 large cases in a van, with cabin bags and hand luggage counted within reason.
Declare the number of bags when you book. Oversized items, in particular skis, golf bags, musical instruments and professional equipment, are quoted first: without that agreement, carriage is not guaranteed.
If the luggage presented exceeds what was declared, we look for a solution first, in particular a second car where one is available, charged as an extra with your express agreement. Failing that, the chauffeur may refuse the excess. The fare remains payable, within the overall cap set in section 12.
Boot versus cabin. Bags loaded into the boot or the luggage compartment pass into our care: the chauffeur handles them, stows them and closes the boot. We answer for them throughout the journey, on the terms of section 20. Bags you keep with you in the cabin, within reach, stay in your care: we do not handle them and cannot see what is in them.
Nothing in these terms removes or reduces your right to compensation where we fail to meet an obligation: article R212-1, 6° of the code de la consommation treats any such clause as unfair, with no argument to the contrary admitted.
We do not carry cash, valuables, or dangerous, unlawful or perishable goods. Tell the chauffeur about anything fragile or valuable before it is loaded, so that it can be stowed accordingly.
Items left behind are kept for thirty days and returned on proof of identity. Return postage is at your cost.
17. Animals
Guide dogs and assistance dogs are accepted unconditionally and at no extra cost. Article 88 of French law no. 87-588 of 30 July 1987 grants them access to transport and prohibits any additional charge on that basis.
Dogs still in training. The same right of access covers a guide or assistance dog still being trained, for the whole of its training, when it travels with its trainer or its puppy-walking host family. That provision says so expressly, and we apply it in the same terms: access as of right, no supplement.
What we may ask for. The only proof that provision allows for is the carte mobilité inclusion bearing both the “invalidité” and the “priorité” endorsements. We ask for nothing else, and we never ask for a medical reason. For a dog in training no card is needed: it is being a trainer or a host family that opens access.
What a refusal would cost us. Refusing access is not a mere breach of contract. It carries two distinct and cumulative consequences: a third-class fine, under article R241-22 of the code de l’action sociale et des familles, for barring these dogs; and prosecution for disability discrimination, articles 225-1 and 225-2 of the code pénal punishing refusal to supply a service, which is a criminal offence carrying three years’ imprisonment and a forty-five thousand euro fine.
A small animal carried in a closed carrier is accepted at no extra cost. Tell us when you book.
Any other animal is quoted first and requires the chauffeur’s prior agreement. An undeclared animal may be refused at pick-up, and the fare then remains payable, within the overall cap set in section 12 and subject to the proof we have to produce.
18. Conduct on board
Smoking and vaping are not allowed on board. Alcohol and drugs are not allowed in the car.
The chauffeur may refuse a pick-up or end a journey where safety requires it: a passenger whose condition presents a danger, threatening, abusive or discriminatory behaviour, more passengers than the class allows, refusal to wear a seat belt, or a prohibited item.
In those cases the fare remains payable, within the overall cap set in section 12. If the journey has already started, the amount due is pro-rated over the distance covered, on the terms of that same section. Proving the reason for the refusal or the interruption is our job. Damage to or soiling of the car is your responsibility, on production of a cleaning or repair invoice.
The route. Choosing the route is for the chauffeur, on objective grounds of safety, traffic and road law, and within your instructions. That choice changes neither the agreed fare nor the agreed drop-off point.
The drop-off point. The drop-off point is an essential feature of what you bought, and it cannot be changed one-sidedly. Where a drop-off point turns out to be inaccessible, unlawful or incompatible with the size of the car — some lanes on Cap-Ferrat and the centre of Saint-Paul-de-Vence are everyday examples — the chauffeur tells you, offers the nearest accessible point and obtains your agreement. If you do not agree, you cancel free of charge: nothing is retained and everything you have paid is refunded within fourteen days.
19. What we need from you
You undertake to give accurate information: full addresses, date, time, number of passengers and bags, flight or train number, and a telephone number you will answer on the day.
Inaccurate or incomplete information can make the journey impossible or change the fare. A wrong address that materially lengthens the route, more passengers than declared, or an unreachable telephone number are not attributable to us.
You undertake to be at the pick-up point at the agreed time, and to tell us without delay if you cannot be.
20. Liability
We owe passengers a duty of safety throughout the journey.
Our contractual liability applies where we fail to meet our obligations, under article 1231-1 of the French code civil, and it covers the whole of the resulting loss. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes it.
It does not apply where the loss results from a cause not attributable to us: an unforeseeable traffic event, a road closure, weather, the act of a third party, an airline or rail delay, inaccurate information from you, or force majeure under section 21.
Express reservation: personal injury in a road traffic accident. The paragraph above does not reach it and can never be raised against it. Compensation for the victims of a road traffic accident involving a motor vehicle is governed by French law no. 85-677 of 5 July 1985:
- its article 1 applies that regime to victims “even where they are carried under a contract”, which is precisely your position on board our cars;
- its article 2 bars the driver and the keeper of the vehicle from raising force majeure or the act of a third party against victims, drivers included;
- its article 3 provides that victims other than drivers are compensated for injury to the person without their own fault being raised against them, unless that fault was the sole cause of the accident, and it protects still more strongly those under sixteen, those over seventy and those with a permanent incapacity or disability of at least eighty per cent.
So nothing in these terms — not the unforeseeable traffic event, not the act of a third party, not force majeure under section 21 — stands between you and compensation for personal injury after a road traffic accident. A clause claiming otherwise would be void as of right, and we would rather write that down than leave it standing.
We recommend leaving a sufficient margin between drop-off and check-in for a flight or train. Any journey time we quote is an estimate.
21. Force majeure
Force majeure means an event beyond the control of the parties, which could not reasonably have been foreseen when the contract was made and whose effects cannot be avoided by appropriate measures, within the meaning of article 1218 of the code civil.
It includes a natural disaster, weather making driving impossible, a road blockade, a general transport strike, an administrative closure, a public health emergency or a travel ban.
Where force majeure applies, performance is suspended. If the event makes the journey permanently impossible, the contract is terminated, nothing is retained and everything paid is refunded within fourteen days.
Force majeure bears on performance of the contract and nothing else. It can never be raised against the victim of a road traffic accident: article 2 of law no. 85-677 of 5 July 1985 forbids it, and the express reservation in section 20 applies in all circumstances.
22. Insurance
Passengers are covered throughout the journey.
The professional liability insurer’s contact details and the geographical scope of the cover are supplied on written request to contact@exploreriviera.com.
The policy number is not published on this site. It is supplied on written request, and to anyone with a claim to make.
23. Complaints
Send complaints to contact@exploreriviera.com, or by post to Ilan CHALEF EI, 20 avenue Montclar, 06100 Nice, France.
Give your booking reference, the date of the journey and exactly what you are complaining about. We acknowledge within two working days and answer on the substance within five working days.
A prior written complaint is a necessary step before the mediation described in section 24.
24. Consumer mediation
If you are a consumer and your written complaint has not been resolved, you may refer the matter free of charge to a consumer mediator. That right is the one given by article L612-1 of the code de la consommation. Article L616-1 of the same code requires us to give you the details of the mediator we are signed up to, and article R616-1 requires those details to appear both on the site and in these terms.
The competent mediator’s details are supplied on written request to contact@exploreriviera.com.
Referring the matter to the mediator suspends limitation periods. It does not stop you bringing the matter before the competent court, under section 27.
25. Personal data
The data you give us to book is used to perform the contract, to meet our accounting and tax obligations, and to keep the site secure.
The controller, the purposes, the legal bases, the recipients, transfers outside the European Union, retention periods and your rights are all set out on the Privacy page.
26. General provisions
If a term here is held void, deemed unwritten or unenforceable, the remaining terms keep their full effect.
Not raising a breach at a given moment is not a waiver of the right to raise it later.
These terms, the booking confirmation and the summary you validated before paying form the entire agreement between the parties.
The parties agree that the booking confirmation, email exchanges and WhatsApp messages are evidence of what each of them undertook. That agreement on evidence runs both ways: it binds us exactly as it binds you, and you may rely on it against us. It rules out no other form of evidence the law admits, and either party may obtain a full copy from the other.
27. Governing law and courts
These terms are governed by French law.
If you are a consumer resident in another European Union member state, that choice does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory rules of your country of residence.
In a dispute with a consumer, the consumer may choose either a court with territorial jurisdiction under the French code of civil procedure, or the court for the place where he lived when the contract was made or when the harmful event occurred, under article R631-3 of the code de la consommation. Nothing in these terms restricts that choice.
In a dispute with a business client, the commercial court of Nice has sole jurisdiction.
The other legal pages