For the past two nights a huge log lorry has used our local road in the middle of the night, when it is so quiet that it creates a huge disturbance.
You can hear it coming, passing and thn going on for ages as it comes to the end of our valley.
Are these huge lorries allowed to use Departmental roads when we have a brand new double carriageway built in the bottom of the valley?
Are there any restrictions on huge lorries moving on small roads in the middle of the night ?
The road is actually designated as a Route Touristique.
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From what I’ve read generally… the Prefecture can allow or deny… but, basically, woodland is all over the place and not necessarily near “good” roads, so sometimes a tangled route is needed to move the product safely.
A check with one’s Prefecture should highlight one’s local situation…
But where’s the wood? If the forests are down small roads, which most are, then no choice.
Moving at night can also be less disrupting for other activities, an overall traffic circulation.
Feel comforted by the fact that once the timber is felled and transported then it’s gone. And it will be another 20 years before they need to fell those parcels again.
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We have them go past our front door too, at the moment not in the small hours although they have done. And combines, and artics etc etc. There are places where 2 cars cannot pass just a few meters down.
This is a D road, the D17, passing through several villages.
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The farmer behind us is taking out his huge machines and water tankers starting at 3.30am at the moment as it is so hot - even with their fancy air conditioned cabs.
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It came back the other way at 5am this morning.
They used to do it all night where I lived before once the cereal was ripe and the weather was holding, no one minded a bit as it’s the local economy that gains and keeps families afloat who have the farms.
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We get the same with logging lorries here periodically. Not usually at night, but sometimes. There’s been lots of logging here in the last twelve months, the nearest just 400m up the small D road we are on and down a track. Also loads of logging about 8Km north of us in a large forested area in a veritable thicket of small D roads. Unfortunately, one of the few good routes out of there onto the main road is down our road, so they have no choice really. Maybe It’s the same where you are ?
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I used to hear them on the D 17 at 5am, empty and rattling along the road.
Then they would return at about 10 struggling up the hill.
This night time thing is totally new.
I would ask your mairie what’s going on. You should be able to find out who, where, and from there how long this will be going on for. This is France so loads of permits will have had to have been issued so there will be records of who’s doing what where.
I have a similar issue in recent months with a haulage driver with rattling empty load tray choosing our old tiny practically abandoned lane as a rat run to get home at 2am and 3am 3 times a week right past the house on the edge of the lane. Including Friday night/Saturday and Sunday night/Monday when proper roads are available to get him home instead. I am thinking of offering to the mairie to pay the costs of replacing the No-Entry “Riverains only” sign on the road which mysteriously disappeared a few years back.
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Better get your garden wall out of it’s way 
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We are not actually on the D17, but because of the nature of the valley you can hear it coming, passing and then for two or three minutes afternoon.
Even my neighbour who is partly deaf heard it.
We are at the furthest reach of our commune and the neighbour who is closest to the road is a baker and has left for work at 1.30 am.
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We have a guy on a bike who comes through at 5am every weekday, presumably on his way to work. Unfortunately, not only does his bike need a new exhaust, but it sounds like he comes through the 50k/h in the village at about double that speed. We don’t normally notice it now as we’ve sort of filtered it out.
Get yourself in the pavement wearing a HiViz and holding a hair dryer. As he approaches, point it at him, then stare earnestly at the back of it as he goes past, braking rapidly…
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Well call me an idiot but hope that was srnt tongue in cheek
Oh no, completely serious. 
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Last summer we had a guy who used our chemin on his extremely noisy two stroke early in the morning and again on his return in the evening.
We didn’t recognise him and one day I stopped him and asked him if he knew how noisy his bike was. Yes, he did.
Anyway, he went up onto the D17, which was a bit better, but, just like the logging lorry, you could hear him as he made his way down the valley until he turned the corner and woke up the people in the next valley.
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