Essential and non-essential things for a trip across France (you'd never guess ;-)

French hotel rooms don't have coffee makers as standard equipment, at least not in the lower price rooms I am staying in.  So if you're an early riser and don't want to wait for -7 am or 7:30 am or even 8 am on Sundays for breakfast to be served or if you want to have a cheaper and better breakfast in your own room, Go Get Yourself a Water Kettle and some Instant Coffee (which actually tastes darn good in this country ;-) !  Breakfast sometimes is included and sometimes costs between 6.50 and 15.00 Euros

This is France.  Ve only have good Vine. And to emphasize that ve don't use screw-tops on the bottles of our vine.  If you want to drink very good wine at very low prices, Go Get Yourself a Corkscrew!

A lot of hotels have telephones in the rooms but those can only be used for calls within France. Telephone cells, at least to the same level as in Canada or Germany, have gone the way of the Dodo (hint: extinct ;-). So if you want or have to call someone outside of France, Go Get Yourself a cell phone (portable as they are called here)! Skype will do as well, but your portable will allow you to do more than make a phone call:

A Smartphone will help a lot in preventing you from looking like a tourist. Google Maps is way more inconspicuous than folding and unfolding huge maps.  Since French cities and villages are not planned on a checker board pattern, but grew in time as diverging main roads, taking one wrong turn will lead you further and further from your intended direction without the possibility of just getting back on 'your road' after the next block.  For this, a detailed map, both of region and immediate city neighbourhood is VERY NICE TO HAVE. Go Get Yourself a Smartphone!