Driving the South of France
Discussion
Hi folks
Just starting to think about next summers proposed Euro drive and was thinking about heading down to the SoF, then east into Italy maybe looking for some mountain action.
A few questions if I may?...
- Where would you hit the Med coast to start the journey east? Marseilles West/East of Marseilles? Saint Tropez? Having never been to the area I am all ears
- French Alps or Italian? I have previously driven the Grosglockner and Stelvio passes.
- Can you suggest some good driving roads in the area?
In all we will have about 10-12 days away and usually start our travels with a first night in Kent prior to going through the Chunnel. We also have a favourite place in N France to stay for the last night prior to the Chunnel again.
TIA
Just starting to think about next summers proposed Euro drive and was thinking about heading down to the SoF, then east into Italy maybe looking for some mountain action.
A few questions if I may?...
- Where would you hit the Med coast to start the journey east? Marseilles West/East of Marseilles? Saint Tropez? Having never been to the area I am all ears
- French Alps or Italian? I have previously driven the Grosglockner and Stelvio passes.
- Can you suggest some good driving roads in the area?
In all we will have about 10-12 days away and usually start our travels with a first night in Kent prior to going through the Chunnel. We also have a favourite place in N France to stay for the last night prior to the Chunnel again.
TIA
Hi Graham.
Great roads to be driven down there.
I added a couple of replies to previous threads, so I've just copy/pasted the info here.
Just some ideas.
Cheers,
Jon
-
Hi.
As you're in that neck of the woods, then this place is a must - http://www.francethisway.com/places/gorgesduverdon...
It's a fantastic place - often refered to as the Grand Canyon of Europe. I've been hiking there a couple of times and it's superb. Stay in Castellane - http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Tourism-g677532-Caste... - and enjoy the drive there on one of the best Pistonheads roads -the Route Napoleon (http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webchapter.it%2Fviaggi%2Froute_napoleon.shtm) - translated page. If you are there with your other half, then visit Grasse on the way out of Cannes where you can get a free tour of any number of perfume factories - actually quite interesting!
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and this reply from another thread (probably duplicating some stuff, sorry)
I'm sure others will be along with better ideas, but in the meantime, then you could do worse than investigate this route...
http://www.grande-traversee-alpes.com
We did it (in a hired Focus estate....!!) last year in early June and it is amazing. We flew to Lyon and went to Annecy (a MUST see - little bit touristy, but for a reason)- (we then spent a couple of days in Chamonix for some hiking) - but you could start your drive from Annecy area (due East of Lyon) and then follow it via Bourg-saint-maurice then onto Val D'Isere (there is an superb medeival town just outside Val D'Isere over the top of the pass - cant remember a name, though - worth a bit of time to explore it) then onto saint-martin-d'arc then Briancon then at the Meyronnes junction, we went via Barchonnet and saint-martin-d'entraunes and villeneuve then saint-martin-vesubie then sospel and onto the south coast at Menton, where its a short drive to Monaco or Nice (if you fancy splashing out for a night out). Quite a lot of this route is used on Tour de France stages.
This is only an idea, but we were amazed by the scenery and some of the lovely old french villages and the drive itself is just fantastic - definately some of Europe's best driving roads and there are quite a few Ibis / Novotel / F1 / Campanile type hotels on the way or guest houses (depending on the budget).
Must admit we were fairly new to France when we went and went to SW France last year too, but the scenery in the Pyrenees wasn't a patch on the Route des Grandes Alpes (in our opinion - before anyone else disagrees).
Also, Route Napoleon ( http://www.beyond.fr/map/mpnapol.html ) crops up quite a lot on here as a superb driving road and this is north of Cannes - might be a good way of going back home again we drove back to Lyon this way - through Grasse (famous for Perfume and has a few free factory tours if you're into that kind of thing - or "Mrs Pete" is...!!). If you're into hiking or spectacular scenery, then a detour from Route Napoleon we did was to the Gorges du Verdon - http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/groupes/verdon/pays.ht... (nearest town Castellane) which is often called "Europe's Grand Canyon") - again amazing scenery - there are routes in and around the Gorge (memorable for us as the hire car broke down in the middle of nowhere and we had a nail biting drive in a recovery truck with the driver negotiating hairpin bends whilst turning around to talk to us and texting at the same time with our car not tied down on the back of his flatbed at all and we could feel the car shifting when going around the bends......)
Great roads to be driven down there.
I added a couple of replies to previous threads, so I've just copy/pasted the info here.
Just some ideas.
Cheers,
Jon
-
Hi.
As you're in that neck of the woods, then this place is a must - http://www.francethisway.com/places/gorgesduverdon...
It's a fantastic place - often refered to as the Grand Canyon of Europe. I've been hiking there a couple of times and it's superb. Stay in Castellane - http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Tourism-g677532-Caste... - and enjoy the drive there on one of the best Pistonheads roads -the Route Napoleon (http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webchapter.it%2Fviaggi%2Froute_napoleon.shtm) - translated page. If you are there with your other half, then visit Grasse on the way out of Cannes where you can get a free tour of any number of perfume factories - actually quite interesting!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
and this reply from another thread (probably duplicating some stuff, sorry)
I'm sure others will be along with better ideas, but in the meantime, then you could do worse than investigate this route...
http://www.grande-traversee-alpes.com
We did it (in a hired Focus estate....!!) last year in early June and it is amazing. We flew to Lyon and went to Annecy (a MUST see - little bit touristy, but for a reason)- (we then spent a couple of days in Chamonix for some hiking) - but you could start your drive from Annecy area (due East of Lyon) and then follow it via Bourg-saint-maurice then onto Val D'Isere (there is an superb medeival town just outside Val D'Isere over the top of the pass - cant remember a name, though - worth a bit of time to explore it) then onto saint-martin-d'arc then Briancon then at the Meyronnes junction, we went via Barchonnet and saint-martin-d'entraunes and villeneuve then saint-martin-vesubie then sospel and onto the south coast at Menton, where its a short drive to Monaco or Nice (if you fancy splashing out for a night out). Quite a lot of this route is used on Tour de France stages.
This is only an idea, but we were amazed by the scenery and some of the lovely old french villages and the drive itself is just fantastic - definately some of Europe's best driving roads and there are quite a few Ibis / Novotel / F1 / Campanile type hotels on the way or guest houses (depending on the budget).
Must admit we were fairly new to France when we went and went to SW France last year too, but the scenery in the Pyrenees wasn't a patch on the Route des Grandes Alpes (in our opinion - before anyone else disagrees).
Also, Route Napoleon ( http://www.beyond.fr/map/mpnapol.html ) crops up quite a lot on here as a superb driving road and this is north of Cannes - might be a good way of going back home again we drove back to Lyon this way - through Grasse (famous for Perfume and has a few free factory tours if you're into that kind of thing - or "Mrs Pete" is...!!). If you're into hiking or spectacular scenery, then a detour from Route Napoleon we did was to the Gorges du Verdon - http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/groupes/verdon/pays.ht... (nearest town Castellane) which is often called "Europe's Grand Canyon") - again amazing scenery - there are routes in and around the Gorge (memorable for us as the hire car broke down in the middle of nowhere and we had a nail biting drive in a recovery truck with the driver negotiating hairpin bends whilst turning around to talk to us and texting at the same time with our car not tied down on the back of his flatbed at all and we could feel the car shifting when going around the bends......)
Just IMHO, Marseilles is horrible. We passed through during our trip down there and planned to stay 3 nights, but left after the 1st. No doubt others may disagree......!
Saint tropez is more touristy, but much nicer (again IMHO).
Monaco is also a must if you haven't been before - just to people watch / look at the harbour / look at the cars.
Saint tropez is more touristy, but much nicer (again IMHO).
Monaco is also a must if you haven't been before - just to people watch / look at the harbour / look at the cars.
Edited by JONSCZ on Friday 11th November 10:09
JONSCZ said:
Just IMHO, Marseilles is horrible. We passed through during our trip down there and planned to stay 3 nights, but left after the 1st. No doubt others may disagree......!
Saint tropez is more touristy, but much nicer (again IMHO).
Monaco is also a must if you haven't been before - just to people watch / look at the harbour / look at the cars.
Thanks JONSSaint tropez is more touristy, but much nicer (again IMHO).
Monaco is also a must if you haven't been before - just to people watch / look at the harbour / look at the cars.
Edited by JONSCZ on Friday 11th November 10:09
I'll take your tip on Marseilles I think. I have heard the same elsewhere. There are so many known towns/cities along that coast that I think we shall drop in further east.
We certainly had it in mind to visit Monaco. No doubt Mrs O will want to stay there the night
so it will probably cost me 2 limbs!! 
Very wise.
If you are driving down via the Route des Grand Alpes as in my post above, then you'll end up on the south coast in Monaco, anyway and this'll be a great place to start your trip along the coast. Can't stress enough how good the drive down is on that road.
Hope that the route planning goes well and have fun.
Jon
If you are driving down via the Route des Grand Alpes as in my post above, then you'll end up on the south coast in Monaco, anyway and this'll be a great place to start your trip along the coast. Can't stress enough how good the drive down is on that road.
Hope that the route planning goes well and have fun.
Jon
Monaco is fantastic, the Port Palace is 5* and decently priced, right on the harbour front. If you want some driving roads, I'd head down to Valence and stay overnight (Villa Augusta) and then drive the Route Napoleon to the Cote d'Azur. Marseille is Birmingham but warmer. Italian lakes are nice also. I did this this summer, be happy to recommend places to stay/things to do.
Depending on how far East you want to go across Italy, Lake Bled is the most gorgeous place in the world.
Depending on how far East you want to go across Italy, Lake Bled is the most gorgeous place in the world.
Alex
If you have this mapped out/documented, that'd be great. Please don't go to any trouble though
Looking at your route I would certainly be interested in the first half of your trip until you get into Italy. I have it in mind to maybe get into Switzerland from N Italy or maybe a lake in N Italy. Early days yet so am open to peoples views on this.
TIA
Graham
If you have this mapped out/documented, that'd be great. Please don't go to any trouble though
Looking at your route I would certainly be interested in the first half of your trip until you get into Italy. I have it in mind to maybe get into Switzerland from N Italy or maybe a lake in N Italy. Early days yet so am open to peoples views on this.
TIA
Graham
If you have the time to spare while driving, cut off the autoroute somewhere south(or east) of Lyon and pick up N-roads - the Route Napoleon is very good, esp. the southern half, but also the roads NE and E of Grenoble are superb too (avoid rush-hour in Grenoble and Lyon - both are terrible) - head for Briancon and you'll probably pick up something good, and then you can take the "Route des Grande Alpes" either north (through some hardcore Col's) or south (towards Menton and Monaco).
Italy - roads in the North genuinely aren't up to much - they're either too narrow, too busy or have a silly 50km/h speed limit. Once south of Modena I'm told they're better, but that's a long way!
Had far more fun in Switzerland, although you are gambling with your wallet a little there, given the zeal of their traffic police! Swiss passes are truly, truly awesome if you get a quiet moment...I still have fond flashbacks of the Fluelapass!
Do come back via Germany - around the big cities the traffic can be like the UK, but away from them they've got some great roads.
Italy - roads in the North genuinely aren't up to much - they're either too narrow, too busy or have a silly 50km/h speed limit. Once south of Modena I'm told they're better, but that's a long way!
Had far more fun in Switzerland, although you are gambling with your wallet a little there, given the zeal of their traffic police! Swiss passes are truly, truly awesome if you get a quiet moment...I still have fond flashbacks of the Fluelapass!
Do come back via Germany - around the big cities the traffic can be like the UK, but away from them they've got some great roads.
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