We were heading for Toulouse - the route we were given by friends who live there and return to UK regularly was Calais-Abbeville-Rouen-Evreux-Dreux-Chartres-Orleans. At Vierzon (I think) the autoroute splits and you can take the Toulouse road which then goes off to Bordeaux further down.
Rouen-Evreux-Dreux-Chartres is a little tiresome single track, but you keep moving at 50ish and I think it is ultimately quicker than in and out of Paris. Little more scenic round Chartres (or Rouen, once you get away from the horrible ring road!)
O
--
Career: (n) Job, profession.
(v) Downhill, rapidly, out of control.
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Rouen - Le Mans - Tours? If you don´t mind some Route Nationales.
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>>avoiding Paris>>
Actually, despite the horror stories one hears, I have never found the peripherique particularly onerous. Have been on worse, i.e. M25, north circular, south circular etc.
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If you aren't in a hurry, pass west of Paris using routes nationales. The driving is pleasanter and not ridiculously much slower. And you can stop for the night if you see a place you fancy.
If you're in a hurry you can do motorway all the way. As has been noted, the peripherique is not especially alarming to anyone who's done a bit of North Circular or M25.
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The Milau bridge is some spectacle. The natural landscape in the area is also stunning.
Apart from the lower traffic density the thing I notice most when driving in France is how much 'quiter' the roads are - the actual surface is much smoother and seems to create a lot less tyre roar. Most of our roads have a very coarse surface and are really noisy.
I just don't get on with French food and the lack of choice/variety!!!
Pat
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"I just don't get on with French food and the lack of choice/variety!!!"
What do you mean??? You see things that are hard to get in the UK, such as horse - lovely.
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>>such as horse - lovely.
And frogs' legs and snails, but never mind the exotica, what on earth could you mean? Even small towns will have Arab and Vietnamese restos if you don't like anything the locals eat (which will be plentiful and varied), and big towns will have Chinese and even Indian.
The white bread alone is worth going to France for. And they make all kinds of delicious salads. The choice is more or less endless.
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>>all kindsof delicious salads.
Seriously nutritious and fattening ones with cream, bacon, croutons and so on I mean, not just rabbit food.
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"Even small towns will have Arab and Vietnamese restos if you don't like anything the locals eat (which will be plentiful and varied), and big towns will have Chinese and even Indian".
I didn't see any in southern France last summer, and I could have murdered a Ruby!
I don't like chicken, duck etc so I found the choice in most restaurants (local/regional fare) quite limited, usually being almost raw beef!
But then that's just me, I suppopse.
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usually being almost raw beef! NUM NUM!
But then that's just me I suppose :o)
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Pat L, may I recommend you go to Ayia Napa in Cyprus. There are Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, Burgerking, KFC, McDonalds, English and even a few Greek restaurants.
If you fancy a drink you can get Guiness, John Smith's and all sorts of lager.
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And they drive on the left, and speak English.
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>>I just don't get on with French food and the lack of choice/variety!!!
Quite so - I also get fed up with Tony Blair's relentlessly plain speaking , no nonsense style of politics.
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Quick question, I am off to Lille in 2 weeks time, and was wondering whether or not there is any problem with petrol stations and british credit cards. Is petrol also cheaper in France still??
cheers
Smoke
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"Quick question, I am off to Lille in 2 weeks time, and was wondering whether or not there is any problem with petrol stations and british credit cards. Is petrol also cheaper in France still??
cheers
Smoke"
No problems if you pay with credit card at the kiosk or counter but "in general" they don't work in the automatic 24 hour pumps at supermarkets. Recent reports I have seen indicate that some do but don't rely on it.
Petrol I think is still a bit cheaper, diesel lot cheaper.
See this site which seems to give the price of fuel at every petrol station in France!
www.zagaz.com/index.php
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Phil
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Anyway they work in cash machines (sometimes) so you can pay with cash.
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Reply to Smoke - I didn´t have any problems with my (German) credit card.
BTW go to La Moule, rue de Bethune, for a proper feed.
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To my surprise (er - relief) my credit card worked in an 24 hour automatic Petrol station last month, it didn't two years ago. It has always worked in the carte bleu toll booths though.
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"I just don't get on with French food and the lack of choice/variety!!!"
Same with the cheeses - no variety - they all seem to be French.
Personally I could go to France and just live off the seafood - fantastic!
Route to Bordeaux? Depends if you are in a rush but how about (if you are) motorway all the way to Rouen, then "new" A28 to le Mans then Tours, then A10 all the way via Poitiers and Angouleme to Bordeaux?
See
tinyurl.com/2bmoov
(viamichelin route planner)
If not in a rush amble down via the N and D roads - as someone has said, the D roads can be very good indeed and you can stop off at any number of villages/towns for a wander/coffee/meal etc. Or a chateaux or two on the Loire/gardens at Valloires/Giverny etc Futuroscope at Poitiers or just lunch in the square near the station in Angouleme where we had a fantastic meal for 5 (yes five ) euros last year
Agree with poster above who says service stations (aires) are adifferent world to ours - good, cheap, fresh food at reasoable prices, picnic tables if you want, forest walks, bird sanctuaries, rugby museum, car museum, local craft/produce shops, exercise areas - all to be found at service stations.
Enjoy your trip
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Phil
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Quizman - idon't get me wrong, I'm not the typical Brit abroad by any means, but I simply find French food a bit boring and samey when I'm on holiday for 2-3 weeks..
And yes, I know Cyprus well, I was privileged enough to live there in the late 60s as a child before the island became so commerciailsed in terms of tourism. (dad was in the RAF)
Oh, and I don't drink John Smith's and only touch good lager. I'm a real ale man.
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Quizman - idon't get me wrong I'm not the typical Brit abroad by any means but I simply find French food a bit boring and samey when I'm on holiday for 2-3 weeks..
I lived there for 5 years and the totalitarianism of their cuisine got me down in the end. Excellent though it was I was so sick of foie gras, oysters and champagne I'd have murdered for a good portion of fish and chips or a proper British curry.
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Pat L, thank goodness I got you wrong. You sound just like me, I'm a real ale fan and if I drink lager I like the proper German stuff.
My wife used to live in Famagusta in the sixties. We went to the north, £10 insurance and fill in your passport details on a form, and parts of Famagusta were in a terrible state. Hotels which had been bombed left with holes in them and the cathederal with no roof, it was a proper mess. However we drove north up the coast, on quite good roads, to a little fishing village. We eat freshly caught sea bream which was delicious and drank a little Efes, not too much because some of the driving is a bit hairy! The meal was £5 much cheaper than in the south.
Just to get back to the subject, I love driving in France. The roads are fantastic, I think the French drivers are in general better than the Brits, wherever you go the scenery is awsome, except Calais. One tip I would give is watch what you are doing on Sunday afternoons, many drivers seem to be the worse for drink after their lunch.
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>>avoiding Paris>> Actually despite the horror stories one hears I have never found the peripherique particularly onerous. Have been on worse i.e. M25 north circular south circular etc.
Yup, absolute doddle, those froggies dont know what real cut and thrust motoring is like. Mind sat nav helps so you know which lanes to use when
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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>>>>>> absolute doddle
Try central Paris on a Friday afternoon after work then come back and tell us about it.
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Tick - Last December, -
Next?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Tick - Last December, - still got the scrapes on the bumper to prove it
Next?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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- still got the scrapes on the bumper to prove it
>>
Snigger.
Sure it was only the bumper? Come on, you can tell us.
It's what the rubbing strip's for, if you've got one...
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It was white, it was small, it was French and we both wanted the same piece of road.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Doddle and scrapes on the bumper don't go together in my mind.
Did you try Porte Maillot? I used to drive round it on an almost daily basis to get to my house from work. What you have is about 20 cars abreast with no marked lanes whatsoever and exits/entrances every 50 mtrs or so. It covers an area about as big a 2 football pitches as well. Wacky races doesn't even begin to describe it. I used to use a battered old 911 with the theory that speed would allow me to get ahead of trouble. Problem is the French are cheats and often wouldn't wait for the light to go green so that theory went out of the window. Then came the Landcruiser complete with massive old school bull bars. The best thing about Paris is that driving is a contact sport and I lost count of the amount of times I hit people/they hit me without anything more than an annoyed looking shrug of the shoulders from them (I of course had a beaming smile on my face as I nudged their clio's out of the way).
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Agree with Oldhand. I doubt that the litle old ladies in their Renault Clios can learn much from Alonso, Schu, et al when it comes to getting off the line and carving through traffic. I quickly found that they were the ones that I had to watch out for in Paris.
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And now back to motoring discussion please. DD.
::EDIT:: Seeing as this suggestion fell on deaf ears and some of you carried on regardless, I've now taken the scissors to the thread - DD.
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Ok! Nice to know about the Millau bridge as Im off there next week. Quick question, my car is more than 3 years old, so do I have to take my MOT certificate with the v5/insurance etc..?
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MOT certificate
I don't bother
v5/insurance etc..?
Yes definitely. It's proof of ownership which the Gendarmes sometimes want.
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Thanks for that. I always take the other stuff anyway, but current car is more than 3 years old.
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Quick question my car is more than 3 years old so do I have to take my MOT certificate with the v5/insurance etc..?
Get one of those clear A4 folders and pop in your V5/insurance. You may as well add the MOT Murphy's Law says that if you don't take it, you'll need it.
Also, photocopy all docs and email to yourself at one of those online email accounts.
If you do misplace them you still have the proof which you can pretty easily get access to via internet cafe, hotel lobby etc...
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>Also, photocopy all docs and email to yourself at one of those online email accounts.
>If you do misplace them you still have the proof which you can pretty easily get access to via >internet cafe, hotel lobby etc...
Hey thats a cracking idea.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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SNIP - this and other non motoring discussion that followed removed - DD
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On honeymoon in France 5yrs ago, I had a puncture in a Laguna with those special tyre pressure info valves. I took it into the Ranault garage in Lyon to have it repaired. They refused as I did not have the log book with me. I had to get my daughter to fax it to the garage before they would repair it.
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I thought that I'd to carry the original V5 in France.
I'd rather carry a copy if that is indeed legal nowadays.
My car insurance certificate is in English only. I asked the broker to get me one with the multilingual statement that it was what I claimed - no luck and blank expressions. No green card available nowadays either- insurance claimed to be as valid in Europe as in UK. I was surprised at that as well but it was a definite answer.
Fingers crossed.;>)
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suggest you hide your v5 etc in the car maybe behind the jack in a rear side panel or something,this way you will have them availabuble at all times unles your car how you say combustables ke
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Isn't proof that you own the car (or that you have the owner's permission to use it) a pre-requisite for driving in France? It's one of the things the Gendarmerie will expect you to produce if you're stopped. When I had company cars, I used to have to get a Vehicle On Hire document from the lease company; now it's my own, I take the V5.
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