you could possibly avoid nantes by taking the route from rennes towards st nazaire? I am going back to blighty to collect the boss and the other boss (daughter) today (thursday) so will let you know re progress around Nantes, which is always busy, and any hold ups along the west(?) route, over the bridge.
It mentions that the month of August is often a time when they choose to do road works, "This work then generate traffic problems that may be disadvantageous for the road users in transit." Now there's a surprise!
It makes interesting reading while you are planning your holiday. Anything that me closer to the time when we go makes me happy, even if its reading about bouchons.
Looking at the map, as the Rennes to St Nazaire route is closer to the Coast, I wonder if that may be more busy as a lot of French families will be haeading towards the coast for holidays? Happy to be corrected though.
Maybe a more inland route would be better?
I'm envious of you having the clear route from Dieppe, Baguette! Ironically I thought from St Malo would mean less time spend on the road...
We mistakenly travelled on Black Saturday a few years ago. 8 hours from Calais to just past Paris and then all day the following day to get across to the coast. Was horrendous and we vowed, never, ever again. Good luck if you have to do it though x
------------- Cath - Cinderella is living proof that shoes can change your life!
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Sarah, did you say you are going to gite, so not towing?
Just spread out a big road map and mark in a route on the roads coloured yellow, miss out all the main roads and big cities, and you'll have a pleasant journey through places you never heard of, and see no traffic at all. You are not going all that far and have got all day to get there.
You might even stop at a village restaurant for lunch - we had four courses and half a litre of cider for £8.50 last week, but the coffee was extra. Relax, it's a holiday.
Hi, i would agree with what Dave said, go for St. nazaire and over the bridge, only traffic issues we ever have is people slowing down at the top to take in the view! we sre going Roscoff to la moth Achard on weds morning, once over the bridge, you can cut across country on the quiet country roads.
Dave, dont know your area, but when my daughter came out to see us for a week last year, she got a flight from Liverpool to Nantes for around £75.00 return
We got caught a couple of times on this route, our daughter as an infant and then later on as a 6-7 year old: and then with another family travelling together.
We got stuck in some massive queues and on one occasion got stuck for around three hours and our water ran out in really hot temperatures.
We have now learnt and do the following:-
1) The night before we leave we freeze small bottles of water and loads them into a cooler box in the car. We also have additional water in the boot. With young children we get ice-poles as they are great for cooling them down if you get stuck in the heat.
2) we always get off the ferry and drive for at least an hour and then we stop in a large supermarket for toilets and supplies e.g water, bread, snacks, fillings for lunch or to eat on the way. We then drive for the rest of the day, just stopping at aires for toilet breaks and a lunch type picnic break.
3) I always plot on the map the aires that you can stop at, so you can see ahead how far you have to go before that next stop.
4) we carry plenty of games, activities, one year we used video screens with dvd's, but most of the time if they are comfortable enough they just go to sleep.
In the long run we learnt to book for the end of week crossing Thursday or Friday, drive down and stay somewhere south of Nantes for the night (there are lots of fab stop-overs). We then resume travelling on Saturday morning around 9am and get on the way before there are further build ups.
The Via Michelin site, is good for weather, routes and traffic reports showing you delays. I found that it even showed you the worst time to travel on sections on certain dates. I think Nantes is worse on that date from 11-1pm.
Good luck and don't be too scared, after all it's an adventure, you could get all Frech-i-fied and have your picnic in the Nantes aire whilst you wait for it to pass.
------------- sueze
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Got caught a few years ago comig back from the east coast of Spain , bottle neck traffic jam coming into France , sat there for a few hours then it all sort of eased off. Not good at time as air con was broken and heat can make you groggy and grumpy 😳
Just sit back turn air con up and think of the wine / beer at journeys end!
nantes ring road over the bridge was CLEAR on sunday afternoon, though we did notice a much more heavier amount of traffic from rouen all the way to nantes. lots of caravans, cars loaded up etc, but traffic was pretty much free flowing.
lay in bed, contemplating whether to get up and face the morning vendee sun !! last couple of days have been quite cloudy but very warm/humid, but its clear blue sky and sun this morning !!
Good for you Dave! It's foggy up here in the Shropshire Hills!
We arrive in Dieppe late Sunday night & aim to drive through the wee small hours, (we've got a cabin for the evening before we do!) so that we'll arrive in Apremont on Monday morning at the crack of sparrowfart!
My automatic, (so Mr Baggers & I can share the driving,) goes into the garage today. Fingers crossed!
Mrs Bag, hopefully it wont need too much doing to it, then you can get back into the sun !! strange, it always seems to take less time if Mrs B drives, however much traffic is on the road, she claims its nothing to do with her inability to work out the maximum speed limits ......
Sarah, Im sure everything will be ok, busy but it should be moving traffic, we tend to freeze a bottle of juice the night before, it works great as an ice pack and then later in the day as an ice cold drink that isn't fizzy !!! if you've got air con, don't forget to make sure its working etc
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Topic: Driving to the Vendee on Black Saturday!
