Opinions on my planned route through France!
Discussion
Hi Guys,
What do you all think of this route to Cannes? Hopefully will be doing it around mid July and should have my Tuscan by then! Going with the girlfriend and we really want to see some incredible scenery and then spend a week somewhere with a nice beach, etc. Planning on staying at Trigance for 2 nights at the castle and taking a drive around and through Verdon Gorge on day 4. On our stop-overs we'd like there to be a bit of nightlife and places to eat/drink/have fun.
What do you guys think of our route and the places we've chosen to stop at? Can anyone suggest anything better?
How much do you think it'll cost in tolls and petrol? I'm not going to be driving like a nut (well, not all the way there!) as the Mrs will get scared. Are there any roads we should make a point of checking out, apart from Route Napoleon?
I don't want to do more than a couple of hours of driving per day, hence the stops overnight. Not sure of the route back yet... may just follow the same or book ourselves and car onto a train!
Day 1:
London - Folkstone (1 hr 35) (Stop for breakfast)
Folkstone - Calais (0 hr 50) ~ Ferry / Eurotunnel
Calais - Rheims (2 hr 33) (Stay 1 night)
Day 2:
Rheims - Dijon (2 hr 45) (Stop for lunch)
Dijon - Grenoble (2 hr 55) (Stay 1 night)
Day 3:
Grenoble - Gap (1 hr 49) - Via Route Napoleon (stop for lunch)
Gap - Trigance (2 hr 06) - via Route Napoleon (Stay 2 nights)
Day 4:
Trigance - Verdon Gorge (0 hr 50)
Verdon Gorge - Trigance (0 hr 50)
Day 5:
Trigance - Cannes (1 hr 38) - Via Route Napoleon (Stay 5 nights)
Cheers all!
Justin
What do you all think of this route to Cannes? Hopefully will be doing it around mid July and should have my Tuscan by then! Going with the girlfriend and we really want to see some incredible scenery and then spend a week somewhere with a nice beach, etc. Planning on staying at Trigance for 2 nights at the castle and taking a drive around and through Verdon Gorge on day 4. On our stop-overs we'd like there to be a bit of nightlife and places to eat/drink/have fun.
What do you guys think of our route and the places we've chosen to stop at? Can anyone suggest anything better?
How much do you think it'll cost in tolls and petrol? I'm not going to be driving like a nut (well, not all the way there!) as the Mrs will get scared. Are there any roads we should make a point of checking out, apart from Route Napoleon?
I don't want to do more than a couple of hours of driving per day, hence the stops overnight. Not sure of the route back yet... may just follow the same or book ourselves and car onto a train!
Day 1:
London - Folkstone (1 hr 35) (Stop for breakfast)
Folkstone - Calais (0 hr 50) ~ Ferry / Eurotunnel
Calais - Rheims (2 hr 33) (Stay 1 night)
Day 2:
Rheims - Dijon (2 hr 45) (Stop for lunch)
Dijon - Grenoble (2 hr 55) (Stay 1 night)
Day 3:
Grenoble - Gap (1 hr 49) - Via Route Napoleon (stop for lunch)
Gap - Trigance (2 hr 06) - via Route Napoleon (Stay 2 nights)
Day 4:
Trigance - Verdon Gorge (0 hr 50)
Verdon Gorge - Trigance (0 hr 50)
Day 5:
Trigance - Cannes (1 hr 38) - Via Route Napoleon (Stay 5 nights)
Cheers all!
Justin
BigJL said:
Hi Guys,
What do you all think of this route to Cannes? Hopefully will be doing it around mid July and should have my Tuscan by then! Going with the girlfriend and we really want to see some incredible scenery and then spend a week somewhere with a nice beach, etc. Planning on staying at Trigance for 2 nights at the castle and taking a drive around and through Verdon Gorge on day 4. On our stop-overs we'd like there to be a bit of nightlife and places to eat/drink/have fun.
What do you guys think of our route and the places we've chosen to stop at? Can anyone suggest anything better?
How much do you think it'll cost in tolls and petrol? I'm not going to be driving like a nut (well, not all the way there!) as the Mrs will get scared. Are there any roads we should make a point of checking out, apart from Route Napoleon?
I don't want to do more than a couple of hours of driving per day, hence the stops overnight. Not sure of the route back yet... may just follow the same or book ourselves and car onto a train!
Day 1:
London - Folkstone (1 hr 35) (Stop for breakfast)
Folkstone - Calais (0 hr 50) ~ Ferry / Eurotunnel
Calais - Rheims (2 hr 33) (Stay 1 night)
Day 2:
Rheims - Dijon (2 hr 45) (Stop for lunch)
Dijon - Grenoble (2 hr 55) (Stay 1 night)
Day 3:
Grenoble - Gap (1 hr 49) - Via Route Napoleon (stop for lunch)
Gap - Trigance (2 hr 06) - via Route Napoleon (Stay 2 nights)
Day 4:
Trigance - Verdon Gorge (0 hr 50)
Verdon Gorge - Trigance (0 hr 50)
Day 5:
Trigance - Cannes (1 hr 38) - Via Route Napoleon (Stay 5 nights)
Cheers all!
Justin
Unless you're Ari Vatanen allocate more than than 1 hr 40 minutes if you want to drive round the Gorges du Verdon - well worth it as well What do you all think of this route to Cannes? Hopefully will be doing it around mid July and should have my Tuscan by then! Going with the girlfriend and we really want to see some incredible scenery and then spend a week somewhere with a nice beach, etc. Planning on staying at Trigance for 2 nights at the castle and taking a drive around and through Verdon Gorge on day 4. On our stop-overs we'd like there to be a bit of nightlife and places to eat/drink/have fun.
What do you guys think of our route and the places we've chosen to stop at? Can anyone suggest anything better?
How much do you think it'll cost in tolls and petrol? I'm not going to be driving like a nut (well, not all the way there!) as the Mrs will get scared. Are there any roads we should make a point of checking out, apart from Route Napoleon?
I don't want to do more than a couple of hours of driving per day, hence the stops overnight. Not sure of the route back yet... may just follow the same or book ourselves and car onto a train!
Day 1:
London - Folkstone (1 hr 35) (Stop for breakfast)
Folkstone - Calais (0 hr 50) ~ Ferry / Eurotunnel
Calais - Rheims (2 hr 33) (Stay 1 night)
Day 2:
Rheims - Dijon (2 hr 45) (Stop for lunch)
Dijon - Grenoble (2 hr 55) (Stay 1 night)
Day 3:
Grenoble - Gap (1 hr 49) - Via Route Napoleon (stop for lunch)
Gap - Trigance (2 hr 06) - via Route Napoleon (Stay 2 nights)
Day 4:
Trigance - Verdon Gorge (0 hr 50)
Verdon Gorge - Trigance (0 hr 50)
Day 5:
Trigance - Cannes (1 hr 38) - Via Route Napoleon (Stay 5 nights)
Cheers all!
Justin
looks ok.
i) i use www.viamichelin.co.uk for routes/mileage info, but more importantly their timing forecasts are pretty accurate.
ii) there are good parallel routes to the route de napoleon ... worth a look, especially if you've "done" the RDN before.
iii)hotel du commerce in castellane is a good stopover by the gorges du verdon.
good luck
d
i) i use www.viamichelin.co.uk for routes/mileage info, but more importantly their timing forecasts are pretty accurate.
ii) there are good parallel routes to the route de napoleon ... worth a look, especially if you've "done" the RDN before.
iii)hotel du commerce in castellane is a good stopover by the gorges du verdon.
good luck
d F308 MAN said:
looks ok.
i) i use www.viamichelin.co.uk for routes/mileage info, but more importantly their timing forecasts are pretty accurate.
ii) there are good parallel routes to the route de napoleon ... worth a look, especially if you've "done" the RDN before.
iii)hotel du commerce in castellane is a good stopover by the gorges du verdon.
good luck
d
Glad you answered - Dave is right!!i) i use www.viamichelin.co.uk for routes/mileage info, but more importantly their timing forecasts are pretty accurate.
ii) there are good parallel routes to the route de napoleon ... worth a look, especially if you've "done" the RDN before.
iii)hotel du commerce in castellane is a good stopover by the gorges du verdon.
good luck
d Cheers for the info.
I'll check out the viamichelin site. I've never done the Route Napoleon before, the furthest I've driven into France was for Le Mans about 6 years ago.
What would you recommend I budget for the whole trip? I know this can be anything depending on where you stay/eat/etc but just so I have a rough idea in my head?
Cheers!
J
I'll check out the viamichelin site. I've never done the Route Napoleon before, the furthest I've driven into France was for Le Mans about 6 years ago.
What would you recommend I budget for the whole trip? I know this can be anything depending on where you stay/eat/etc but just so I have a rough idea in my head?
Cheers!
J
blondemoment said:
Glad you answered ...
hi jo ... hope all is well ?BigJL said:
What would you recommend I budget for the whole trip?
hello j,last year we did circa 3k (each car) in 10 days, includuing le Mans.
this year we anticipate £3.5k over 12 days, excluding Le Mans.
i "looked" at the castle at tigrance (Spl?) but felt uncomfortable with fourteen blokes in seven four poster beds !
cheers for now, d
route looks great. my only suggestion would be to do route napoleon as early in the morning as you can - traffic will be a bitch later in the day if you're there in july.
ok, so i have another suggestion: buy a michelin map and use this to plan your route back - their "scenic" routes are marked with a green line alongside the road. by "scenic" read "really awesome driving road"! Anything in the mountains with a green line will be a blast
ok, so i have another suggestion: buy a michelin map and use this to plan your route back - their "scenic" routes are marked with a green line alongside the road. by "scenic" read "really awesome driving road"! Anything in the mountains with a green line will be a blast
F308 MAN said:
hi jo ... hope all is well ?
Fine & dandy, thanks, but I didn't get your email - can you send it again?BigJL said:
What would you recommend I budget for the whole trip?
F308 MAN said:
hello j,
last year we did circa 3k (each car) in 10 days, includuing le Mans.
this year we anticipate £3.5k over 12 days, excluding Le Mans.
Agreed - £1k per week each - the norm.last year we did circa 3k (each car) in 10 days, includuing le Mans.
this year we anticipate £3.5k over 12 days, excluding Le Mans.
F308 MAN said:
i "looked" at the castle at tigrance (Spl?) but felt uncomfortable with fourteen blokes in seven four poster beds !
cheers for now, d
It gets very busy - make sure you book early - rooms are quite basic, but it is popular.cheers for now, d
p.s Where are you staying in Grenoble - it's huge & there's only a few hotels I'd recommend....
Similar to our 6 day tour, but we're going for it a little more than that . . 2 x Grffiths and 1 Cerberra . . .
Day 1 Bolougne to Grenoble Getting there boring Autoroute 513.13m
Day 2 Grenoble to Monaco Alp D'Huez, Route Du Napoleon 268.43m
Day 3 Monaco to Avignon Col Du Turini, Gorge De Verdon, Mont Ventoux 315.41m
Day 4 Avignon to Aurillac Corniche des Cevennes, Gorge Tarn, Viaduc Millau 324.36m
Day 5 Aurillac to Le Mans Puy Mary, Puy de Dome, 371.08m
Day 6 Le Mans to Bolougne Traditional route home, full length N138 tour . . . . 235.62m
We're off in May and each day has been planned with a shorter alternative depending on weather, snow on mountains and how knackered we are . . . Our daily averagr is 340 miles which is pretty high given the roads, but we've picked the quickest routes between the bits we want to do and we can always uct bits off. We are not sight seeing particularly, just going for the driving
A good example is Day 2, we can scrap Alp D'huez and go straight down Route Napolean, Day 3 we may need to drop the Col D'Turini or Mont Ventoux depending on the above and so on . . .
Best to give yourself options. One thing I learnt when on a Megahoon was that it's better to have more planned and miss stuff out than get somewhere early wishing you had done more.
I have little doubt we'll trim ours while there, but we'd prefer to hve a route to do th elot if weather, traffic and condition of drivers allows . . .
I use Autoroute 2006 (£30)as I don't want the live GPS bit which comes with Autoroute 2007, and then a conversion programme to put them into TomTom. The conversion programme also allows you to check your route on Google earth and refine it a bit better than on Autoroute . ..
Have a good one !
Day 1 Bolougne to Grenoble Getting there boring Autoroute 513.13m
Day 2 Grenoble to Monaco Alp D'Huez, Route Du Napoleon 268.43m
Day 3 Monaco to Avignon Col Du Turini, Gorge De Verdon, Mont Ventoux 315.41m
Day 4 Avignon to Aurillac Corniche des Cevennes, Gorge Tarn, Viaduc Millau 324.36m
Day 5 Aurillac to Le Mans Puy Mary, Puy de Dome, 371.08m
Day 6 Le Mans to Bolougne Traditional route home, full length N138 tour . . . . 235.62m
We're off in May and each day has been planned with a shorter alternative depending on weather, snow on mountains and how knackered we are . . . Our daily averagr is 340 miles which is pretty high given the roads, but we've picked the quickest routes between the bits we want to do and we can always uct bits off. We are not sight seeing particularly, just going for the driving
A good example is Day 2, we can scrap Alp D'huez and go straight down Route Napolean, Day 3 we may need to drop the Col D'Turini or Mont Ventoux depending on the above and so on . . .
Best to give yourself options. One thing I learnt when on a Megahoon was that it's better to have more planned and miss stuff out than get somewhere early wishing you had done more.
I have little doubt we'll trim ours while there, but we'd prefer to hve a route to do th elot if weather, traffic and condition of drivers allows . . .
I use Autoroute 2006 (£30)as I don't want the live GPS bit which comes with Autoroute 2007, and then a conversion programme to put them into TomTom. The conversion programme also allows you to check your route on Google earth and refine it a bit better than on Autoroute . ..
Have a good one !
Hey guys and girls,
This is really useful info and a great help. I've no idea where to stay in Grenoble, or anywhere else for that matter! If anyone can advise on hotels that's be really good. I do like the sound of the castle in Trigance so will try and book asap.
£1k per week? Not too bad. I wish I could go earlier to miss all the traffic but the other half is a teacher and she can only get the school holidays off
Cheers!
J
This is really useful info and a great help. I've no idea where to stay in Grenoble, or anywhere else for that matter! If anyone can advise on hotels that's be really good. I do like the sound of the castle in Trigance so will try and book asap.
£1k per week? Not too bad. I wish I could go earlier to miss all the traffic but the other half is a teacher and she can only get the school holidays off
Cheers!
J
I can recommend L'Assiette Champenoise as a place to stay in Reims. The restaurant there is fantastic - the tasting menu is pure theatre (scissors to cut your marshmallow dessert, a dedicated stool next to your table on which to put Madame's/Mademoiselle's handbag, a separate sommelier for red & white wines, etc)!
blondemoment said:
F308 MAN said:
last year we did circa 3k (each car) in 10 days, includuing le Mans.
this year we anticipate £3.5k over 12 days, excluding Le Mans.
Agreed - £1k per week each - the norm.this year we anticipate £3.5k over 12 days, excluding Le Mans.
we know how to PARTY !
dps ... gorges and como hotels both booked, btw.
Couple of recommendations:
Dont stay in Grenoble, its an industrial town. We always stay @ this lovely place just outside Chambery:
http://www.chateaudescomtesdechalles.com/challes/i...
Slight change to your route; if you're driving down the route napolean then you have to drive the D2 / Col 'd Vence either on the way down or the way back. A simply epic driving road, not to be missed. Look out for the D2211 junction on the Route Napolean.....
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geoc...
Dont stay in Grenoble, its an industrial town. We always stay @ this lovely place just outside Chambery:
http://www.chateaudescomtesdechalles.com/challes/i...
Slight change to your route; if you're driving down the route napolean then you have to drive the D2 / Col 'd Vence either on the way down or the way back. A simply epic driving road, not to be missed. Look out for the D2211 junction on the Route Napolean.....
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geoc...
trackdemon
Thanks for the advice. On Day 3 we now do the Col d'Turini, Col de Vence and then the Gorge Verdon on our way to Avignon. Perhaps if we have time we'll do Ventoux as well, but I don't think we will. The route we were using didn't go across the Vence route, but it does now
We just booked a hotel in Grenoble today, thinking that after 550+ miles as long as it has a bar and a bed we won't much care after that, but have kept a link to the hotel there
Thanks for the advice. On Day 3 we now do the Col d'Turini, Col de Vence and then the Gorge Verdon on our way to Avignon. Perhaps if we have time we'll do Ventoux as well, but I don't think we will. The route we were using didn't go across the Vence route, but it does now
We just booked a hotel in Grenoble today, thinking that after 550+ miles as long as it has a bar and a bed we won't much care after that, but have kept a link to the hotel there
What do you all think a maximum 'miles per day' should be for an enjoyable journey? Or maybe it's better to go by driving time. I'm thinking anything around 3 hours, lunch, then another 3 hours, max per day.
Is that too much? Will we get knackered and fed up? Will the girlfriend be in a bad mood the whole holiday...?!
I can't see another way of doing it though without stopping somewhere for another day which I don't really wanna do. The problem I'm finding is that it's hard to plan as you have to book hotels in advance. If anything goes wrong on route or you're getting tired of driving then it's not like you can stay another day somewhere without messing up the whole plan!
J
Is that too much? Will we get knackered and fed up? Will the girlfriend be in a bad mood the whole holiday...?!
I can't see another way of doing it though without stopping somewhere for another day which I don't really wanna do. The problem I'm finding is that it's hard to plan as you have to book hotels in advance. If anything goes wrong on route or you're getting tired of driving then it's not like you can stay another day somewhere without messing up the whole plan!
J
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