Driving from England to ski resort in France

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Has anyone done this?

Dh currently pricing up a last minute ski holiday for February. He's wanting to drive there but I'm not convinced. Will the roads to the resorts be ok to drive on? We've done a lot of driving in Europe but only in the summer months.

Any advice would be appreciated

Well, Dijon is about 5 hours driving time from Calais in normal traffic. If you're staying at Chalons Sur Saone (as opposed to Chalons en Champagne) it's about another 45 mins on from there. You'll need to factor in stops, but it should be doable.

We did the drive from London to the Alps a couple of years ago - it's great fun. French service stations are marvellous.

Again, make sure you take snow chains and that your tyre pressures are good.

We drive every year to the Southern Alps...think Risoul, Vars, LEs Orres, Serre Che.

It is a long drive but not that difficult.

1. Ensure that you have enough distractions for DCs.
2. Food in the car is a good idea (service stations can be busy and expensive). Sweets and thermos of coffee.
3. Try and avoid conjestion points. Check the Bison Fute website.
4. Snow chains. Having put these on 3 x last weekend, I consider myself a bit of an expert. You should buy chains from Halfords or www.roofbox.co.uk. Good site with excellent advice. Snow chains start around 45+
5. Practice putting them on before you need them. Should take about 10 minutes, but can take a lot longer. I got some odd looks in South London!
6. French police can be lovely and helpful (well one guy was). He helped us get them off...you need to turn the wheel left and right.

Have fun. Wish I was going again.

You have to have snow chains, it is illegal not to. Plus, if is is snowy then you really will need them, it isn't like when it snows in England.

Agree with practising the snow chains - when you need them is not the time to work it out from scratch!

No definitely not!

We were behind someone doing this on the way into resort a few years ago when the snow was coming down so so heavily. They caused the most god-awful traffic jam, in the end DH and a couple of others went to help this couple because they were in such a difficulty.