Advice please on best route from Calais to Monaco.......
Discussion
Hi all.
A friend & I are looking to drive down to Monaco from Calais and having not done this before, would appreciate any advice on a good route, giving us some great roads to drive on & some impressive scenery.
I have seen people recommend Route Napoleon & going on the Millau Viaduct (many seem to recommend sticking to France on the way down). I was maybe thinking of going via Belgium, Luxemburg & Switzerland, partly due to hearing the French Police seem to want to pick on Brits.
We can do 2 nightly stops on the way down to Monaco. Thanks for your help on this........
A friend & I are looking to drive down to Monaco from Calais and having not done this before, would appreciate any advice on a good route, giving us some great roads to drive on & some impressive scenery.
I have seen people recommend Route Napoleon & going on the Millau Viaduct (many seem to recommend sticking to France on the way down). I was maybe thinking of going via Belgium, Luxemburg & Switzerland, partly due to hearing the French Police seem to want to pick on Brits.
We can do 2 nightly stops on the way down to Monaco. Thanks for your help on this........
Police in any country will pick on anyone if they're driving stupidly. 
Living in Luxembourg, I regularly do the Calais>Luxembourg route. There's a LOT of roadworks in Belgium on the E42 at the moment, about 22km at max. 90km/hour, and the Belgians have installed a lot of cameras on their autoroute network too.
That said, the drive through the Ardennes on the E411 from Namur to Luxembourg is pretty, but it's better in early Autumn when the trees are chaning colour.
There are no tolls on this route.
Calais
Dunkirk
Lille
Mons
Charleroi
Namur
Luxembourg
Then, if you REALLY WANT to go to Switzerland, heading south again into France from Luxembourg, you reach the ugly industrial zone of Lorraine (Thionville to Metz) - Metz is a lovely city though, before heading towards Strasbourg, and in the Alsace I've seen a few Veyrons in the past getting their pre-delivery "shake down" around Molsheim.
http://www.bugatti.com/en/tradition/history/molshe...
From the Alsace, you head across to Germany, then Switzerland, crossing the border at Basel. Now there's a country that hates cars and fast driving!
If you head through Switzerland, though, you're looking at a drive south to Milan, then towards Genoa, before heading west to Monaco.
That's ~1,400km.
The most direct, but less interesting route, all autoroute through France, is ~1,350km.
If you're not in a hurry, the longer route's more interesting, and 6 countries too.
ETA: Having looked at your profile, if you're driving from Surrey, Strasbourg's easily reached in day 1.
Living in Luxembourg, I regularly do the Calais>Luxembourg route. There's a LOT of roadworks in Belgium on the E42 at the moment, about 22km at max. 90km/hour, and the Belgians have installed a lot of cameras on their autoroute network too.
That said, the drive through the Ardennes on the E411 from Namur to Luxembourg is pretty, but it's better in early Autumn when the trees are chaning colour.
There are no tolls on this route.
Calais
Dunkirk
Lille
Mons
Charleroi
Namur
Luxembourg
Then, if you REALLY WANT to go to Switzerland, heading south again into France from Luxembourg, you reach the ugly industrial zone of Lorraine (Thionville to Metz) - Metz is a lovely city though, before heading towards Strasbourg, and in the Alsace I've seen a few Veyrons in the past getting their pre-delivery "shake down" around Molsheim.
http://www.bugatti.com/en/tradition/history/molshe...
From the Alsace, you head across to Germany, then Switzerland, crossing the border at Basel. Now there's a country that hates cars and fast driving!
If you head through Switzerland, though, you're looking at a drive south to Milan, then towards Genoa, before heading west to Monaco.
That's ~1,400km.
The most direct, but less interesting route, all autoroute through France, is ~1,350km.
If you're not in a hurry, the longer route's more interesting, and 6 countries too.
ETA: Having looked at your profile, if you're driving from Surrey, Strasbourg's easily reached in day 1.
iva cosworth said:
I don't have a route advice but the French police have never bothered me driving all the
way down to Italy through France.
No problems here either, I do tend to take it easy this side of Reims. way down to Italy through France.
The Millau Viaduct is a long route round (and Paris gets in the way) better to spend more time in the Alp Maritime.
Search Route des Grandes Alpes - on PH or elsewhere. I have discussed & recommended it on many occasions. If you want fantastic scenery, Tour de France mountain passes, Monte Carlo Rally roads (Turini?) & a road that ends a few km east of Monaco you won't do better. Guaranteed.
BTW you can buy a map of the Route produced by the IGN (French equivalent of the Ordance Survey), I bought mine from Stanford's. A bonus is that the route is signposted. To get the best out of the drive you need to start early to avoid the campers & shed-draggers.
By all means pm for an interesting route to get to the start of the above.
Finally get yourself a French motorway pass via Sanef - makes queuing a thing of the past at toll booths & is quite satisfying to slip seemlessly past loads of Brits waiting to pay by cash or card. Again discussed on this forum in the past.
BTW you can buy a map of the Route produced by the IGN (French equivalent of the Ordance Survey), I bought mine from Stanford's. A bonus is that the route is signposted. To get the best out of the drive you need to start early to avoid the campers & shed-draggers.
By all means pm for an interesting route to get to the start of the above.
Finally get yourself a French motorway pass via Sanef - makes queuing a thing of the past at toll booths & is quite satisfying to slip seemlessly past loads of Brits waiting to pay by cash or card. Again discussed on this forum in the past.
Something else that will be discussed ad infinitum in the coming months(particularly in the run up to Le Mans):
France is no longer a playground where speeding goes unpunished. A friend has just returned and was caught for doing 145 kmh in a 90 kmh zone; it was a road that I know very well (fantastic surface, low traffic, straight, flat - so perfect sight lines) - he landed a 135 Euro fine and an instant 3 month ban from driving in France.
Tolerances are broadly similar to the UK. Enjoy the scenery, revel in the twisty roads but don't take the mick on warp speeds - the ultimate sanction is confiscation of the car (if it is yours).
France is no longer a playground where speeding goes unpunished. A friend has just returned and was caught for doing 145 kmh in a 90 kmh zone; it was a road that I know very well (fantastic surface, low traffic, straight, flat - so perfect sight lines) - he landed a 135 Euro fine and an instant 3 month ban from driving in France.
Tolerances are broadly similar to the UK. Enjoy the scenery, revel in the twisty roads but don't take the mick on warp speeds - the ultimate sanction is confiscation of the car (if it is yours).
audidoody said:
Slightly off topic but how long to you want to stay in Monaco for? An afternoon was enough for me.
I would give it a miss altogeather. Far nice places to stay. Menton, Villefranch, Beaulieu, St Jean, Nice, Eze, Mougin, St Paul, Antibes, etc etc. I just don't get the whole Monaco thing (although plenty do so maybe I'm weird)DangerDoom said:
Are many of the passes open at the end of May?
Thinking about driving down for the Monaco F1. Notice that some of the Swiss Alpine passes don't open until the 1st of June. Do they rigidly stick to that or do they open them up earlier if conditions are acceptable?
They will open when they are clear. We got caught out on the drive back from the GP over the Alps, one of our days became about 300 miles longer due to a pass still being closed.Thinking about driving down for the Monaco F1. Notice that some of the Swiss Alpine passes don't open until the 1st of June. Do they rigidly stick to that or do they open them up earlier if conditions are acceptable?
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