What's the M25 equivalent in Paris like???

[DontNeedAnything]

cos we will be going on it.

We have (almost) no choice without driving through Paris, and funnily enough we don't fancy the Champs Elysee.

Juts want to be prepared....is it a super efficient version of the M25, or does it have just as bad a reputation?

drove to south of france years ago and went on this road, its just like all their other motorways, its fine as long as you are prepared for the nutters that drive a a million miles an hour! just stay in the slow lane

i think its better than the M25 but its all the same really. its called the "peripherique".
Also, say you arrive at the north of paris and you want to go east you will need to go onto 'interior (clockwise)' lane. if you want to head west then its the 'exterior (anti-clockwise)' lane.

it'll make sense when you're there. just remember interior = clockwise, exterior = anticloockwise.

hope that helps

Hang on, so I will be coming from South West, want to go around the bottom of Paris to eth East. So that is the "exterior" lane?

thats right!!

its been abour 4 years but i vaguely remember the signposts, there will be 2 overhead ones - one will list all the cities on the exterior and the other cities on the interior lanes.

there wont be any signs saying north, east, west or south. only exterior and interior!!

Crikey. I would avoid at all costs if you can. it is one of the most stressful memories of my life.

the ring road has a billion 'portes' or exits, and it is really tricky to make sure you stay in the right lane without being diverted off somewhere else.

If it can't be avoided then take a valium and hope for the best. Sorry if this is too honest.

well DP will be driving....I think I will make sure I am asleep with Cloudhoppers comments

forewarned is forearmed!

(Tis why I asked, we really don't have (much) choice, but want to know what to expect)

Hideous! I did this last week BY MISTAKE!! DH promised he't take over the driving before we got onto it, but I suddenly found myself there.

My legs were shaking when we did eventually get off it and stop at a service station.

Do you have a sat nav? Ours kept losing reception in the tunnels, and in retrospect, I think having to drive is better than having to navigate.

There was a lorry about 2 inches from our car that kept tooting me to hurry up - I'd left a couple of feet between our car and the one in front.

It was truly a horrible experience, but having done it, I now feel I could drive anywhere - even round the Champs Elysee!

Get route directions from viamichelin.com and print them out. These directions include pictures of the road signs at critical junctions (well not actual photographs, but graphical representations) so when you have been following signs for 'Versailles' for ages but all of a sudden the Versailles road turns off and you need to follow 'Bois de Boulogne' for a while, the directions will give you a clue.

And DON'T stay in the slow (right hand) lane - this lane splits off at many junctions and you will have to keep switching into the 2nd lane. Stay in the 2nd lane instead if you must, although I like to take on Parisians at their own game .

We have a Sat Nav and we will be printing directions off one of the route planners before we go. Is ViaMichellin hte best for Europe?

We have always printed off an AA route and found it to be very good. It tells you in exactly how many miles you have to change lanes and which lane to get into and where they will be signposted to (if that makes any sense?!) We've done this 4 or 5 times now and can pretty much follow our noses now.

Are you talking about the périphérique? You can probably avoid this... have you checked out www.viamichelin.com?

go to mappy and get a detailed itinerary.it will give you an exact idea of which lane to get into.sometimes the periferique divides into worrying lane that vere off.you will need a good navigator.
actually driving through Paris rather than round it is not as bad as you would think. which autoroute south are you heading for?

mappy.fr

OK, we will be coming up from the Vendee, so I am guessing (based on my map reading rather than a programmed route ATM).

I think we will come up the A10 at teh South West, and then headin East on teh N104 to the A4 whish is due East of Paris. Heading for Eurodisney.

There seems to be 3 layers of Ring road motorways around Paris. I am assuming the outermost one (A104) is the "safest" to use, but the middle one (A106) looks like an equally good option as far as the route is concerned.

I think when we come out of Paris and head for Calais we can head a bit further East and join the A1 a bit further up so avoidinghte need to touch the Perifique

Oh God, sorry, but the peripherique was a nightmare for us last year even with the SatNav! We circled it about 10 times before finding our exit and the SatNav kept recalculating the route before we finally figured out where we had gone wrong! Horrible!

the way from Nantes

DNA - I'd go for the N104 (the "Francilienne") - it's scary but not half as scary as the peripherique! (DH is French but not Parisian, he was a gibbering wreck after his first experience driving on the peripherique ). The traffic is also usually a bit better.

DNA

The Peripherique (the Inner Ring road) is nothing like the M25 at all, it's a very busy multilane road with exits all over the place. Closest I can think of in UK is the North Circular, but it's far worse than that.
AVOID.

The 'middle ring' you refer to is definitely the best route, it's pretty straightforward from the A10 to the A4. But it's NOT called the A106, it's variously the A86 or the N186 (don't need to turn off it, it's just the same road changing names - a bit like the M6 to A74 to M74 near Carlisle). Your best bet is to follow the signs for places that are in the East of France down the A4 eg Metz or Nancy until you get to Disney. As long as you don't miss the turn onto the A86/N186 road from the A10 I don't think you'll go too far wrong.

Ant (Mand's OH)

the périphérique is utterly insane and should only be attempted if you have to do it

OK if you do it out of peak hours (very early hours of Sunday morning is good). Seriously scary if there's a lot of traffic.

DNA

Agree with KS that the N104 Francilienne (which is the outer of your '3 rings') is also a good bet, it's certainly the furthest out. However it's a bit of a longer route, involves a bit more doglegging from Sw to E and can have as heavy traffic as the A86/N186. Either are far better than the peripherique though!

(btw the A104/N104 is definitely the route you want going home from Disney to Calais - follow signs for Lille)

A lot may depend on the actual traffic conditions on the day you are travelling. If you've any way of accessing the internet on the move then use www.sytadin.fr/ and select the tab 'Vitesse' this shows you live traffic flow on all the Paris MWays (mostly green now though it is 10pm). Might be worth looking at a few times before you go at the right time of the day to get a general feel!

Ant

OK, I think I had confused people here (and myself!).

I guess the legendary "perifique" is the inner ring one....I have no intention of going that far in....it will either be the middle one or the outer one. I guess I will see which route my router planner(s) come up with as for whether I will go middle or outer (or whether I miss the junction to get on hte outer or not ).

WRT to getting to Calais I was going to head away from Paris a bit towards Metz (I think) and then pick up the A1 just North of Paris....that way there would be no danger o faccidently getting on to random ring roads I don't want to be on.

Many thanks