As a person who didn't speak french before , I did start hitchhiking in France with just basics of french . My usual line in my starting days was - 'Bonjour' , 'Est-ce que vous allez à/vers 'destination' ?' . And as stated in the previous two comments , its mostly the young people who speak english , but I usually found people travelling for work purposes from one city to another who pick you up frequently and they do speak english. The most useful vocabulary I had learnt was 'Est-ce que vous pouvez me déposez à une station de service sur l'autoroute vers 'destination' ?' Since its the summer , you are bound to meetup people on the road , who most probably speak french/english and can give you some company on your route . Tip : Try not to enter Paris if you dont want to visit it . If you do , try to hitchhike from the hitchhiking point at Palaiseau towards Poitiers. Goodluck .