Talk to me about driving to the south of France?

[Travelmaama]

We're planning a trip to Toulouse this summer, and we are considering driving over rather than flying and hiring a car on arrival.

The positive part of my brain is saying this will be a lovely adventure, we can stay over night somewhere along the way and see the country as we go.

The other part of me is saying don't be crazy 😂

Any tips on somewhere nice to stay as a stop off? How to time the journey?

Me, DH, DS12 and DD2.

We have driven to the South of France many times, and even Spain, absolutely love seeing the country rather than flying over it. There are so many places to stop off and see. One thing I would say though is don't forget to factor in the tolls on the motorway, they are expensive and depending on the route could cost you 150 euros one way.

@Clariana thank you I hadn't factored that into the cost! I'd costed the tunnel/ferry fuel and hotels but not tolls

You won't see the country you will see motorways. Lots and lots of motorways.

We did Calais to below Toulouse and stayed in Bourges in a lovely B&B and went into town for food and the evening which was nice.

We came back via 2 nights in Paris.

Just remember some cities including Toulouse have low emission zones now so check which has and which hasn't before you plan anything.

Also check the tolls, which can add up over the journey. Sometimes more expensive than the flights.

The cheapest way we once got to Lyon was by train. Early from the Midlands, was in Lyon by 3pm

Once you factor in the cost of ferry / tunnel plus fuel & tolls, EasyJet is probably cheaper as well as much quicker, particularly if you don’t want to travel in peak season.

I like driving. We use this chain of hotels:

https://www.hotel-bb.com/en

Usually stay in the one at Orleans on the way down and on the way back. They're not fancy but they are clean and convenient.

But cost-wise, not much in it between driving, or flying and hiring a car.

I would say no with a 2 year old tbh, I haven't done it for years but did a few driving holidays in France as a teenager, I would say my DD at 9 is about the youngest I would do it. Brittany and Normandy are lovely though and not as far, might be a compromise?

Yes, that's another thing to remember...don't do it on Black Saturday. Ist Saturday in August.

France is a loooooooong country to drive for a two year old.

And if you're going for speed, rather than along meandering A roads (ie non-Autoroute), as a PP says, you will basically just be seeing motorways. Although French A roads are very good. But that takes a lot more planning.

Yes it’s fine. But with 2 year old I would probably stop overnight twice on route. It’s about 10hr drive from Calais, but you have the drive from your own home in England to Folkestone/ dover and ferry or tunnel time also so it’s a long day otherwise for toddler.

On long drives I aim to stop somewhere we can actually enjoy on route like castle/ zoo/ park/ similar. Stopping for 2hr for a day out so to speak and lunch, toddler running about as much as possible. Then the next 2.30-3hr drive hopefully they sleep. For us 3hrs is max drive we do without aiming to stop, obviously sometimes he sleeps and we get a bit further, and other times we have to stop extra stop for toilet/ irritated toddler.

3hr drive, stop for 2hrs, 3 hr drive is ideally our maximum per day. So 6hrs max driving. More than that ie if we got caught in traffic or end up trying to squeeze in more it ends in disaster

Time your journey carefully and avoid weekends in the latter half of July, and all of August.
Motorways going south like the A6/Autoroute du Soleil can get extremely busy snd can jam up solidly due to the weight of traffic on busy weekends. If you're travelling at those times I would avoid motorways as much as I could and take N roads or search out 'Bis' routes. Bis means minor but is also a pun on the expression Bison Futé - the clever bison, an old French saying. (nope, no idea either.)
Also check out French public holidays in July and August, like Bastille Day. If it falls on a Thursday many people will get away that day for a long weekend.
There are chain hotels at or near motorway exits (i.e. not in lovely areas, but possibly on the outskirts of towns for meals etc.) these hotels, eg. Ibis, are fine and not too expensive. Formule 1 hotels are cheap but very basic.

Both Bastille Day, July 14 and the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, are on a Thursday this year... Big public holidays, traffic will be bad. (And on the next day, the fridays too.)
We were stuck for over five hours on theA6 south of Tournus, as I recall.

Thanks everyone! Lots of things to consider then 😂 I'll double check there are no national holidays, and the costs of the toll roads for sure

Also strikes. Which can happen at any time. Rail, flight and or farmers blocking roads.

Happy happy joy joy.

We used to do this a lot when DC were small. We would stop for one night en route - usually at a Novotel in a mid-way city/town. I sometimes think the Novotel stops were the highlight of the holiday for the DC 😀😀They were certainly very family friendly

Avoid Paris, maybe stop over in the Loire. Just take regular breaks, the motorways & services are much better than here.
A ferry to Le Havre is better than Calais as that part of France is really boring to drive through.

We’ve done it loads. Very easy and good fun. Avoid the Périphérique around Paris. Avoid driving on any Saturdays if you can. Not sure which way you’d go but Beaune which is near Dijon is lovely for a stop over. As is Orleans.

Plan lots of stops but avoid the aires which are just picnic spots and loos as they tend to be the continental ones and don’t seem to be cleaned that often. Try going to the bigger ones with petrol stations and shops, the loos are much nicer!

Is your holiday to the centre of Toulouse or the region around it? If you are just going to Toulouse the public transport in the city is very good so I'd suggest going by train (Eurostar plus TGV). It is around 3.5 hours from Paris to Toulouse on the TGV and the train only stops a few times (fast from Paris to Bordeaux then Agen, Montauban, Toulouse).

If you are holidaying in the south west region and visiting other places than it might be worth considering driving from the uk and having your own car. I would take the ferry to Caen or St Malo as that can be enjoyable in itself and shortens the drive in France. As others have said try and aovid doing a long drive on french motorways on Saturdays in July/August. If you have a saturday to saturday booking I would do most of the journey on the friday and stay in a cheap accor hotel on the friday night not too far from your destination.

NB you don't need to go anywhere near the A6 to get to Toulouse. If you look at Via Michelin website it will give suggested driving routes and toll costs.

We’ve done this many times pre-children. We cycle so it’s easier to take bikes / kit in a car. I wouldn’t do it with a toddler though, unless you can take a really long time over the journey and only drive a few hours a day, or do a lot of the driving while DD2 is asleep.

We did this with a 2&3 year old last summer.

Ferry to Caen, stopped twice on route to make it leisurely and had time to take in some sights, nice lunch etc. Stopped at Tours on the way back and from the got the train to Paris for the day. no denying it was long but the kids enjoyed it

we’re doing it again this summer in fact! Though not quite as far south this time.

love the ferry- get a nice cabin, have a nice breakfast on the way out and sleep on the ferry on the way back.

it will be great

We do it multiple times a year since our child was a baby. Worth looking at getting the ferry home from Bilbao - Portsmouth. Expensive but worth it for us, drive down taking a stop and then usually a night in Spain and ferry all the way home.

We did a similar trip in France last year.
Things to consider:
If you go into a city you need a special sticker for your car (get it from the proper website) called a Crit Air Vignette.
There are some amazing Airbnbs to break up the journey.
Plan which service stations you'll want to stop at.
Yes the tolls make it more expensive but the motorways are quieter so it's much nicer than driving in the UK.

It's definitely doable though. Make sure you stop in some nice places on the way down, look for hidden gems on instagram.

It is long but perfectly do-able. Lots of service stations, or 'aires' with decent grassy areas with swings etc quite often and healthy food too.

Yes to getting a clean air sticker in advance if goung near paris or eg rouen (which is a lovely place to stop if you end up going via Calais). Also I would urge you to buy a fob for the peage (motorway toll stations). The big ones have automated lanes where you dont need to go lower than 30kph in speed - they have readers that clock the gadget stuck to your windscreen and it really helps you bypass the longest queues. There are lots of providers but Ulys/Vinci are good (apols for terrible long link). You just get charged for what you would pay anyway plus 2 euros extra in any month when you use the fob. It is linked to your bank account.

ulys.vinci-autoroutes.com/e-toll-badge-ulys-classic/?at_medium=cpc&at_campaign=20380270697&at_platform=google&at_network=x&at_term=&utm_id=qid_gad_c20380270697_g_a&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAopuvBhBCEiwAm8jaMUaZwsLOW5yvIN0NkyyrT24QIBWL2hO26SJXJg2b4DLh1vGYEAj0yhoCduMQAvD_BwE

Thanks everyone, there's definitely some food for thought.

Our booking is Mondah until Monday from 29th July, I was planning to begin the journey on the Sunday or Monday?

My thoughts are to pack the kids into the car really early around 4am, head to Dover hopefully without stopping and get either the euro tunnel or ferry over to Calais. Take an hour or two here for the kids to run around, eat drunk etc and then get another 3/4 hours in and check in somewhere for the evening.

Wake up early the next morning with the hope of splitting the rest of the journey into 2 or 3 chunks.

Totally appreciate what people are saying about traffic etc.

We plan to visit Toulouse city for a day or two but we're actually staying in the countryside around 40 mins out of the city and would need to hire a car if we fly, which is why we're considering driving.

We have done it without paying any tolls. It takes a bit longer but you see a lot more of the country.