Driving to South of France via Portsmouth Cherbourg ferry - any tips on places to stay?

[juliasw]

We are just beginning to look at holidays for this summer and we are contemplating driving to the South of France - Nice/Canne kind of area but as yet undecided.

We live close to Portsmouth so will travel either Portsmouth to Caen or Cherbourg. We would then drive down to Nice over two (or maybe three) days -

I wonder if anyone had any top tips for stop offs on the way - looking at the maps somewhere like Tours or Bourges would be a good overnight stop after approx five hours driving but is there anywhere else you would recommend? Then next day picking up the A7 near to Lyon

And do the legendary Saturday traffic jams on the roads to the South of France still happen? Or would be ok if we went on Sunday? And coming back is it the same in the other direction?

If you’ve got dc and can spare a day, I’d definitely recommend an overnight stay in one of the Futuroscope hotels and to spend some time in the park itself. We’ve also done a stop at ZooParc de Beauval which also has hotels and is excellent. Further south, we love the towns of Le Puy and Carennac.

My SIL has driven to South of France a couple of times and always says her favourite stop-off was at Lake Annecy.

We did this and on the advice of mn we spent a day at futuroscope. We left early! I was really disappointed - sorry!

Yes, the traffic will be horrendous at the weekend - check the bison fute website for their best guess at the worst days on certain routes.

Most pressingly, don’t travel on the first Saturday of August!

I've stopped in Lyon driving from Caen, another year we stopped in dijon. We found the trip manageable if we did the overnight ferry. If taking the morning ferry I suggest stopping just south of Paris perhaps Fontainebleau