Calais to Bordeaux Sat 2nd August - how awful?

[numtumfutunch]

Hi

Id posted this in the holidays forum last month without realising you guys existed - sorry

We're overnighting an hour south of Calais next week and plan to be on the road to Bordeaux soon after breakfast on Saturday the 2nd

Im aware this may be a bad time but am not sure just how bad

I'll fill the tank on Friday night and we will have enough water and food to be self sufficient but any pointers for survival over and above our Sanef tag plus rough thoughts on the current Google nav ETA of 7h driving would be very welcome

Route is obvious:

Rouen
Le Mans
Tours
Poitiers
Bordeaux
Gite
Beer, wine, BBQ, etc etc etc

Merci!

[numtumfutunch]

Aaaaargh
Thanks for the replies

Unfortunately we are committed to that day and cant get much further south on Friday due to domestics back at home

Interestingly we've travelled to the Loire on that weekend for the last 2 years and its been absolutely fine
The mitigating factor though has been that we have hit Calais at approx 1300h local time due to the UK leg and Im guessing have missed the bulk of the traffic at that time sailing straight through to Tours

It sounds as though getting up at 6AM may not be much of an advantage so we might just have a lie in and go with the flow regardless

Im pragmatic about the delays, the kids have been primed, and we have filled up my phone with music too

Many thanks, at least I will now be prepared for moderate pain

[numtumfutunch]

Well Im back and sipping a glass of red to unwind

The short of it is that the journey was much, much better than expected
Google predicted 7h from my B&B to our digs on a regular day and our total moving time worked out at 7h 45min which Im ecstatic about TBH

The long of it is as follows:

Ive been an evangelist of Waze for approx 12 months in the UK and saw no reason why it shouldnt work in France so decided to run data on my phone on each day of travelling and blindly let it be the boss

We left Le Touquet at 9AM and headed into Rouen thinking it would be OK at his time
Waze ignored the suggested diversion and took me a junction or so on the A29 but onto the A151 instead of the preferred PH Yvetot route
The A151 was dual carriageway to the city centre and took a pretty effective path over one of the bridges back out and onto the A13
Interestingly an Audi on a distinctive personalised UK plate passed me at speed just before I hit the A29 leading me to think he was on a mission from God and then passed me again miles after Rouen, I know he could have stopped for fuel or even a 5 course lunch but Im pretty sure my route was the more efficient

After that it was plain sailing until just outside of Tours when Waze shunted me off the A28 for a modest cross country jaunt before joining a rather lovely and deserted dual carriageway sigh posted "Saumur" leading to the A10 which was utterly gridlocked but beginning to move
Looking at the live traffic screen on my phone this diversion appeared to have saved me a huge amount of pain and misery

The A10 then moved in fits and starts with very heavy traffic to Poitiers where Waze again binned the conventional at Junction 30 for the N10 - an old school dual carriageway which ran beautifully at 110kph all the way to just outside of Bordeaux

I met some people who were on the road at the same time as us who spent over 5h on the A10 going from Poitiers to Bordeaux and almost felt embarrassed confessing how the journey was for us on the alternative route

So all in all a pretty good trip
I can relate to the stories of misery but happily missed most of it