Hit the Road in France: 9 Road Trip Itineraries Across France

By K. B. Oliver

If you're tired of summer crowds in Paris, standing 10-deep to see the Mona Lisa, waiting in long lines to ascend the Eiffel Tower. . .you may want to travel in France differently. With a road trip! Discover the amazing variety France offers as you hit the open highways. Explore and experience your own adventure. This guide will take you to various regions of France: Brittany, Alsace, Bordeaux, Provence, Central France, along the Spanish border, Normandy, and Burgundy. Discover how great hitting the road can be!

Another great travel guide from Oliver's France. The most important information you need. . . not everything you don't need! Portable and indespensable in eBook or paperback.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monceau Publishing
• Release date: Oct 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223567417

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Copyright 2022 by  K. B. Oliver. All rights reserved.

Expanded and Revised edition copyright 2023.

Published in the United States by

Monceau Publishing.

P. O. Box 40152

Raleigh, N. C. 27629

No portion of this book may be copied, retransmitted, reposted, duplicated, or otherwise used without the express written approval of the author. Any unauthorized use of any part of this material without permission by the author is prohibited and against the law.

Monceau Publishing or the author assumes no liability or responsibility for damage or injury to you, other persons, or property arising from any use of any product, information, idea, or instruction contained in the content or services provided to you through this book. Reliance upon information contained in this material is solely at the reader’s own risk.

Table of Contents

Hit the Road in France

The Luberon

West of Avignon

Bordeaux

Brittany

Burgundy

Central France

France-Spain Border

More Travel Resources

About the Author

Hit the Road in France

If you’re tired of summer crowds in Paris, standing 10-deep to see the Mona Lisa, waiting in long lines to ascend the Eiffel Tower. . .you may want to travel in France differently. With a road trip! Discover the amazing variety France offers as you hit the open highways. Explore and experience your own adventure. This guide will take you to various regions of France: Brittany, Alsace, Bordeaux, Provence, Central France, along the Spanish border, Normandy, and Burgundy. Discover how great hitting the road can be!

You’ll have 9 full itineraries all over France. Try one or two, then plan others for future vacations. These done-for-you itineraries make your planning easier because they give you the bones of your trip. After that, go crazy filling in the fun details. You’ll find plenty of suggestions in each section. A bit of the content of this book originally appeared on Oliver’s France. I expanded that, added more road trips, and created this book. But I knew I wanted to expand it still further, so I added fifty percent more helpful information to create this revised and expanded version. More helpful information, but still easy to pack along with your trip.

Six Reasons to Take a Road Trip in France

Road trips in France can be your most wonderful memories. Here are six reasons you’ll want to consider taking a road trip the next time you visit France or at some point in the future.

When you take a road trip, you’re the one in control. You’ve rented a car, so you’re free to come and go, be impulsive, or change your mind. You can plan as you wish and discover places that may be new to you (and possibly not even in your travel guide!)

You can discover delightful places you encounter as you’re on your way somewhere else. Make an unscheduled stop and create a new memory.

Access places you might have a hard time reaching by train, because of their fixed itineraries and timetables.

Visit smaller villages or coastal gems that aren’t easily served by a train. (Or maybe because that picture-perfect walled medieval village is perched on a mountainside.)

You can save money if you have several people traveling together. Gas and tolls in France can be expensive. But when you divide these costs by the number of people you’re traveling with, it may actually end up costing less per person. Having a car enables you to drive on national roads instead of autoroutes, thereby skipping tolls. Besides those savings, in most smaller towns, you’ll pay less for meals, museums, excursions, and hotels.

Traveling by car enables you to see many interesting places that are close together. This is especially important when you only have one week or 10 days. You’ll want to get the most from your time! And THAT is the beauty of this book, to give you suggested itineraries to places that are in the same general area. It’s an efficient way to vacation.

Tips for Planning your Best Road Trip

Decide on the region and itinerary for your trip (or create one of your own) and determine how long you have for the total trip.

Where will you land? If you fly into Charles de Gaulle, you can go straight to the TGV (high-speed train) that will take you directly to the bigger city nearest your area of exploration. For example, if you choose the Provence road trip, you can take a train from Charles de Gaulle Airport direct to Avignon (12 trains per day.) That anchor city, as I like to call it, is listed in the information for each road trip. Once you arrive in your anchor city, you’ll rent a car from there. After your trip, you’ll return it to the same place

or rent it in one city and return it to another, then take the train back to your point of origin. Doing it this way saves you road fatigue, since the TGV will cover the biggest distance instead of you doing the driving yourself. This can end up less expensive too, if you get one of the early bird prices on your train ticket.

Make your reservations…early. You’ll normally have to make your reservations by March at the latest if you want to travel in summer. Of course, you’ll be able to find deals and vacancies later, but it’s a lot harder and you’ll have fewer choices. I often fly on points, so I have to reserve in January at the latest if I want to get a decent itinerary in May or June and avoid more than one plane change.

Tips on rental cars I have a detailed post on renting cars and driving rules in France that you’ll find helpful. It’s called Driving in France: What You Need to Know. (Find this in OliversFrance.com.) Renting a car in advance is crucial. You’ll also save money by reserving it in your home country. I usually rent cars through EuropCar. See the Resource section of Oliver’s France or go directly to their site. They have always seemed the most reasonable to me and they’re available all over Europe, as the name suggests.

If you pick up a car in one city and drop it off in another one, expect a higher overall price. Compare prices between dropping your car at the same location and taking a train to your next point. If time is more of an issue, it’s worth the extra cost to end your rental in a different city.

Driving in France. Some driving laws are different in France. First, you must be 18 years old to drive in France. You don’t need an international driver’s license, but you need a valid one. Most road signs are pictures, not words, for the international driving public. Here is a helpful link for road signs. https://www.autoeurope.com/travel-guides/france/france-road-signs/ to some of the most common signs. Become familiar with them and what they mean. They are not necessarily all self-explanatory. One of the most important differences in driving in France is that, unless otherwise noted on a sign, those entering from the right have the right-of-way. This differs greatly from driving in the US, and if you aren’t aware, you can have a crash. That would be an unfortunate way to start your vacation! It is also illegal to talk on the phone while driving. On the autoroutes, there are usually 2 speed limits. A regular one, and a lower one for rainy conditions. If you’re just leaving a city or are near one, your initial speed limit is usually lower.

Most crowded roads. Beware of traveling at the very beginning of July and at the very end of August. You could be on vacation during this time, but try not to be on the highways then. At least check if the traveling conditions are rouge, or red for very heavy traffic. That’s when French people head out for their vacations or return home. The worst traffic jams will be around Paris as people leave the city on the périphérique (beltway). If you’re elsewhere in the country, it shouldn’t be a big problem.

The lowdown on gas and tolls in France. In France, autoroutes are owned and maintained by private companies. You’ll probably gulp in horror when you calculate the per gallon price on a litre of gas in France. Then you’ll gulp again when you look at toll prices. My suggestion? Consider the costs of the entire trip and as you break it down per day and compare it with train fare for the number in your car, you’re probably not doing too badly. Overall, you’ll spend more on some things, less on others, and it will average out in the end. And think of the freedom you’ll have with the car.

As you are driving on an autoroute (indicated by a blue and white sign with the letter A plus a number), an upcoming tollbooth is announced by the word péage on a road sign. You’ll need change on hand for the tolls. Not all toll booths accept all foreign cards. Generally, they accept Visa and European cards: Carte Bleue, Cofinoga, Maestro, and the Eurocard Mastercard. All tollbooths should have a lane that accepts cash.