Driving from Calais to Carcassonne on 6 August

[Dancingbird50]

Hiya can anyone recommend a good route for Calais to Carcassonne... possible in 1 go or best to stop? Thinking of arriving from Eurotunnel with car about 11pm and heard can drive around Pais Peripheries at night ok less traffic. Then can I take A77 and then A75 to save costs on tolls? How much is it and what's the route if use motorways. I have no idea how to best plan the route. What websites are best. Guess I'll use Google maps ony mob. Good idea? Kids are 10 and 12 me and hubby will drive. Can we just pull over some where and sllrp in car having got through Paris. Feel very ignorant! Be great to have some ideas. Many thanks! X X

I have no idea but bumping for you. I wouldn't sleep in the car - plenty of cheap motels.

I love Carcassonne...

We always use via michelin and it's never let us down. It includes details of tolls.

That is driving across virtually the whole of France! In one go?? Don't be silly OP. With two fractious , bored and tired pre teens. No way. Please stop en route! How long is your drive in the UK as you ought also to factor that in.

You could fly but am guessing you want the car!

Very silly idea. Over 1,000 km, 10 hours driving starting at 11pm so you've already travelled in the UK and had a ferry crossing.. Why don't you take it easy, stop for one or even two nights en route, take in the scenery and the food...... it's a holiday! And no, don't sleep in the car.

That is an insane idea. It would take at least 14 hours without the motorway, and those are some small roads! You need to make a stop, book a formule 1 or a B&B (that's a chain) hotel on the way. Look at viamichelin or mappy, and consider the coast route rather than Paris. The péripherique is busy ALL the time, but less so at night. If you use viamichelin or mappy it will tell you the costs for the tolls.

We are doing something similar the following week, but not avoiding tolls because they are the best roads to drive on! And stopping in Issoire at the Ibis overnight

Also, from July 1st, those roads are going to have a 50 mile an hour speed limit, so it'll be even slower.

We are going to Languedoc around the same time next year. Travelling from Kent,we have the advantage of a v short UK leg, so just planning to stop around Lyon overnight on the way down. Way back we will get up at crack of dawn and bomb it home.

www.saneftolling.co.uk/subscription/ I would get a toll tag. Then you can avoid queuing. I would definitely take the autoroute. It is MUCH easier to drive that way than back roads. No way would I do it overnight in one go. F1 hotels are basic but cheap. It also depends WHEN you are travelling as some days in the summer holidays can be awful.

August is also the French great getaway month - the entire population (especially Paris) drives somewhere else so the roads will be extra busy.

Taffeta, Calais to Lyon is a decent run. Or Macon, a bit further north on the A6. Its usually further south - Orange / valences that the traffic can jam up.

Www.accorhotels.com let's you look at hotels along a route. They range from the really cheap to the much nicer and they have many near motorway junctions. Novotel at Lyon Nord and Macon Sud are both nice (good wine ) and have pools.

Can you not share the driving, or do you not drive? That is a big ask to expect one person to drive that far without a break.

I have driven that journey the other way round - from Perpignan - we went via Lyon & it took about 12 hours. Can't remember which day of the week it was but it was early June, not August, & we had one 17-year-old, not 2 younger ones. It was an absolutely beautiful day & he got quite frustrated being stuck in the car (this was pre-smartphones so electronic amusements weren't available, just music)

If you do a chunk of it at night & they will sleep, then during the day you can schedule several longish stops at Aires to break the journey up.

You can avoid Paris altogether if you go the Lyon way. It's very slightly longer & slower but worth it IMO.

I wouldn't even think of doing it off the motorway though. Do get one of the electronic tag things, it's well worth it.

Arras, Riems, Troyes, Dijon, Macon, Lyon, Montpellier.

The roads are great.

Paris is a nightmare best avoided.

We usually go to the South of France, driving 4 hours or so from the Euro tunnel and then using an Ibis or Formule 1 - v cheap, v clean and v close to motorway junctions - for an overnight stay before driving to our destination. We then come back in one looooong hit, leaving at 0500....

I would definitely get the motorway tag (bip and go I think they are called) as it saves SO much time at the tolls. Particularly in August. Just make sure never to travel back on the last weekend of August. Because all of the French move then too!

Oh yes, and second avoiding Paris....

We drove from Carcassonne last year and stopped twice, once in the Loire valley and once outside Versailles. We wanted to take it a bit more steady that year.

Previously we've only stopped once which is just do-able. DC were plugged in to in-car DVDs and became word perfect in Outnumbered / Friends etc on the way.

Agree Paris ring road is awful. We usually end up going via Rouen. It's a bottle neck but a more straightforward journey.

This is the sanef website where you can buy a tag

Charges on top of toll use are:

€10 application fee (one-off)
€20 refundable deposit (if you return the tag) (one-off)
€5 per month tag is used (max €10 per year)
€6 annual fee

You set up a direct debit on your current account & they bill you monthly when you've used it.

It's honestly a brilliant feeling when you fly past the loooong queues at the toll booths & get beeped through (with a little frisson of 'is it going to work this time?' )

I would second the via Rouen suggestion then an overnight stop around Orleans.

I’ve done Lyon ( 50 miles south) to Birmingham in one session, solo drive with two dc aged 11 & 4

I used toll roads and stopped frequently in France

Set of at 9am and arrived in Birmingham at 2am ( but actually 1am due to gaining an hour on the ferry)

It was 700 miles and I arrived in port just 30 minutes before ferry left

17 hours of travelling

Actually dc were as good as gold, one slept as ill and the other amused herself

But really to drive further and you’d be silly/ why would you do it? I only did as Dd wasn’t well, so easier to come home a few days early.

Has anyone done Newhaven - Dieppe on the 11pm ferry that gets in at 4am? You can sleep on the ferry and then be on the road (100 miles south of Calais) by 5am

We drove to carcasonne having left the tunnel about 8:30, and stopped overnight in Orleans. Lovely little hotel right in city centre so went for nice dinner out and wander around the cathedral (stunning).
We left Orleans early next day and stopped for lunch somewhere on route.

Got to carcassonne around 6pm I think.
On the way back, we drove much longer to Rouen, stopped overnight at a crappy travel lodge type hotel but more manky and then didn’t have so far to drive to the port the next day.

Please don’t sleep in an Aire. There have multiple tourist attacks on people staying in cars overnight.
We booked our hotels through Expedia and got really good deals.

Gosh, I’ve slept in an Aire before now as we used to travel in a moto home / didn’t know there had been multiple attacks 😮