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Hi to all and Happy New Year

thought i would start to do some planning of our French Holiday to the South and was wondering if anyone can advise me on stop overs on route, looking to arrive in france at about Midday latest, travel for between 5 and 7 hours (200-300 miles) and then overnight stop, our route will take us from Calais skirting paris by Motorway before hitting the route to the south via the Milau Bridge

any help would be great,

thanks

David, Angela, Luke and Caitlin  

Quote: Originally posted by alan29 on 06/1/2008

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This place does stop-overs and looks OK. But you would have to do a bit of a sharp right-turn to get to Millau.

Alan

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I would look for a Formule 1 (or similar) at Clermont Ferrand.

You would probably need 2 rooms as they are 3 person rooms but even at that you are only looking at around 30 EUR per room/night and it saves the hassle of setting up for one night.

Rod

David

We have done this route several times now and always sleep overnight in an Aire, thus increasing flexibility in your journey. Now I know that this is frowned upon in some quarters due to security but a hell of a lot of Brits and Europeans do it so ............. !!

Two just south of the bridge are Le Larzac and then Le Caylar both well off the road and allow a bit of peace and quiet.

Trevor

The site at issorie is a good stop over when we were there last year it was full of Brits stoping just for 1 night supermarket within a mile.  Site name camping municipal du mas even got the prices for this year from them rangeing from 14euro to 20 euros.

Sennen

We usually go the other side of Paris - around the E104 (Francilienne), then Evry, Nemours, Briare, Nevers, Moulins, Grannat, Clermont Ferrand - nice route, not all autoroute, but no hold-ups anywhere, a lot can be done toll-free, and good overnight sites all the way from Gien south.

Municipal at Gien is good, Bois de Bardelet is good for overnight stops outside peak season, Municipal at Coullons is lovely and very cheap, site at Nevers, mentioned above, Chatel Neuvre,  municipal at St Pourcain,  Issoire, La Grange Fort, we've stayed on them all and all are fine for an overnight stop. 

There's a good website with lists of all sites within 15 kilometres of the major routes through France - http://users.pandora.be/leo.huybrechts/camp1.htm - you should be able to find something whichever route you choose.

Hi Huw - you frightened me at first, until I realised you're not towing!!!  We have actually done twice 43mph with the van on the back, without realising on one occasion - but to average that speed whilst towing...........!!!!!    I think even Jeremy Clarkson might be proud of you!

We've generally found that towing you can do almost the same speed on a decent N road, as you can on the autoroute - so for us it works well to do cross-country routes.  We used the autoroute more when we were just driving solo - when the toll costs were less, and we could reach a higher average speed.  Nowadays we avoid tolls where possible, and generally get down to Millau with just one overnight stop - so we don't hang about!!!

Quote: Originally posted by Vygotsky on 08/1/2008

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Anyone got any expereience of the E104 (Francilienne),Does it get very busy? I'm interested in trying a different route this year. Thanks

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Claire

I have used it a couple of times and its well signed. The first time going round Paris to the west was fine as it was at the weekend. Our return was during the morning rush hour. It did slow from time to time but it was fine.

David

Claire - you can buy a map of the 'Francilienne'  it's one of the Michelin Series, I think describes as 'Suburbs of Paris' (Alvedores - I think) and I'd say it's essential for a first time around.  There are two - one is of such a scale that even the hypermarkets are marked on it - which is very useful for finding petrol!!!  The road is easy to follow, but there are several junctions where it joins the routes into Paris, and they can be just a bit tricky.  The big Michelin atlas shows it, but not in such detail.  We use it almost all the time - our mantra  is 'just head for Marne la Vallee' until you reach the junction for it - and then carry on to Lyon' - you know what French signing is!!!

We did use it this time coming home, and for the first time ever had some hold-ups (but it was 5.30 pm).  We'd decided to push it to have a night at Berny Riviere, but really should have stopped before we reached Paris.