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Drivers in France waste two and a half months of their lives searching for a parking space as a survey showed the average driver spends 30 minutes a week driving around.

That means a day a year is wasted driving and drivers have to head off earlier to their destination to allow extra time – and especially at airports.

Unsurprisingly, 77% of drivers also see it as a complete waste of time and 30% say that they spend much more than 30 minutes, often up to an hour.

The overwhelming majority, 94%, told the survey – by Harris Interactive for Ector airport parking voiturier service – that airport car park prices were too high and that car parks were too far from the terminal buildings.

From the start of next year the fine for illegal parking will rise from the France-wide €17 – with towns and cities allowed to impose their own fines. That means €60 in Lyon, €50 in Paris, €35 in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d'Armor, €33 in Montpellier, €30 in Béziers, Le Mans and Toulouse, €25 in Perpignan and Puy-en-Velay.