Routes to the South of France

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

 

Route guide:

Leave Calais on the  A16 / E402  motorway following signs for Boulogne, Amiens.
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 is a ZFE  (= LEZ, low emission zone); all vehicles driving through or into French Low emission zones must have a Crit'Air sticker, which can be bought online and costs under 5 €uros.  For more information see ZFEs in France.

At the entrance to Rouen  the A28 becomes the N28. Follow on down through the tunnel, then across the Seine on the Pont Mathilde bridge. 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.

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.).