Taking a car to the South of France

[HotJambalaya]

oh and though I havent yet used it, I've heard Tyre is excellent to plan complex routes and then export them to a sat nav.

TyreToTravel - find, create and share routes

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Just for clarity, I was only joking about the Frenchy baiting.

French motorways are an absolute pleasure compared to ours, not just the fact that the traffic is lighter but as long as you adapt your driving style the discipline is way beyond UK standards.

Particularly enjoy the autoroute down the West side, Nantes to Niort for example, I might have made rapid progress down that way a few times - mainly between 12 and 2pm when the traffic police are thinner on the ground.

 

[MD5]

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;

And there was me, thinking they were admiring my SL!

 

[tode]

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.

You seem a little over-sensitive.

And you should be aware that the French highway code stipulates that the indicator should be used before overtaking, and kept on until the overtaking manoeuvre has been completed.

Which would explain why they do it.

 

[jonthetourist]

oh and though I havent yet used it, I've heard Tyre is excellent to plan complex routes and then export them to a sat nav.

TyreToTravel - find, create and share routes

Thanks for that mention. Just used it to tweak my routes through France and then downloaded each section to my Garmin. Very straightforward and free.

Jon

 

[rothbury]

Ive done both Ferries Portsmouth, Plymouth - Santander /Bilbao.

Hated both - ferry takes forever and a day ( 30 ish hours ) 2 nights. - I obviously knew this before hand - dont know what I actually expected.
Sailing through Bay of Biscay is horrible. mal de mare
Captive audience on boat means they charge what they like - although not bad, you have no choice and for 4 of you it wont be cheap.


However that is totally my opinion and ive heard of some people who love it.

Yes indeed really good though we do it going back only. 3pm from Santander book into cabin stroll around see a film great dinner then one night in cabin - get up have breakfast and before you know it the Isle of Wight comes into sight and dock at 2 pm. Very civilised . Not usually rough in summer.

 

[tonysmb]

Whereabouts in South of France are you going?

I do the trip 3 or 4 times a year from Plymouth-Roscoff if you are interested (700 miles each way).
PM me with more specific info. and I will send more detail if you are interested.

 

[IrishMercedes]

Myself & a friend drove from Dusseldorg, Germany to Cherbourg, France last November in a Mexican beetle. I really enjoyed it and the roads were excellent although the Belgium motorways were very poor. We did the drive in 13 hours which should have been a lot less as the bug was running a 1600 engine off a 1200 box (stupid I know).


We didn't have time to enjoy France but from the road it's a lovely country, the one thing to be aware is the cost of tolls in France. Fuel was cheaper on the Continent than in Ireland. The minute I get a W124 I'll be doing a road trip to Wolfsburg factory, I priced the tunnel a while back and thought it was reasonable value for the time required.