Autoroute du Soleil in August

Will be driving down to just south of Lyon and back in the second half of August, via Reims / Troyes/ Dijon, having not been to that area of France before. Wiki tells me that in the summer “the traffic jams can stretch for hundreds of kilometres ”!!!

Is this hyperbole, or is it particularly bad? French motorway experience up until now has been that they’re a dream compared to the UK!

Merci beaucoup, I will peruse with Google Translate in hand… it does not look great for our trip out on 17th Aug!

I would strongly suggest that you take all warnings of doom and gloom extremely seriously. If you try to travel on the wrong day it will be hell on earth. The bison fute posted previously is a good starting point, but it's very well known, so you won't be the only person using the alternative routes (mild understatement here). You're best off avoiding peak dates completely.

If you're heading to just south of Lyon you might not hit the worst of the jams which are on the A7 from Lyon down to Orange, but you still have the issue of navigating Lyon itself - people will suggest using the A46 bypass rather than going straight through the middle but that can get just as jammed up depending on the time of day.

I drove to Nice in August 2022 and was aware of the legendary summer traffic jams so made the decision to travel south on a Sunday when HGVs are banned and most of France is closed (albeit via Grenoble and the Route Napoleon) and then back north up the A8/A7/A6 on a Thursday. I had a clear run there and back so if you can avoid weekends if at all possible you might have an easier journey.

Hmmm.....

Be careful - 15th August is a Bank Holiday, and unlike in the UK it happens on that day rather than the closest Monday. What tends to happen is that people join it up to the closest weekend to make a long weekend out of the bank holiday (making the bridge).