Taking a car to the South of France

[akeithj]

For the last two years we have driven to Marbella from the North East of England around 1700 miles and its a great road trip.The first time we split the journey over three days and I did all the driving as my wife does not like driving abroad. Left home around 05.00 am and got the Euro Tunnel around 11.00 and managed to board straight away, the journey only takes 30 minutes or so and the big advantage is the frequency of the trains.If you arrive early and there is space you can board an earlier train, beats hanging around.the first stop in France was just outside Le Mans, arrived there around 17.00. Day two to Burgos in Northern Spain and onto Marbella on day 3.Roughly 650 miles day 1 and 550 or so day two and three.

If you stick to the peage once in France it's possible to cover large distances very quickly and easily.

Last year we did the same trip but had a second overnight stay just outside Bordeaux, this year we are planning on reverting to two overnight stops.

I got an automated pass for the peage, saves having to stop at e pay booths and a lot easier than using currency.

The first year my wife was not looking forward to the trip but enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again.

In my opinion if you have e time, this is what having a nice car is all about.

 

[rosiendell123]

Travelling to France.

Hopefully this is the correct part of the forums but if not apologies.

Have always done the package type holiday in the past and thinking about something a little different (for us anyway) this year.

I quite fancy renting a villa somewhere in the South of France and taking the car. I think my preference would be to take a ferry or train to get to the SoF but I'm not discounting actually driving.

I have been looking at both of the options above and it seems that you have to go into Paris to get your car, which is taken on a separate train, to the SoF or a ferry from Plymouth to Santander in Spain then drive into France.

All opinions and recommendations very much welcomed as I am a complete novice at this.

Many thanks in anticipation

Dave

Hi Dave. Travelling to France is so easy, I see your in Devon, well at least your on the wright side of the country. Dover/ Calais is cheap as it is one of the most popular ports, going at off peak times can be really cheap. The roads in France are fantastic ok be it there are tolls but offsetting this again,st travelling A roads fuel wise I have found to be worth it. Like everything depends on how fast you want to get to SOF. You do NOT have to go into Paris, Witch part of the south are you going to, SE or SW as you can bypass Paris either side. I travel all over France on hols with the family not camping, find it so fantastic. You can stopover for a night in inexpensive family rooms. Now some rules, You must have valid car insurance, you will need to ask you insurer as to whether your insured to drive in another European country, You car must have a valid MOT, your car must be TAXED, you must have a HI VISE jacket for each person who is travelling with you, your headlights must have beam deflectors, if your reg plate does not have GB on it you must get a GB sticker for your boot, you must also have in the car at all times a alcohol breathalyser kit which must contain TWO units, this is law in France since July 2012. You must carry you car reg documents, your licence, and a copy of your insurance cert. Please do not let this put you off this standard practice throughout Europe. You also need to carry a replacement set of headlight and indicator bulbs. Now word of advise DO not by fuel on the motorways in France they are about 10 to 20 cents per liter dearer than supermarket garages, The one I use all the time is called SUPER U they are all over France like Tesco, average diesel is €1.35 per liter and €1.48 per liter for petrol. If you have the time by all means travel the A roads France is beautiful. Eating wise you will see little "pubs" or small restaurants with the words "FORMULA" or PLAT DE JOUR, Formula is normally three course meal in most cases no menu you eat what they have cooked that day I have yet to get a bad one, the plat de jour, or plate of the day can be one course from a menu. Expect to pay between 9 and 11 euro each person for a FORMULA and about 10 to 15 for the plat de jour. Remember August is holiday time for the French so the roads are far more busier then, Hope this is of help.
Enjoy it.
BON VOYAGE.
DEL.

 

[peter49]

We have travelled to Southern Spain several times. Plymouth to Santander is a great start to the trip and driving across Spain is an easy eight hour drive. On one ocassion, we took a ferry over to North Africa for a couple of days. Go on push the boat out!

 

[Niks]

Forget to mention but if you do want to avoid much of the tolls and want a bit of a scenic route, from Calais head towards Lille, into Belgium, Luxembourg, Saarbrucken, Strasburg, Basel, Lausanne, Geneva, Torino then Monaco (if thats where your going).

Motorways are pretty good and fuel prices are not too extortionate, but as mentioned before by someone, supermarket fuels can be cheaper.

This route works great for me because its always free flowing and you can just stay at 70/80 all day long, great for your fuel consumption. Cutting across France is where I hit string of lorries, campervans, tailbacks and lots of "slow down, go fast, slow down and go fast again's" . This killed my petrol and it actually takes a lot out of you because your concentrating so much more and at times can get stressful, hence your shattered upon arrival.

Only thing is you need to buy a motorway pass/sticker for 40 Euro's when you enter Switzerland.

 

[Dieselman]

Drive to Southampton, ferry to Ouistreham (Caen), go west of Paris via Le Mans, Tours, Vierzon, Clermont-Ferrand. Then you have lots of choices depending where in the south you're going.

Unless you're into lots of driving, you'll probably want to make an overnight stop somewhere.

That would be my choice for such a crossing, but driving to Dover is quicker.

I like using ferries as it gives a break after the first 3 hour drive, have a meal, then do the rest in one hit.
You can be on the beach on the Azur before you know it.

Driving to the South of France in one hit is easy, Denmark is a real challenge.

 

[gIzzE]

If you join the Swiss motorway from a quiet junction they don't make you buy a vignette.

I am off to Dijon next week, going to go to Ypres on the way, then to grab a bite and a few beers in Brugge, the next day we will go down to Luxembourg for lunch and then head down to Dijon, the plan was to avoid the toll road.
However, after lunch we will probably just want to get there and jump on it.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

We have a place near Frejus and drive down 2-3 times per year. When the kids were smaller we used to stop over but now do the run overnight in one hit (more time in the sun).

Things we've learned over the years:

* During holiday time, travel mid-week as the roads are quieter
* Be aware though that the majority of traffic overnight seems to be large trucks, but they do behave themselves quite well
* Don't be tempted to shift into hyperdrive - we now cruise between 70 and 80 - as the police are clamping down on speeding big time (especially during holiday time)
* Definitely get the tag from saneftolling.co.uk - you pay a returnable deposit, and €6 for the months you use the tag, but it saves so much time at the toll booths (day time peak travel has meant that we have saved over 2 hours compared to friends travelling down without one) plus it's always good to get one over the locals who smirk at you when they think you're in the wrong lane
* If stopping for lunch / dinner, try to avoid the local time for doing so. For example, if going during the day we stop for a late breakfast / early lunch at about 11:00. The French, as creatures of habit, will tend to dive in between 12:00 and 14:00. Upshot is that the restaurant is quieter, and then you gt out and enjoy a couple of hours of quiet road.


We're doing a swap with some friends who have a place near Perpignan this year - not explored around that part of the world very much so looking forward to it. Supposed to be a little quieter that the usual Cote d'Azur area, and the Med is warmer than the Atlantic - mileage-wise it works out about the same (just over 700 from Calais).

When you decide where you're going, drop a line to the local tourist office and they'll be happy to send you loads of stuff to help plan a great holiday.

Some great advice, thanks Mr E. Just signed up to Sanef!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Some great advice, thanks Mr E. Just signed up to Sanef!

The gizmo arrived next day. Very impressed so far.

 

[rf065]

The gizmo arrived next day. Very impressed so far.

I've been using mine for 3 years now, it saves a lot of time & faffing about at toll booths and is worth every penny.

Russ

 

[tonywashere]

Good advice above. Ditto about the toll dongle, some of them you can even drive through up to about 30kmh?? We've had a couple of times when they haven't been recognised and we have had to wave them out of the window or once even summon the attendant but much better then fiddling around with cards or cash.
Have driven all over France for the last 35+ years. Our main summer holiday for the last few years has been to take the Portsmouth-St Malo ferry overnight with a cabin and drive to somewhere on the Atlantic coast. We've covered most of it down to the Spanish border and if your kids like waves then some great fun to be had if you ignore the French lifeguards
We've driven down to St Trop in one go, Turin and back over three days a few weeks ago - but avoid the start of the French holidays otherwise huge traffic jams. Make sure your car is in good order before you go and hopefully you will have a great time.
Bon voyage!

 

[craig1912]

Driven to France numerous times and been to the south near Perpignan twice. Prefer the south than the west coast for summer holidays. We travelled with a 3/4 year old and just found somewhere to stay on route. One year we ended up staying just down the road from where we had booked as we did the journey in one day.

 

[mejermy]

Tremendous knowledge base on this forum and some great advice. One other point - trucks are not allowed on French autoroutes on Sundays unless on international journeys or hauling perishables/livestock. For this reason we usually run up or down on a Sunday. Even the French autoroutes can suffer the English problem of 2 lanes blocked by a truck on a slow crawling overtake.

If you don't use cruise control (and I know some who don't) get in the habit now.

Bon voyage, bon courage

 

[rf065]

Even the French autoroutes can suffer the English problem of 2 lanes blocked by a truck on a slow crawling overtake.

Although, I noticed in France & Spain on some long uphill sections there are signs telling lorries it is illegal to overtake, so they do have a solution for this problem that is sadly lacking in the UK.

Russ

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Excellent advice already, just one thought to add.

Setting of on holiday is always more pleasurable that going home so I allow an extra night for the return leg, usually somewhere we really like or somewhere new which helps keep the holiday spirit going for the long drive home.

Oh, after a couple of weeks of being tailgated by Frenchmen you might want to seek out a French registered car to bait when you get off the ferry/tunnel.

 

[BigSilverEstate]

Last summer, also with lots of helpful advice from this forum we drove to the Perpignan area, taking the Dover-Calais Ferry. We had a baby and a child under three and I did all the driving so we took two overnight stops on the way down, taking an Easterly route with stops at Reims and Valence, and one on the way back via the more direct route to the West of Paris, stooping at Bourges.

I loved having my own car with us and enough room to pack all the junk we needed for the kids. Some of the scenery on the way is just tremendous.




BUT if you have any thoughts if saving money by driving down, you need to be very cost conscious in your approach. We were not penny pinching as we wanted to enjoy our holiday, and consequently it was an expensive way to travel. Taking into account 4 refuels of about 70l for the 2000 miles driven in the week (cruise set to 85 most of the time), hotel rooms, decent evening meals at the stopovers, and the tolls which from memory came to around £80 each way, it starts to add up. I am sure we would have saved money by flying down to Perpignan or Girona and hiring a car for the week (but then we would have had to cope with the horrible budget airline experience and the nasty hire car).

 

[mejermy]

Oh, after a couple of weeks of being tailgated by Frenchmen

This is something which you will experience, but DO NOT react as you might in UK. The French tailgater is simply driving as all French do, i.e. in a convoy at around the speed limit; it is highly unlikely to be agressive/bullying as it would be in UK, where it might provoke a commensurate reaction. Stay cool and accept that's how they drive. Let them pass if it bothers you, but, providing you are at the speed limit, they will not be expecting this; they just want to continue in convoy.

 

[BigSilverEstate]

Accepted sign for 'out of my way' seems to be steaming up behind you in the outside lane with the left indicator on. Very annoying behaviour when you are going as fast as the car in front and the inside lane is occupied by a steady convoy of slow moving lorries.

 

[mejermy]

This is absolutely true, but available to you to use also, and I think much to be preferred to the rather aggressive option of headlight flashing.

 

[HotJambalaya]

Accepted sign for 'out of my way' seems to be steaming up behind you in the outside lane with the left indicator on. Very annoying behaviour when you are going as fast as the car in front and the inside lane is occupied by a steady convoy of slow moving lorries.

as an aside, a german friend told me that if you do this in germany now you can get a ticket as it comes under "agressive driving", in Italy its standard

Whenever that problem happens to me, ie no way to go faster, I drop lane, let them through, then come up behind them with my indicator on.

 

[asinrutee]

[QUOTEAccepted sign for 'out of my way' seems to be steaming up behind you in the outside lane with the left indicator on.][/QUOTE]

Not true, keeping your L/H indicator on while overtaking is very common all over Europe, and to be honest I think it's quite a good practice as you cane easily see who is overtaking.

Driving in France is a pleasure and much less stressful than in the UK