I must try that next time! Recently I have been coming over on the “redeye” Dieppe ferry that gets into the port at 5am, so my priority has been to get to an autoroute aire that’s open for coffee ASAP, which means joining the A28 at LesHayons and heading for the Aire de Maucomble. Then it’s down the right-hand side of Rouen and on to the A13.
A couple of years ago I came from Dieppe via the N151 but bypassed Rouen to the west and used the little car ferry across the Seine at Sahurs - I don’t think it saved me an awful lot of time but it was scenic!
Last coffee on the ferry before leaving then its down the thermos for en route refreshments.
There is an aire with coffee etc but its below Evreaux on the N154. Then at the roundabout take a right to the N12 and them onto A28 to Tours is the next plan with tolls only being €19.80 and just 30 mins longer than blasting down the A28 from the A14 which is 3x more toll.
Yes the Vierzon Orleans A10 link is one of the few motorway links I’m actually prepared to pay for. It cuts out a lot of very tedious flat driving in a boring area with too many roundabouts and some sneaky speed traps on my long journey South.
There’s an OK motorway service area near the bottom of it as well.2
I normally avoid Orleans by taking the Artenay to Salbris bit instead.
There used to be a very good routier at la Loge, south of Salbris but it burnt down some years ago (dark rumours abound about that), so I use La Grotte (sounds a bit like Reggie Perrin territory) at Vierzon now. Very good it is too.
By users, which is why it is ahead of the rest.
For a reason I have not yet worked out why the in car tablet version fails so often when in france, the phone version is fine. This can apply to google maps as well so something in the setup must have altered.
