Message Forums

You can use either viamichelin, or mappy.com.   Both these offer you the option of choosing a route - enter your start location, and where you want to end up - and if you need to stop somewhere along the way put that as a 'via'.  You can select 'express' or 'non-toll' and other options, such are car type, no low bridges, no mountain passes, etc.......   Both sites will plot a route, calculate your (approximate!!!) costs in fuel, and the tolls you will be paying and suggest a likely time the journey will take you.  However, bear in mind that this time is just the maximum speed for each section, calculated and added up, and offers no extra time for hold-ups, traffic lights, slow lanes, or anything else, so add on approximately a quarter of the time calculated again.  If you're towing (I see you're not, but for anyone else using these sites) then make sure you select 'towing' or 'caravan' or whatever the options are. 

By the way, are you living and working in Bilbao - or just on an extended holiday?

We live here near Bilbao for a couple of years.  Therefore, we have decided to make use of out camping equipment.  There are loads of sites nearby, but we have decided to try going a little further instead.  Normally we have been on a normal package deal, but living where we do, we decided that it would be ideal to see the local areas and different countries.

Yes, both do.  You'll find that both offer you slightly different routes.  We use both sites, but have a good map book as well, so that we can add in our own variations!  As we've become increasingly confident, we just tend to do our own thing anyway, but odd times still refer to mappy or viamichelin.

Have you done the Gorges du Tarn, and Cevennes, or the Ardeche - alll beautiful areas of France.  Rivers (obviously), fantastic scenery and wildlife, and 'far from the madding crowd' generally, so much quieter and less frantic than some parts!   I envy you being able to 'just go'.  If we want a holiday we have to factor in the cost of the ferry.  Without this we'd just be able to hot foot down to the med, for £10 per day or less - but we've immediately got the ferry cost and booking limitations on top!  We've often imagined what it must be like to live in Germany (say) or Holland - and just decide to go to Spain next week.......!

Just looked at the Michelin site and it has given that the total cost is about E180 return with both petrol and toll fees.  Hubby has just checked and if we don't mind adding an extra three hours each way we can save a total of about E65.  That makes the journey nearly eight and half hours each way instead of five and a half.

Now going to decide what to do.

I can not seem to get the Mappy site in English.  It keeps taking me to the French page.

Thanks

Here's the English version - certainly for me - if not, put your details in, and I'll check it out for you!  http://www.mappy.com/

Just managed to find it.  It has given me totally different amounts.  It has given me a slightly lengthier time and more tolls.  If I was to avoid tolls, the time has gone up by another 5 hours, making a total time of 13.5 hours instead of 5.5 hours if you go via toll roads????

Not sure what happened there?

We are now just going to look at the Map and GPS to see if there is anything else we can do, just in case.

It is difficult to predict what these sites will come up with - which is why we tend not to rely on them.  We don't have Satnav or anything like that.  We've got the latest Michelin map book as a guide, and simply decide which route we'll use, and then it takes as long as.....  well as long as it does - regardless of what any website might tell us!!!!  We  use the simple 'decide where you're heading, and from where' and simply join them up with a ruler - and follow the toll or non-toll roads whichever you fancy!!

Where are you heading, and from where - may be someone on here, who's already done the journey, will give you the 'straight from the horse's mouth version'..! ?? Hope you have a great trip.  We've had 26 years of fantastic holidays in France, with perhaps only one or two bad stays in all that time.

Thank you for your information.

We are supposed to be travelling from Bilbao to Narbonne.

We have had three different versions of the times and distance etc. ranging from 5.5 hours to 13 hours plus, avoiding and not avoiding tolls etc.

Like you say, I wonder if anyone has any suggestions.  I could do with a real map instead of keep looking at websites.  I think I may go and buy one from the local supermarket tomorrow and do the plotting out.  I hope I will have time. 

I have suggested we leave at 4.00am so that we can arrive in the morning at some time.

Up to yet the SatNav has been pretty accuarate, but does tend to get itself lost a little espcially on new roads that have not been updated on the system.  The fun comes into it when it tells you to do a u-turn in the middle of a motorway, or takes you down a dirt track between two houses not wide enough for a car.  It makes me feel a little like the advert when they drive the car around the town down some steps.  The other day it took us through a market square, complete with shoppers.  We were worried it was not for cars, but later realised that it was actually a fully operational road although a bit unusual.  It is strange to think that you are being watched all the time and the thing knows exactly where you are at any time.  I did not beleive that it can even tell you your mph without even being connected to the car.

We once got lost outside Aix on Provence, and found our way (we thought) back to the autoroute, using a map - which took us over the narrowest little bridge (about three inches wider than the van) and then down a village street which was not much wider!  What made it worse was that we were followed by another caravanner, who was also lost, had noticed our British number plates, and thought we must know where we were going!

I've just had a look at mappy and think if it were me I'd stick to the toll roads for the earlier part of the journey, see how we were doing time-wise, and then decide after a stop whether to continue.  I suppose the much longer time is because you're going through the Pyrenees, and the roads can be very winding, whereas the autoroutes have been straightened out.  I hate paying out tolls, but I think in this instance it may well be worth it, unless you fancy thirteen hours (bearing in mind it always takes longer anyway!) on the road.

We have now decided on a route using the Michelin site.

We can use one route of 5.5 hours with tolls at E86

or

7.5 hours without tolls at E62 saving E24 (about £16)

I am still tempted to buy a map and do it the traditional way and enter the points on my GPS but I am running out of time now. 

We need an early night as we plan to leave at 4.00am and we still need to pack