Stressful tollbooth ing

Here is my problem. When you drive west to Provence, you have to take the highway , the A8 ..the ah-wheat. You could take back roads and although scenic, it would take forever ( hundreds or rotaries).. So, one takes the Ah-wheat. When you get off in Aix en Provence, you have to go through a pay booth. There are signs for auto pay ( people who have accounts) signs for credit cars and French credit cards , but no signs for euro. In Nice, there are signs for lanes that accept euro. I have problems every time with this, in and out of Provence.
So today...1st attempt...card won't work, I keep trying, I put on my emergency lights so no one pulls up behind me. I have to ring the bell for someone to help. A man comes out, tries my card and says no. I give him cash....
2nd attempt. I drive in, try the card again, ring the bell and we speak french...I do my best to understand. I put on my flashers again. I think he means go through and walk back and pay,  it the gate is not rising...slowly it dawns on me, back up and go to the next lane. I do that, luckily there was very little traffic and voila, it takes cash.
On the way home I took back roads trying to avoid the tolls. I did have to get onto the ah-wheat though which means,
Attempt #3 ...I pulled off to the side, got euro ready. I looked closely at my choice for lanes, there were about 10. I did not see any with euro indicators. I slowly pulled up before the lanes, looked again...then just had to go.
All the while, on the other side of the pay booths were customs officers. This is a frequent spot for them to stop people to search for contraband. Imagine, they are seeing me with my red license  plate, hesitant, stopping, backing out, afraid to commit to a lane. I could see them watching me.Finally, I just chose one and the same thing...credit card doesn't work, no cash. I buzzed and the woman walked over a few lanes and I paid her cash. I asked her where the cash lanes were and she said on the far right end,
So I get through the gate and the customs agent stops me,,,where do you live? Where were you? Did you buy anything? Why did you back up and change lanes. He was nice enough,
But, how will I conquer this problem? I don't want to be afraid to go to Provence. In Italy they have nice people in the booths that you can pay and say Arrevderci to.
Did you know that you only say Arrevderci to people that you will not see again?