Driving through France on Black Saturdays- help!

[Peacepudding]

So I've discovered after booking our holiday that we're driving through France on Black Saturdays, which I didn't know about.

We're driving from Roscoff down to the Charente Maritime (Saint Palais Sur Mer) on Saturday 29th July, and then back up on Sat 5th.

Is that route likely to be horrendous? Our ferry actually gets into Roscoff on the Friday at 8pm and we were going to book a hotel there before setting off Sat am, but I'm thinking now that we'd be better off driving for a couple of hours on the Friday evening and staying overnight further down in Brittany. Presumably the roads won't be too bad in the evening?

Luckily our ferry home isn't until Sun 6th, we'll be staying overnight in Roscoff so if it takes all day to get back up on the Sat at least we won't be panicking about making the ferry!

I wouldn't worry and I wouldn't change your plans. Most of the traffic goes from the interior to the coast. It comes predominantly from Paris and environs, and it tends to get busy around the coast by late afternoon/early evening. Since you’re driving along the coast, I’d stay at Roscoff and get up very early on Saturday with the aim of clearing the Nantes ring road by mid morning.
There is also a French site called Bison Fute which gives traffic info.

Thank you. I've looked at the Bison Fute calendar which is red nationally on the first Saturday and black nationally on the second, so I had an image of every road being gridlocked! I've not been to France in years and when we went before it was early summer, so not encountered this.

So you think on that route it shouldn't take much longer than usual?

You'll be ok Roscoff to Rennes, it'll be round Nantes and beyond that'll be bad. Especially round Nantes. I agree on leaving early if possible, get the La Rochelles to Nantes section out of the way. I would definitely prepare for delays, take lots of water and snacks. Also I have been at service stations and been unable to stop because there weren't any parking places, so go to the toilet when you can. The aires that are not with services but just picnic places with toilets are always places you can stop, but the toilets are often awful. Yes, it's the Rhone valley south of Lyon that is generally the worst, and round Paris, but this is prime holiday area that you are going to as well, there will be delays, those are massive days for travelling.

I'd agree with @Fivemoreminutes1 that the flow tends to out of the major population centres on a black day.

I had an image of every road being gridlocked!

No, generally the roads themselves run OK, but for example if using the Peages you are probably going to find lengthy'ish queues at the barriers..

I think what we'll do is drive down to Rennes on the Friday night. It looks like there is a diversion we can take between Nantes and La Rochelle to avoid the tolls, is that worth doing?

Is it an itinéraire bis?

I live in France and we find ourselves driving long long distances on very busy days each year. My advice is to make sure that you have plenty of water and food so you don't need to stop at the large service areas on the motorway and are able to be self sufficient stopping at the small rest stops with no food or fuel. If traffic has been really bad we only stop for a toilet break and driver change and eat lunch on the road (driver waiting until after driver swop to eat). Take tissues or toilet paper.

There are restrictions on bringing meat and dairy into the EU from the UK so you might need to stock up when you arrive in a supermarket. My backup when driving from the UK back to France is bread rolls and peanut butter.

What others have said is correct that for where you're going is unlikely to be the worst traffic. The particularly difficult routes are Paris and Lyon down the Rhône Valley and then along the south coast either towards Spain or Italy.

We have a badge to get through the péage. When it's not busy you gain a few seconds and it's convenient. When it's busy you can save lots of time passing the long queues. And when it's crazy busy the queues are so long that the access to the reserved péage lanes is blocked by queues so there's no real gain. (I try to forget the times where there's a queue the other side of the péage and 20 lanes are merging into 3 lanes 😂)

I think it is worth bearing mind though, that even if it is not the worst traffic itdoesn't mean it isn't bad. I often go around Nantes, and on days of bad traffic you can be there for an extra hour to an hour and a half. Yes, it's not an afternoon spent on an unmoving autoroute du soleil south of Lyon, but it's still worth avoiding if you can.

Ah it's a "chassé croisé" weekend. The time when people who took July holidays (Juilletiste) swap with people taking August holidays (Aoutien). It'll be busy but because you're not coming from/going to Paris or la Côte d'Azur you should be okay. Try to avoid the ring road around Rennes though and pack water and snacks.

What time on a Saturday morning do you think it might get bad around Nantes?

As others have said it won't be as bad as roads in and out of Paris. And don't expect to be able even to get into motorway services at lunch times on the main motorways.

Our neighbours (live in France) are evenly split between ones who leave at 2am and never have jams and ones who are herding their kids into the car mid morning and say yes there were some delays but we met some nice people queuing for petrol outside Luxembourg city.

If you're arriving at 8pm you could just go through the night and get it done, that way no stress!

Why does everyone have the same holidays? Why can't you take, say, a week in July and a week in august? Seems mad everyone heading off on the same day.

You have to take minimum 2 consecutive weeks off between the beginning of May and the end of October according to labour law and for most "convention collectives" 3 weeks ( professional branch agreements that are more favorable that labour law) if you can't take consecutive weeks off your employer has to give you extra days off as "congested de fractionnement" for breaking up your holiday time. It's slowly dying out - but was pretty strict up until about 10 years ago. Also because of the ways French rentals worked (things are slowly changing) you can normally only rent from Saturday to Saturday.

Période du 1er mai au 31 octobre

Vous devez prendre un congé d'au moins 12 jours ouvrables: Correspond à tous les jours de la semaine, à l'exception du jour de repos hebdomadaire (généralement le dimanche) et des jours fériés habituellement non travaillés dans l'entreprise (soit 2 semaines) sur la période allant du 1er mai au 31 octobre de l'année en cours.
Ce congé doit être pris en continu. Il ne peut pas être fractionné.
Ces 12 jours ouvrables minimum sont pris à une période fixée :

• Soit par accord d'entreprise ou d'établissement ou convention ou accord de branche
• Soit, en l'absence d'accord ou de convention applicable, obligatoirement entre le 1er mai au 31 octobre de chaque année

https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F2258

Get going early (staying over on Friday would be helpful), take a picnic and get a tag for the tolls (this is a game changer). You'll be fine.

It normally takes us about 7/8 hours to do that distance on a Saturday in August.

We go from Roscoff to Les Mathes.

I would go a few hours on the Friday night, maybe past Nantes if you can. You will be rested from the ferry hopefully.

If you can get round before 11, you'll be ok! There won't be that much of an early rush hour either so between 9-11 I think you'll be ok.

Thanks. Feeling a little less panicked now! We haven't been away since before covid and with it only being a week I don't want any stress!

Travel without stopping on European Motorways | European Toll Tag | Telepeage Tags for Vehicles | Emovis Tag (emovis-tag.co.uk)

Ah so that sounds like only an hour or two delay, not too horrific. Yes we'll definitely drive some of it on the Friday.

Thank you

Agree with PP.

Takes lots of water and snacks. Avoid service stations and even picnic aires between 12 and 2. You'll find it hard to park. We tend to stop for lunch at 11.30 and even then the aires are busy.

You're north of Bordeaux which is good cos that bit is awful Saturday afternoons.

Another tip = go to supermarket as soon as you can on arrival. Saturday about 5pm onwards is heaving with all the holidaymakers and Sunday morning is always busy too. I usually unpack and make the beds up (own sheets) and DH braves the supermarket. We use the trip down to write our shopping list 😁

To PP - as said above we have to take 2 weeks usually 3 holidays in July/August. I've worked for a company which imposed 3 weeks holiday which has to include August 15th....

Taking 3 weeks in August is seen as normal. And 4 weeks doesn't raise eyebrows. However you won't be popular if you want to go early September when everyone else has just gotten back (basically offices shut down in August so if you work August you barely have anything to do and in September activity ramps up again).

Where in Charenete are you going? If you are trying to get to Oleron the queues to the bridge will be horrific, and if you need to use that road you will also be stuck although there are back routes.

We had a caravan in Charente for many years, the worst bit was always Rouen but I haven't been since covid and they may finally have sorted the bridge / road works there.

Don't take the non toll routes, take the toll, get the tag. Take food and stop at the aires and not the service stations unless you need fuel.

We come from Calais and on a good run it can be 6h45, on a bad run, 14 was the worst.

Sorry just seen Les Mathes, that's about 20 mins from where we had the van. You'll avoid the olefin bridge queue!

Oleron

Nantes ring road is the worst part. Either drive part Friday night or leave early on Saturday. I've done it on black Saturday before and it's never been too bad, even if getting held up at Nantes. I usually find the journey back worse.

It