Route
guide
and map
showing
easily accessible hotels
The route from Calais to Paris, Languedoc, central southern France or northeast Spain
Note: Stay on the A
16 all the way from Calais to the A28
turnoff at Abbeville. There is a bug in the external GPS database used
for the map. This
may be corrected at some point.
Click here for more information on Routes through France to Spain
► And for when you reachSpain .....
Check out Driving in Spain
Hotels:
just
motorway hotels that are very easy to find
Click here for more information on Routes through France to Spain
► And for when you reachSpain .....
Check out Driving in Spain
| Map Key:
Easily accessible hotels |
|
 Quality 3
or
4-star classic independent hotels
with character
|
|
 Upscale
chains such
as Mercure or Holiday Inn
|
|
 Midscale chains such as
Campanile, Kyriad or Ibis
Styles |
|
 Budget hotels - 1 star or 2
stars.
Ace, Ibis Budget,
F1 and others
|
|
 Hotel
clusters: more than one hotel of
different categories
|
|
Want to avoid the tolls?
- ► Check out route avoiding tolls to Bordeaux Bayonne and Irun (Spain)
- ► Or no-tolls routes to Provence & the south of France
New
: Slow roads through
France
- Discover a leisurely route down through France on tranquil
byroads, taking in attractive small towns and villages, magnificent
châteaux, forests, historic abbeys, valleys and mountains. A
route
guide in three parts.
Route guide:
The motorway is a toll-motorway from Boulogne to Abbeville
Just before Abbeville, take the free A28 / E402 motorway to Rouen. Rouen is sometimes a bit slow, but this is the only bit of hassle on the whole route, and the route is well signposted. lmportant! Note that Rouen was a ZFE (= LEZ, low emission zone), but ZFEs have now been abolished, so there are no more restrictions on driving through.
At the entrance to Rouen the A28 becomes the N28. Follow on down through the tunnel, then across the Seine. (The Pont Mathilde bridge, closed from 2012 to 2014, has now reopened). Immediately after crossing the Seine, turn 270° right, following signs for Paris and Evreux then Evreux & Orleans .You will join the A13 motorway south of Rouen.
About 10 km south or Rouen, leave the A13 motorway for the A154 motorway, which then becomes the N154 dual carriageway almost to Dreux.
Before Dreux, you have about 10 km on the N12 (straightforward, old-style dual carriageway, sometimes busy). At the start of the town, leave the N12 following the signs for Chartres and Orleans.
After Dreux, the N154 is almost all modern dual-carriageway as far as Chartres. After Chartres, about a third of the remaining 40 km of N154 as far as the A10 motorway is now motorway-standard dual-carriageway. Traffic normally flows freely on the remaining relatively straight single-carriageway sections as far as the motorway.
After joining the joining the A10 , it's motorway all the way (to the Algarve, you want!) From Orleans on you have three choices, depending on your destination. At Orleans, the A71+A20 split from the A10. Then at Vierzon, south of Orleans, the A71 and A20 split.
1. Via Bourges to Clermont Ferrand - blue route. For Languedoc and Spain) via A71 (toll ) and A75 (free motorway). This route is not recommended for cars with heavy caravans or in winter, as the (free) A75 after Clermont Ferrand has - as well as the Millau Viaduct (toll) - several long steep hills, and a long stretch at up to 1100 metres altitude, that can be snowed up in winter..... though with climate change this is less common in the 2020s.
2. Via Chateauroux to Toulouse Red route. For the Dordogne, central southwest France and Toulouse, via the A20 . This motorway is free from Vierzon until after Brive la Gaillarde.
3. Via Tours to Bordeaux Green route. For southwest France and western Spain, via A10. This route has tolls all the way unless you take the old N10 from Poitiers to near Bordeaux (see SW France without tolls.).
