Calais to Toulouse

Driving from Calais to Toulouse next week. Travelling with 2 small
children so using autoroutes. We have two full days for travel which
should be comfortable for approx 13 hours driving.

Route planners seem to advise going via(around) Paris. My question is -
would it be better to avoid Paris and go around it to the West? I could
go to Rouen, down to Chartres and then A10, and A20 south. THis would
involve short distances off autoroute - but I suspect this may be
quicker/easier than the peripherique around Paris. It will be August so
I suspect traffic in Paris lighter than usual.

Any suggestions?
--
Matthew Barnard

"Matthew Barnard" wrote in message
...
Driving from Calais to Toulouse next week. Travelling with 2 small
children so using autoroutes. We have two full days for travel which
should be comfortable for approx 13 hours driving.

Route planners seem to advise going via(around) Paris. My question is -
would it be better to avoid Paris and go around it to the West? I could
go to Rouen, down to Chartres and then A10, and A20 south. THis would
involve short distances off autoroute - but I suspect this may be
quicker/easier than the peripherique around Paris. It will be August so
I suspect traffic in Paris lighter than usual.

Any suggestions?

French N roads are frequently single carriageway, with very little chance to
overtake, so you get to travel a lot at the speed of the slowest traffic on
the road. I generally expect to at least double my travel time if I am using
an N road, rather than an Autoroute.

Colin Bignell

"Matthew Barnard" wrote in message
...
Driving from Calais to Toulouse next week. Travelling with 2 small
children so using autoroutes. We have two full days for travel which
should be comfortable for approx 13 hours driving.

Route planners seem to advise going via(around) Paris. My question is -
would it be better to avoid Paris and go around it to the West? I could
go to Rouen, down to Chartres and then A10, and A20 south. THis would
involve short distances off autoroute - but I suspect this may be
quicker/easier than the peripherique around Paris. It will be August so
I suspect traffic in Paris lighter than usual.

Any suggestions?

French N roads are frequently single carriageway, with very little chance to
overtake, so you get to travel a lot at the speed of the slowest traffic on
the road. I generally expect to at least double my travel time if I am using
an N road, rather than an Autoroute.

Colin Bignell

Matthew Barnard wrote in news:c5
:

Driving from Calais to Toulouse next week. Travelling with 2 small
children so using autoroutes. We have two full days for travel which
should be comfortable for approx 13 hours driving.

Route planners seem to advise going via(around) Paris. My question is -
would it be better to avoid Paris and go around it to the West? I could
go to Rouen, down to Chartres and then A10, and A20 south. THis would
involve short distances off autoroute - but I suspect this may be
quicker/easier than the peripherique around Paris. It will be August so
I suspect traffic in Paris lighter than usual.

Any suggestions?

Are you driving your own car from the UK? Then avoid rural roads at all
costs. Overtaking is hard enough on these roads, overtaking with your
passenger as a lookout can be frightening.Especially for the lookout ;-)

Matthew Barnard wrote in news:c5
:

Driving from Calais to Toulouse next week. Travelling with 2 small
children so using autoroutes. We have two full days for travel which
should be comfortable for approx 13 hours driving.

Route planners seem to advise going via(around) Paris. My question is -
would it be better to avoid Paris and go around it to the West? I could
go to Rouen, down to Chartres and then A10, and A20 south. THis would
involve short distances off autoroute - but I suspect this may be
quicker/easier than the peripherique around Paris. It will be August so
I suspect traffic in Paris lighter than usual.

Any suggestions?

Are you driving your own car from the UK? Then avoid rural roads at all
costs. Overtaking is hard enough on these roads, overtaking with your
passenger as a lookout can be frightening.Especially for the lookout ;-)

Thanks everyone for the info. We shall certainly travel via autoroutes.
We are travelling in our UK car - and we have driven extensively in
France. Sadly I can't sit in the back when overtaking because of 2
children!

The Michelin planner is interesting. When I plug in travel via Rouen it
gives me exactly the route I had anticipated. This involves 800km of
autoroute and 120km off autoroute. We will be travelling daytime on
Thursday and Friday. The Michelin site estimates the route via Paris as
7hours52 and the route avoiding Paris via Rouen as 8hours36. Not a great
deal in it - so it basically comes down to :

Do you all think travelling 120km off autoroute will be (almost
certainly) worse than travelling through Paris in the middle of the day?

Additionally (with 2 children) I am concerned not only about total time
but also ease of travel and stopping. Obviously the autoroutes are ideal
- but again I wonder if travelling 120km on RN154 will be any easier for
stops etc than the bit through Paris?

I still am not entirely decided....


--
Matthew Barnard

"Matthew Barnard" wrote
would it be better to avoid Paris and go around it to the West? I could
go to Rouen, down to Chartres and then A10, and A20 south.



Yep, I do it all the time (I drive an articulated lorry)

Rouen, Evereux, Dreux Chartres......

The missing section of autoroute is a mix of good single and dual
carriageway roads, it`s a far more enjoyable drive, you will save a fair bit
of money on tolls, and it takes no longer. That is the way I go.


Vince
--
Truck Driving In Russia- www.coventon.co.uk

"Matthew Barnard" wrote
would it be better to avoid Paris and go around it to the West? I could
go to Rouen, down to Chartres and then A10, and A20 south.



Yep, I do it all the time (I drive an articulated lorry)

Rouen, Evereux, Dreux Chartres......

The missing section of autoroute is a mix of good single and dual
carriageway roads, it`s a far more enjoyable drive, you will save a fair bit
of money on tolls, and it takes no longer. That is the way I go.


Vince
--
Truck Driving In Russia- www.coventon.co.uk

"Matthew Barnard" wrote
would it be better to avoid Paris and go around it to the West? I could
go to Rouen, down to Chartres and then A10, and A20 south.



Yep, I do it all the time (I drive an articulated lorry)

Rouen, Evereux, Dreux Chartres......

The missing section of autoroute is a mix of good single and dual
carriageway roads, it`s a far more enjoyable drive, you will save a fair bit
of money on tolls, and it takes no longer. That is the way I go.


Vince
--
Truck Driving In Russia- www.coventon.co.uk

I am probably not doing this correctly, but..........both routes are
total distance of 970 kms according to my route planner. The one via the
Paris Periphique takes 8 hours 24 and the route via Rouen is 9 hours 6
mins.
Can't understand why www.viamichelin.com gives different figures?


Sorry Nige - I should have clarified this. I quoted the Calais -
Montauban distances/times from Viamichelin as this where we actually get
off. I used Toulouse in the heading as it seemed a major destination and
was where we were originally planning to go. Your times are spot on
therefore - slightly further south than we are going.

Apologies for any confusion.
--
Matthew Barnard