Bristol - Monaco
Discussion
Thought I’d do a little post of a thread of the recent road trip from Bristol with Monaco being the furthest destination, for the benefit of anyone thinking of planning something similar.
All told, the trip set us back a shade under £1,600 for me and the Mrs. Here is a rough breakdown of the figures. You can see my 3 minuet montage of the trip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWPlumF04HY
£400 fuel (2,000 miles – 28mpg average)
£500 accommodation, 5 nights all booked through this website, http://www.logishotels.com/ would very much recommend all the hotels I stayed at. All for around 100-130 Euros per night for the double room, don’t do what I used to do and get the cheapest 4 star hotel…
£80 peage – Toll Roads. It’s a shade under 5 euros from Nice to Monaco alone (40min journey), but the tunnels are well worth it! Having never driven in France before the French motorways were a total revelation. No 50mph average speed cameras, smooth and relatively underpopulated with traffic (no doubt due to the lower population density relative to the UK in fairness). The 130kph (in the dry) speed limit – or 84mph on the Clio’s speedo means that I didn’t need to be speeding to be making progress, well worth the tolls. I was overall impressed by the driving standards in France also they’ve got good lane discipline.
£160 EuroTunnel. Worth the premium over the ferry IMO for the speedy and smooth 35min journey. They’ll put you on an earlier train free if you’re early too.
Having been glued to the pages of Evo during the 2013 ECOTY test, and after having seen Harry take his Countach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiBMo7j5Gtk along it earlier in the year the Route Napoleon N85 was firmly on the bucket list, to be fair this video inspired the whole trip. To be honest it did start of by disappointing as the traffic was pretty heavy from Grenoble – Gap. However from Gap south it just keeps getting better Digne – Castellane was a particular highlight. We didn't but Castellane is probably a good lunch stop and quite touristy. The roads off the N85 are pretty epic too. The D2 to La Cour de Soup being a great fast clear sighted highlight for me that I won’t forget.
Unlike most great driving roads it’s a properly long drive of around 4 hours. Somehow the Mrs nearly chundered all over my interior, so it can be a bit much for some. We took the peage via Marseilles back.
Then it was three nights just north of Nice.
For me driving back from Monaco – Nice at Dusk was just as special as the N85. The tunnels are simply brilliant and most of the roads in Monaco itself seemed to be underground, great engineering.
Monaco speaks for itself really...
The Prince has a few nice motors also.
Sad to see a lot of exotica just collecting dust however.
Luckily, whilst I was in the Khazi reading Evo’s 200th issue I spotted Circuit De Reims being featured and stopped off on the way back. This is a really easy detour just off the main North/South road the E15/17.
Reims
Flat out through the gears across the start/finish straight (backwards I think) was an unforgettable experience. The grin on the friendly Irish man’s face as I snapped pass made my trip.
After some problems (me being the main problem being the donut doing the work on it) with the rear brakes the week before we left, the Clio performed faultlessly, and only required about 500ml of Oil.
So for those that haven’t yet done this. Please do. You won’t regret it.
All told, the trip set us back a shade under £1,600 for me and the Mrs. Here is a rough breakdown of the figures. You can see my 3 minuet montage of the trip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWPlumF04HY
£400 fuel (2,000 miles – 28mpg average)
£500 accommodation, 5 nights all booked through this website, http://www.logishotels.com/ would very much recommend all the hotels I stayed at. All for around 100-130 Euros per night for the double room, don’t do what I used to do and get the cheapest 4 star hotel…
£80 peage – Toll Roads. It’s a shade under 5 euros from Nice to Monaco alone (40min journey), but the tunnels are well worth it! Having never driven in France before the French motorways were a total revelation. No 50mph average speed cameras, smooth and relatively underpopulated with traffic (no doubt due to the lower population density relative to the UK in fairness). The 130kph (in the dry) speed limit – or 84mph on the Clio’s speedo means that I didn’t need to be speeding to be making progress, well worth the tolls. I was overall impressed by the driving standards in France also they’ve got good lane discipline.
£160 EuroTunnel. Worth the premium over the ferry IMO for the speedy and smooth 35min journey. They’ll put you on an earlier train free if you’re early too.
Having been glued to the pages of Evo during the 2013 ECOTY test, and after having seen Harry take his Countach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiBMo7j5Gtk along it earlier in the year the Route Napoleon N85 was firmly on the bucket list, to be fair this video inspired the whole trip. To be honest it did start of by disappointing as the traffic was pretty heavy from Grenoble – Gap. However from Gap south it just keeps getting better Digne – Castellane was a particular highlight. We didn't but Castellane is probably a good lunch stop and quite touristy. The roads off the N85 are pretty epic too. The D2 to La Cour de Soup being a great fast clear sighted highlight for me that I won’t forget.
Unlike most great driving roads it’s a properly long drive of around 4 hours. Somehow the Mrs nearly chundered all over my interior, so it can be a bit much for some. We took the peage via Marseilles back.
Then it was three nights just north of Nice.
For me driving back from Monaco – Nice at Dusk was just as special as the N85. The tunnels are simply brilliant and most of the roads in Monaco itself seemed to be underground, great engineering.
Monaco speaks for itself really...
The Prince has a few nice motors also.
Sad to see a lot of exotica just collecting dust however.
Luckily, whilst I was in the Khazi reading Evo’s 200th issue I spotted Circuit De Reims being featured and stopped off on the way back. This is a really easy detour just off the main North/South road the E15/17.
Reims
Flat out through the gears across the start/finish straight (backwards I think) was an unforgettable experience. The grin on the friendly Irish man’s face as I snapped pass made my trip.
After some problems (me being the main problem being the donut doing the work on it) with the rear brakes the week before we left, the Clio performed faultlessly, and only required about 500ml of Oil.
So for those that haven’t yet done this. Please do. You won’t regret it.
Edited by Goodsteed on Tuesday 2nd September 21:20
Edited by Goodsteed on Tuesday 2nd September 21:28
Looks like a good trip, making me jealous as we are expecting our first child so won't be going on another road trip for some time.
There is a sticky at the top of the page for Euro Trip write ups, make sure you add a link to this so that people orgainising a road trip can find it easily in future.
There is a sticky at the top of the page for Euro Trip write ups, make sure you add a link to this so that people orgainising a road trip can find it easily in future.
Gassing Station | Roads | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff