Route planning through France
 

Advice needed

A work colleague of mine is looking to ride through France to Nice, in the south of France, this summer.

Anyone have any good routes they can recommend?

Any useful advice?

Places, roads to avoid?

Anything that's useful really :smug:

Thanks.

Depends on how he wants to do it.
Is the journey part of the holiday if you get mydrift, or is it just a means of getting there?
Which port will he arrive at?
One route I've used is.....
Caen ( Ouistreham) - Alencon, Le Mans, Tours, Chateauroux, Montlucon, north of Vichy to Roanne, Lyon, Grenoble, then the route Napoleon to Cannes & Nice.
Most of this is single carriageway - a good 2 day run.
Avoid..... the centre of Lyon at 1700 on a Friday evening..... the middle of Nice in a midday monsoon when half the city is under attack from roadworks!!
Keep the speed down in built up areas...speed traps abound these days.

Thanks Andy.

Anyone else - boing ;)

If he wants to try a bit of autoroute (the vast majority toll free) then the A75 from Clermont-Ferrand to Lodeve (Including the new Millau viaduct has got to rate as one of the most spectacular in the world.

Knee down motorway, s'unreal.....

Darren

Especially the bits through the tunnels!!! :D:D:D:D
Not done the viaduct yet..... must go back soon.
Having said that, another motorway obviously planned by a biker is the A66 from San Andres del Rabanedo near Leon , north towards Oviedo.
The best money I've ever spent on an autoroute..... bends, mountains, lakes and eagles floating overhead.....superb!

I am off to France on the 6th of July for a 5 days of riding. We try to keep off the toll roads where posible, plan your route well in advance know all your mates moblie numbers. Take a rear wheel socket if your on 996/8 ?
enjoy
:roll::roll:

I seem to recall a couple of excellent articles in a recent Pronto .... ;)

Oh make sure you have breakdown cover
Just in case :eureka:

Take a bit of a detour around Orange, and visit the Gorge De L'Ardeche.

It's awesome (and a bit scary too)

I missed out on the Gorge De Ardeche, but have stopped at Orange a few times and in the summer months its quite lively with nice bars/restaraunts etc. Theres a nice little hotel we stop at just a few hundred metres from the centre up by the train station I think the hotel is called "Terminus" Its has a garage the size of a aircraft hangar for secure parking. If your not in a rush and don't want to use the autoroute it is a nice days ride from there to Nice taking in Mont Ventoux. If you are interested I will check the hotel name and phone number etc for you.