Great French roads..

[205GTi230]

Hi

My girlfriend and I have 10 days to enjoy driving and camping around France. I'd like to squeeze in as many good driving roads coupled with scenery and places to stop. Could anyone suggest what regions and roads would be a good start?

Thanks for any help..

Jonathan

[Davey S2]

10 days gives you lots of time.

I would drive all the way down to the South of France via some interesting stops on the way.

A good route down is Calais - Reims - Dijon - Grenoble - Cannes.

Use your sat nav to avoid the autoroutes and go cross country and you will find some briliant roads and nice towns and villages to stop for a coffee or lunch.

You could have a few days R&R in the South of France (Villefranch Sur Mer is a good place to stay - short hop on the train to either Monaco or Cannes)

Here is a write up of a trp I did which may give you some ideas

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

[havoc]

Davey S2 said:

10 days gives you lots of time.

I would drive all the way down to the South of France via some interesting stops on the way.

A good route down is Calais - Reims - Dijon - Grenoble - Cannes.

Use your sat nav to avoid the autoroutes and go cross country and you will find some briliant roads and nice towns and villages to stop for a coffee or lunch.

You could have a few days R&R in the South of France (Villefranch Sur Mer is a good place to stay - short hop on the train to either Monaco or Cannes)

Here is a write up of a trp I did which may give you some ideas

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

Funnily enough we did pretty-much that and stayed in St Paul and then Villefranche.

- Reims to Dijon has some nice roads, particularly if you can pick up the old D996. We ended up driving straight past Dijon-Prenois, and straight into Dijon rush-hour (avoid)!
- Grenoble is a nightmare near rush-hour, but the over-mountain run from there to Briancon and then further down is very good, and you pass a few Col's on the way which you can detour up/down. We cut-back via Savines-le-Lac and went down to Digne-les-Bains to pick-up the N85 (Route Napoleon), which was also very good.
- Instead of cutting back, from Briancon you can pick up the old 'Route des Grande Alpes' down to Menton, then do the N85 on the way back.
- Col de Vence is short but entertaining, but does seem to be a 'commuter road' from the surrounding villages early in the morning.
- Col de Turini is an hour or so from the coast (depending on where you stay - I had a ~3hr round-trip from Villefranche). Suits smaller, more agile cars better, but it's one of the most technical roads I've ever driven and does have some variety to it.
- I'd originally planned to do Mont Ventoux as well, but we were running late on the journey back up.

[205GTi230]

Thanks for your advice, really helpful tips cheers. We have to go to Angouleme to meet up with friends, this is on the West near Limoges. Has anyone driven down the West coast or is the East far nicer/interesting?

Thanks

Jonathan

[Smiler.]

Pvapour said:

....EZE .....

Nice place that

There used to be a bar in Knutsford of Wilmsow named after the place.

[Montezooma]

I did Calais to Cannes only a few weeks ago and found some fantastic roads - we did it over two days and tended to do autoroutes for the morning, to cover some ground, then an afternoon on more fun roads. Two sections absolutely stood out - really fantastic driving roads:

i) the N44 from just outside Reims to Dijon
ii) the Route de Napoleon or N85 from just outside Grenoble down to near Cannes (so called because it is apparently the route Napoleon took with his army way back when)

We actually did as suggested above, got to our midway point, had some lunch, then turned the sat nav to 'avoid motorways' and 'avoid toll roads' and followed that - it was absolutely fantastic.

Of course the main problem with going driving in France (that I found anyway), is it spoils you, and UK roads are just such a disappointment on your return. It showed me just how overcrowded this country is (and that doesn't just apply to the roads, sadly!)

have a great time!

late edit - missed the mention of the route napoleon above, oops... I just agree then!

Edited by Montezooma on Thursday 8th July 16:40

[Astonandy]

The D18 (East of Brive) was a pleasant surprise for me last year, especially between Marcillac-la-Croisille and Egletons. A mixture of straights with fast flowing banked corners, all on a good surface. Was great fun. A bit in the middle of nowhere unless you're pottering about the Dordogne.

[havoc]

Montezooma said:

I did Calais to Cannes only a few weeks ago and found some fantastic roads - we did it over two days and tended to do autoroutes for the morning, to cover some ground, then an afternoon on more fun roads. Two sections absolutely stood out - really fantastic driving roads:

We were there 17th to 27th...any overlap?

[Montezooma]

we drove down on the 4th & 5th and back on the 12th & 13th (via the Millau Viaduct - very impressive!) so almost, but not quite!