driving to South France

[kiwibella]

I'm trying to budget our travel expenses for getting down to Southern France in the half term. I reckon the tolls will be about £50 each way but uncertain about petrol costs. Actually we have diesel Ive read about filling up at the supermarket instead of services but any experiences or prices would be very helpful.

Yes, that's what it says.

To the OP, I don't know where you are driving to and from but I think it's a bit more than £50 each way for the tolls. Not much more.

Is it around 700 miles from the top to the bottom of France (rough guess). Anyhow that's a tank and a half of diesel for me. Prices slightly lower than UK prices from memory.

We always stop halfway. Just so that it's not a horribly marathon down the autoroute du soleil ... We try to find a nice city or village we've never been to and make it part of the holiday.

Have fun!!

oh good

Def worth using via michelin to look for routes, distances, times & prices.

The More Options link under Driving directions on the L lets you change fuel, currency & km/miles. And you can look for most economical route, but that avoids the toll roads & takes ages

Also, once it's calculated, if you click Simplify route under the map it gives just step-by-step instead of all the road signs etc.

The times given are usually optimistic though

Oooh Ruthiebabes - we go near there too - but close to St Jean dÄngleley. Saintes is lovely (nice shops too!). There was a thread a while back with lots of things to do in the region - will see if i can find it! I love Ile de Re - lovely beaches, restaurants. 4 weeks and counting - just hope the sum comes out!

I always take a 'sac magique' full of goodies, stocking filler/party bag type things to dole out every so often

make sure the contents are car proof though, yoyos adn rubber balls aren't well received

OllieWollieWooo... we are staying in a gite complex in a small village a few mins south of St Jean D'Angeley!!!!

Il de Re looks lovely.. but apparently v busy in August. What other beaches would you recommend that may not be so packed??

Here is the thread I mentioned - here. The accommodation linked to also has a good list of things to see.

Wonder if our gite complex is the same - ours has 2 gites and the (English) owners house with a shared pool! Got it through Owners Direct! Going for the 3rd year running as we love it so much! Will have a think re beaches.

The Judy Smith guide book is very good here

OllieWollieWoo... ours is a complex of 4 gites with English on site owners. Mirabelle Gites in Asnieres La Giraud, they are on Owners Direct as well.

If you visit any must sees would be great if you could let me know. Ours 2 boys are 6 and 4. Have done some research and there seems to be loads to do!!

Have a fab hol, hope the sun shines for you.

Prices are no longer lower on the continent than in the UK - we made that mistake last year, so this year I checked and dfound a web-site that told you the petrol prices along the route you were proposing (so you could fill up at the chepaest palces): I'll see if I can find it again.

As a result, we made sure to fill up at Calais - even the BP garage close to the ferry post was cheaper than on the French side !

This was in February, so am not sure if things have changed since then.

This might have been the site www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr/ - but it is only in French (which I can sppeak, so not an issue for me)

diesel is still lower - best price (ie in supermarkets) c 1.16 euro this week, or a smidgen over £1 at current exchange!

True - I was looking at petrol prices

petrol is more, which is weird considering how much extra tax we were always supposed to be paying compared with everywhere else - have they raised rates over there to match ours?

Hi WorzselMummage
My view is that they are never too young.

One year we drove from Calais to near Bilbao (with an overnight stop on the way). Spent a wonderful week there at a campsite in a place called Noja. We then drove across Spain to Estartit on the med(wonderful drive, stinking hot, no aircon, scenery like the moon). Spent a week in Estartit then drove round to the French alps for a week - beautiful scenery.

The children were aged 15 months, 2 1/2 years and 5 years. No regrets at all.

The youngest we have taken any of the children to France is about 10 months. This was proper camping in a tent. She was at the 'everything in the mouth' stage on a pebbley site. She was on a mission to wash each and every stone in the region!

more planning... so another question !!

I've been looking at the michelin site and trying to plan a journey using quickest / shortest / economical options. Seriously, is it worth paying €60 in tolls for a shorter or quicker journey?

I would say the tolls roads are 100% worth the money. Knowing there are good quality services every 20-30km is fantastic and if there are accidents on the peage, they prioritise getting things sorted ASAP. I guess it depends how quick you want to get to your destination but on the non-peage roads, they are often single carriageway with traffic lights etc and if you get stuck behind a farm vehicle which is highly likely, it can take forever to get past and you will then wish you'd taken the peage!

I 100% recommend it, but will be interested to see what others say

I love meandering off piste away from the motorway - but it takes two or threee times as long. It you want to get to the south of France in a couple of days - motorway is the answer. Children won't appreciate the views and pretty villages as much as you...and French service stations are well geared up for children.

Agree with aznerak, it is def worth it.

Last year we had to do a fairly short non-motorway bit, from Évreux past Chartres to pick up the motorway N of Orléans, & it took bloody hours because we did keep getting stuck behind tractors (also there seem to be far more roundabouts than on equivalent UK roads ) It's actually quicker to go a third further - approx 210km rather than 150km - on motorways, into & out of Paris, than to use the country roads.

The motorways aren't all toll anyway (but don't ask me which are & which aren't )

thanks for the advice... using michelin, the difference for our journey is between €60 and zero and 10 hours drive time and 14!!!

Viamichelin is great and it is giving you a 4 hour difference but that doesn't account for all the bloomin' tractors that suddenly seem to appear from nowhere as you are driving along and istead of zipping along at 130km/hr on the peage, you are suddenly tootling along at a pathetic 35km/hr with a child busting for a poo, no way of overtaking and no petrol station in sight, let alone a toilet that they will be prepared to use! My daughter has developed an innate fear of the hole in the ground places, when one of the more modern ones self-flushed with her "on it" so to speak! She got covered in flush water and is now terrified of them, so we HAVE to seek "proper" toilets and peage services are definitely more reliable than off-track ones!

If you stop at a service station that has a petrol station, there are ALWAYS decent loos. Also, try and keep a stash of euro coins in the car with you as the coffee machines in the services make amazingly good coffees as a quick and cheap pick-me-up!

sorry, didn't mean that to be such an epic

coins: noted. Hubs will appreciate that tip!

Also, got the message loud and clear - splurge the cash and drive the motorways. I'm sure everyone will appreciate spending several fewer hours in the car .

Hi Aznerak, I am so in agreement with your daughter about hole in the floor loos. Husband used to insist that these were somehow healthy(!) even when I was six months pregnant(!!) so would never make allowances and we would stop where these were the only choice.

Funnily enough, he changed his mind when he had to actually 'use' one himself and nearly put his hip out. Since then we have always stopped at petrol stations. Petrol stations normally have decent loos though often without toilet seats so small children may need help.

French motorway system offers some wonderful stops (aires). We now have some favourites which we aim for when travelling through.

We use a route planner to plan our route and include motorway stops, lunch breaks etc. We find this useful for working out where the overnight stop will need to be. There are a few of these packages around and I think they are well worth it.

My Liber-t thing came today - how quick is that? I am very impressed! Didn't realise it was an electronic thing though, so the machine reads it as you approach & you just sail through? Can't wait!

that was quick, Ponders! Hubs suggested ordering one yesterday but I figured it wouldn't get here in time.... besides, I got flummoxed trying to read the site in french . Maybe I'll get dd1 to have a look!