Driving to South of France for first time this summer - any tips?

[pinkteddy]

Although we have flown to the South of France, we've never driven. We're going to a Siblu site near Beziers (Montpelier biggest town nearby). I'd be grateful for any tips eg: best routes, any info on tolls (whether its worth getting one of those toll cards), best places to stop (services and hotels) etc.

Many thanks

ooh, I don't suppose are you going to Vias Plage? We were there last year and had a brilliant time!

We went from Dieppe and I can't remember the details of the first part of the route, but towards the second half of the drive we went on the A75 which was a great road with some incredible views. Especially over the Millau Viaduct - plus there is an excellent rest stop there with fab food: myparisnotebook.com/2010/08/19/french-fast-food-michel-bras-style-2

Another rest stop we really liked was the Volcanes d'Auvergne on the A71 I think, you can stand on a viewing platform and see the (extinct !) volcanoes - the dcs loved it!

Are you driving non stop or breaking the journey up? If the latter, someone on MN gave some excellent advice - start early & take your lunch stop at around 11am. The roads are much quieter between 12-1 when most other long distance drivers are taking their breaks.

We're going again this year, a bit further down the coast, and CAN"T WAIT!

thanks so much spink. Yes vias plage is about quarter of a mile away I think. We plan to break the journey up with an overnight stay as we've never done it before. Do you usually drive non stop then? What about the toll cards - is it worth it?

I can recommend (though I'm not sure it's on your route) a hotel called L'Auberge des Vieux Moulins Banaux, about 3-4 hours from Calais in Burgundy - I think it is better for people going to the other south though - the Riviera etc as it is to the east of Paris. Excellent little hotel with a wonderful restaurant and wines.... Dogs welcome (if you let them know in advance they put biscuits and water in the surprisingly cheap but high quality rooms).

If you're driving down on a Saturday in July or August then you will need to stop - the traffic souhtbound is pretty horrific, particularly near the exits from Paris.

Thanks petiteraleuse although I think you are right, we probably need to drive west of Paris - haven't worked out a route yet!

Does anyone have any other recommendations? Anyone know about the toll cards?

I'd definitely recommend stopping, I guess it depends what your dcs are like with long car journeys. We have 2 dcs, aged 3 and 5 years, and stayed in the B&B chain of hotels which have family rooms. They were basic but good and cheapish (60 euro per night) and have 2 single beds on a mezzanine so we put the kids to bed at 7 and had our own 'room downstairs' to read a book ( drink wine) while they slept. We've booked with them again this year.

We also invested in a portable 2 screen DVD player which was a godsend!
The other tip I'd have is not to buy meals from the service stations, get a baguette and a rotisserie chook and some cheese etc from a supermarket... Apart from Millau, the food at the rest stops was not great.

I've no advice about toll cards as I had no idea they existed I'll be watching what other people suggest with interest!

spink what is the name of the B&B chain you use? How far do you like to get before you stop over night?

Thanks for the tip on service station food!

where are you driving from in UK (roughly, if you don't want to be exact)?

We are "a long drive" from crossing places, usually, we'd drive down to Kent and stay over in a hotel there then take first train out... then found out that it was much cheaper (for both crossing and hotel) to drive down and cross on late train/ferry, and then stop over in France.

French Motorway Toll Badges For UK Residents

If you are UK based you can buy the toll badges here:
www.saneftolling.co.uk/

We have one, but we live here so it's worth it for convenience and to beat the queues. However, if you are not going to drive in France regularly it may not be worth the cost of getting and maintaining the subscription. See the FAQ section on the website for cost details.

They are fab because you have much less queuing, don't need your credit card / cash, don't have to wake up your co-driver to do the payment. From my experience of summer toll queues, if you don't have the tele-peage badge, then the unmanned credit card only booths on the left often have much shorter queues than the manned ones.

lilomanchester about 2 hours from Dover. Its supposed to be a 10 hour drive from Dover to Beziers according to AA routemaster but we thought ideally we would like to get a fair bit past Paris before stopping.

For the services it's very worthwhile taking your own food and drinks with you like Spink said. Lots of people do this. Another bonus is it means you can use the small service areas with no shop / fuel which are generally quicker and easier to get into, parked and out of. However, you've not got to mind using the hole-in-the-ground toilets at these places, and don't forget your loo roll!

I totally agree that a DVD player is worth investing in if you haven't got one already. But would suggest keeping DVD entertainment for later in the journey, let children entertain themselves for as long as possible with DVD player something different for when they really have had enough of sitting in the car.

Definitely agree re taking food to see you through rather than buying at service station. That said, one time when we were craving a hot meal having travelled for 2 days, we came off the motorway and into a little town/village, had the cheapest, most amazing pub lunch ever.

Invest in road maps if Siblu don't provide them. You probably just need a general map to get you to close to where you are going (and IME the maps Eurocamp/Keycamp etc are good enough for that) but buying a decent local map will help if you get lost/the directions you are sent turn out to be ambiguous (got previous on that one) Could be a relationship saving purchase.....

Also, good maps will help you identify potential places to stop off the motorway to eat/stay overnight. As our children got older (so could stay up later) we made the overnight stay part of the holiday, rather than a functional "eat and sleep" stop. Depends what you want to do and the age of your DCs - how old are they?

We did this last year and are doing it again this year. So it's not that bad! We did the euro tunnel which was sooo easy. We have 4 dc inc twins who were then still only 8 months so didn't want to have to get everyone out of the car etc.

We did 2 stops on the way down. Novotels in Reims and Montpelier. Both just off the motorway so easy to find and get to. The motorway bw Calais and Reims was superb - it seemed like there was barely any traffic. From reims to Montpelier you go more or less on the auto route de soleil and you totally avoid Paris.

Prob cost about 90€ in tolls.

The only bit we hit traffic on either leg was in Lyon on the return but it was the Sunday at the end of the French holidays so hardly surprising. The last Sunday of August. We won't be doing the drive on that day this year. But we still got from bezier to Reims in 9 hours.

We are nr Vias plage too this year. Last year in serignan. Lovely lovely part of France. Can't wait!

We have travelled to northern Spain in the past, and we went down the "middle" route through Clermont Ferrand. It was incredibly busy, but others have told me that this is the least busy route!

Try to avoid travelling on a Saturday, as much as possible. We stopped overnight in Orleans and thought that this would be far enough past Paris to avoid the traffic. It was not.

We also have a Tele peage badge, but where there are queues for tolls going back 2 or more kms, you will still be stuck in the queue until you can get to the dedicated lane, which starts about half a km out.

Definitely take your own food and drink, and have a DVD player for the children. Also, plenty of charge in their Hand held consoles, if they have them. And books etc, of course.

We are doing it again this year, so it can't be too bad!

Oh, forgot to say. We usually get the flexiplus pass for eurotunnel. Yes, it's a lot more expensive, but when you get to the terminal, you drive straight through. Don't think that just because you have booked well in advance that you won't get a two hour wait for the next available train! (this applies more to skiing in Feb half term, but I think it could equally well be a consideration if you are travelling first thing on a Saturday morning in Summer.........

Hello, the hotel chain website is here: www.hotel-bb.com/holiday-hotel-bb-france.html Like the Novotels, they tend to be just off the motorway, so out of town and usually in not particularly attractive industrial estate type areas!

Two years ago we drove down as far as Carcassonne - so not too far from your destination.

We had two overnight stops on the way down though - never having driven that distance before. Our DC were 9, 11 and 12 at the time, so were happy to explore different towns on the journey.

We live in W Yorkshire and like to use the Eurotunnel - so we set off at about 3am - inorder to cross before 8am.

We stopped off in Rouen and Limoges to break up the journey. Both times we stayed in Etap 'hotels'. They were fine - as were out of the town, so parking was good (although the Limoges one was more central). Cheap enough - and clean. We had two rooms - one for me and my DS, one for DH and his two DSs. The rooms had a double bed with a bunk above.

I always pack plenty of non-messy sandwiches. Stuff like cheese spread, marmite, peanut butter etc - no salad or fally out bits. I freeze bottles of water and use them inthe cool bag as cool packs - and obv they defrost with time so alway some cold water to drink. I buy packs of cheapo buns/cakes too just to keep kids occupied - and cos they go nice with a strong coffee bought at services.

We bought twin dvd players - but they didn't get used as much as i thought they would. Still worth having though.

I didn't get a toll card - but didn't find it a problem.

My tip is to plan your route using www.michelin.com - you can plot your start and end point - and it costs your trip, and gives you the price of each toll point - soyou know what £ to have ready. It seems up to date.

Last year we didn't drive as far south - we went to the Dordogne - and so broke our journey in Blois. After an early morning start - it is nice to stop somewhere and have a walk around -and a nice dinner. It gets us in the holiday spirit. We stayed in an independent hotel there - as there were just me and DH with th two eldest boys - who were able to share a roomnext door to us.

Just in the process of planning this year's trip. We are staying inthe Charente - so not as far to drive. We will probably stop off somewhere though - just to see more of another town.

Blanket and inflatable pillow each in the car is good (for the kids) - it just lets them sleep a little more easily and stops grumbling... I limit 'hand luggage' too in the car. One small backpack each - or else you have stuff scattered all over. Oh, and no chocolate in the car :)

Wow thanks all loads of good information here. We've only got the one dd who will be nearly 9 by the time we go. She's got a portable DVD player already, good idea about rationing it especially as it will probably only last 3 or 4 hours.

DH will definitely invest in a decent map - there's nothing he likes better than pouring over a good map!

smokeybacon the AA website says its 8 hours drive from Reims to Montpelier - did you do that in a day? That sounds a lot!

We did a similar trip last summer - down to the Pyrenees - though without children.

I'd recommend Eurotunnel, so quick and convenient (and no possibility of seasickness is a big plus for me).

Check that your sat nav, if using, can distinguish road types. Turned out ours couldn't in France though can here, so tried to take us the most direct route which was very far from the quickest. Really better to plan your own route with the map.

Use the autoroutes including the toll ones, don't skimp on slower roads. This makes route planning easy too, as they are big and visible on the map. We paid with credit cards.

We did a long first day with tunnel at about 9am, arriving near Poitiers at about 8pm. We'd have been faster without the sat nav diversions but, without children, didn't stop much. The second day's driving wes shorter, as yours would be.

We stayed at the most adorable place, which I think would be really good with children as they had about three beds and a cot in the one large room and were lovely hosts. They're a small B+B with only two rooms and quite out of the way - stop for dinner before getting there, or I think you can arrange it with them. One of their Trip Advisor reviews is mine. Here: www.boiscoursier.fr/fr/chateau.html

cross posted with you supernanny. Thanks for the tip about michelin.com. I will definitely have a look on there. I've mapped a basic route on the AA website and it doesn't take us anywhere near Limoges. Did you divert off the route or did you go on the A20?

When we stay at La Carabasse, we go Dover/Calais and stay overnight between South Orleans and Bourges. Last time we stayed at the Campanile in Vierzon. It is a long first day but means you arrive early afternoon at the South coast.

We used to stay in Novotels as worked out cheapest for 4 of us to share a family room (Orleans-Sud is ok) but we found with just 3 of us that the cheaper ones were ok so have used Campaniles and Ace hotels.

Milliways that's where we're staying! Is the Orleans Sud a Novotel? Can you give me a rough idea of the route you take from Calais and how long it takes you? Many thanks.

pinkteddy I am sorry, I can't remember now - it was two years ago when we did that particular route :) We possibly did make a detour to Limoges- I just picked a couple of towns which sounded as if we could spend an afternoon/evening there :)

Pink teddy. Yes Reims to Montpelier in a day. It was about 8 hours, but that actually includes all our stops.

Mentally if you break it down into 90 to 120 mins of driving, a break and a switch of driver at each break, it means the journey seems to go faster. So at no point did Dh or I do more than 2 hrs in one go.

And on the way back we did serignan to Reims in one go. That was a trek, mainly thanks to our bad planning travelling through Lyon. Lessons learnt and that...

We follow the A71 then A75 straight down the middle of the map!

Best site to use is Via Michelin which shows you toll amounts so you can have your euros ready. It also points out speed cameras! We print out that route, plus one from Google Maps, and we take a Tom-Tom.

The Millau viaduct is amazing - have your camera ready.

There is a Novotel at Orleans-Sud, we liked it but it is pricey for an overnight and you are not walkable to any cheaper restaurant (but their restaurant is nice). You can get to Vierzon for tea-time if you get an early ferry (arriving by mid-day in France) - where there is a campanile and you can walk to a Buffalo grill :). The ace hotel in Bourges is next to loads of eateries but is a fair bit further and we were wacked when we got there.