Motorway Calais to southwest France via A10

Route guide showing hotels just off the motorway

Route map with hotels. See below for hotel marker key

Left click and hold to move the map around in its frame.

Map Key: (clickable markers)
	Upscale classic independent hotels with character
	Four-star and quality three star hotels - chains such as Mercure or Novotel
	Budget and economy hotels - 1 tor 3 stars chains such as Campanile, Ibis and F1 / Formule 1
	Independent midscale hotels
	Hotel clusters: more than one hotel of different categories

All hotels are very easy to find

Hotels along the way

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This guide is selective. There are hotels accessible from virtually any motorway exit, but some of these can be a fair distance away and hard to find. And some of them are noisy and not as good as they make out.
This map shows only hotels that are easy to find, even without a Satnav, recommended by travellers, and mostly very close to the motorway.
► Book online: About-France.com is partnered with major discount hotel reservation sites Booking.com and Hotels.com, . The links from the map will take you to one of these sites, for reliable online booking at the best discounted rates available.
Well sited motorway hotels can quickly fill up, and advanced booking is is highly recommended. Advanced Internet booking also means plenty of discounted offers that are not available to travellers who just show up at the door.

A28 - A10 E5 or E402

Routes to Southwest France - French route guide and map

All routes eventually follow the A10 motorway between Tours and Bordeaux. The choice is how to get to the A10 from Calais. There are three options, two of them via Rouen and one via Paris. These are detailed below

If crossing to Cherbourg, not Calais, see Routes from Cherbourg.

Driving from Calais
The three ways to reach the A10 Paris-Bordeaux motorway

Via theA28/ E402 to Rouen and Le Mans, joining the A10 at Tours. This is the longest but fastest route.
Via theA16 and Paris : join A10 at Paris.
Via the A28 to Rouen and then N154 via Chartres for least tolls
Join the A 10 north of Orleans. This is the shortest and cheapest route (Calais- Tours is 35 km shorter and 35 € cheaper in tolls than via Le Mans) - but longer in time.

1. Calais to the A10 via Rouen and Le Mans A28

Leave Calais on the A16 in the direction of Abbeville. At Abbeville turn off onto the free A28 motorway following signs for Rouen. At Rouen, the A28 becomes the N28 as it enters the city. You will cross the River Seine on the Pont Mathilde bridge. Follow blue motorway signs for A13 (A28), and keep following them or green signs marked Le Mans. You will leave Rouen on the N338 following the blue signs for "A13 - A28 Le Mans" and green sign for Elbeuf. At the end of a long straight stretch of road through a forest, follow the blue sign "A13 (A28)" and green sign for Elbeuf. then follow the blue on green sign marked Caen / Le Mans. do not take the exit marked "Elbeuf". You will then join the A13 motorway in the direction of Caen. Follow the A13 for some 10 km until the motorway interchange, where you exit following signs for "A28 Bordeaux Le Mans Alençon". Now you will just follow the A 28 all the way to Tours, where you will join the A10.

2. Calais to the A10 via Paris and the A16 motorway

Drivers wanting to travel via Paris can either take the A16 motorway from Calais, via Abbeville, or the A26 then A1 via Arras. the A16 has a lot less traffic. Once in the Paris area, there are many options for reaching the A10 which exits from Paris in the southwest. But whatever option chosen - the N 184, the A86 western orbital (toll) or the Paris ring road (boulevard périphérique) - the signs to follow eventually are "A10" and Bordeaux.

Paris to Bordeaux : the A10 motorway

The A10 is the main French motorway to the southwest, and is four or three lanes as far as Tours. South of Tours, it reduces to two lanes, which is quite adequate except at very peak periods. It is a busy motorway, particularly during summer holiday weekends, as it carries most of the holiday traffic bound for the west coast of France.
From the Paris "périphérique" onwards, follow motorway signs for A10 Bordeaux.. Nothing could be simpler. The toll section of the A10 motorway starts at Saint Arnoult, some 30 miles southwest of Paris.
There are two notable black spots on this autoroute, which often cause serious delays at peak periods; a) the toll station at Saint Arnoult (the biggest motorway toll station in Europe), which causes long tailbacks in the north-east bound direction when there is a lot of traffic returning towards Paris. b) the ring road round Bordeaux, which can get snarled up either side of the Pont d'Aquitaine, over the Gironde. Otherwise it is easy driving.
Bordeaux has a complete ring-road, so you can skirt the city either to the east (N 230 dual carriageway) or to the west (A630 motorway) . Either way, leave the ring road onto A63 at exit 15, marked San Sebastian and Bayonne

3 Calais to A10 via Rouen and Chartres.

See detailed Calais-Rouen-Orleans route guide.

Alternative route from Poitiers to Bordeaux:
Avoid the tolls. Follow the old N10, rather than the A10 from Poitiers via Angoulême to Bordeaux. Leave the A10 at exit 30 Poitiers south. This route is almost all dual carriageway. It is shorter but slower.

Hotels along the route

► Click any coloured marker on the map and a bubble will show up with details of the hotel in that location.
There are plenty of motorway exits that lead to hotels: but it is not always easy to find them. The hotels listed on this map have been specifically chosen because they really are close to the exit, and easy to access. Clicking on a red bubble will open up a brief information window, with essential information for the hotel, and a link to the hotels' own websites or other booking sites, with online booking and often the best offers available.
The hotels listed include low-cost Formule 1 hotels, budget Ibis, Campanile and Etap hotels, midscale Novotel and Mercure hotels, as well as some independent establishments.
NB: "Close to the exit" does not have to mean noisy. All these modern hotels are well insulated and soundproofed.

Not the route you wanted?
See more routes to the south of France: