France, 1st two weeks in Aug - traffic?

[ExpletiveDelighted]

We haven't been to France for years and used to go at May half term or in June (pre-school age). For various reasons this year we are restricted to the first two weeks in Aug, we are thinking of channel tunnel and drive to the Loire Valley but have heard that those weeks are the main French holiday weeks and traffic can be horrendous - any thoughts or experiences?

Down here in the south west all of the peages now take contactless payments which speeds things up a bit. It is pretty unusual to see the big baskets for cash now (or indeed a human being). I'm guessing it is probably the same further north.

I live in The Loire and the worse day in the summer is known as "black Saturday" - this year it is the 1st August. Avoid travelling that day if you are heading to the proper south (Languedoc-roussillon, Côte d'Azur etc) and anyway, it usually starts to get busy south of the Loire so you should be fine. Otherwise it will just be around Paris that it is bad (and this is all year round).

Yes traffic, but it's ok. Take the ferry to Le Havre and reduce driving time, you can avoid tolls that way too (apart from the bridge). It's beautiful, I've been there in August

We have done this for several years in the first week of August. It's fine if you are happy paying on the toll roads. I don't remember any particularly hellish traffic apart from getting onto il de re.

Definitely get a toll tag for the car. That saves all the faffing about with someone trying to hang out of the window with a card. At some peages you won't even have to stop for the beep, just drive at 30km/hr and the barrier lifts automatically.

Our peage tag is from a company called APRR. it's good because above the cost of the motorway trip itself there is just a small monthly fee that they only take if you have used the tag that month.

I also have the APRR tag. It's so useful to save time and fblong for change. Also when it hits my credit card a month or so after
I can see exactly how much I paid in tolls.