Peages to cost more.. will it make you change your route?

For the trip from Limoux to West London we use about three tanks of diesel for the round trip. Presently the best part of 240€. We tend to spend about 75€ each way on the overnight stop, usually around Bourges/Orleans and usually now the tunnel is about 200-250€ euro return. So with the tolls in we are looking at about 700-750€. It’s not cheap compared to flying where we can get a return ticket for about 30€ each courtesy of Ryanair. But for long trips we are then offsetting car hire in the UK and the chance to bring food home with us like malt loaf, crumpets, P G Tips etc. Plus my other half hates flying and the bones in my hand can only take so much prolonged squeezing!

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no because the price increase is not going to be huge and auto route to toulouse is 35 mins quicker for me than the back roads (even longer when the 80 zones come in) plus the route from us to tarbes is free zone.

Hi Stella,
Thanks for the headsup. No this won’t make me change route.

If we’re coming for just a week (Spring, late Summer) we tend to fly. Off peak flights and car-hire are much more affordable than peak season. Also, we can’t afford to lose 2/8-9 days driving.
In the UK, we’re only 30mins from Southampton airport. No lengthy checkin. 1.5hr flight to Bergerac, grab a car and 35 mins to our house. Sorted. (Childrens car seats go free with Flybe which saves renting one - a weeks rental would be as much as buying one!)
We only need hand baggage as we have everything waiting for us in the house.
We use Avis for cars, They’re not always as cheap as Buggs but as I have Avis loyalty card we always get an upgrade (so we choose the smallest cheapest and get at least one size up for free), free extra driver, offers for book 5 days get 7 etc are often running.

For longer trips (two weeks end July/Aug) , I tend to drive with a car fully, fully loaded (with the things we’re moving down piece-meal) whilst my wife and young son fly. I’ll set off Friday afternoon, get to 47150 early hours on Saturday, sleep, unpack, vacuum & dust, load the fridge then collect them from Bergerac. Holiday starts :slight_smile:
Having a 308 diesel that can easily drink as little 4-4.5l/100km on a steady cruise at a moderate pace helps keep it cheap. I’d like to bring the two seater somewhen but given that the fuel cost will be 2-3 times higher it’s staying at home in UK for now - if we still have it when we eventually get to move down it can come then.

Yes we have a telepeage tag - if you’ve ever been the only one in a RHD car at the telepeage you’ll know why.

Personally, I find the auto-routes the least stressful of roads but each to their own.

1% on Chartres-Orleans is not going to break the bank, so I shan’t be changing the route we take to Limousin.

As regards finding disabled toilets, I understand the difficulty well - however, in a pinch, during working hours, it might be worth looking up Leclerc. Both the supermarkets we use occasionally have toilets which while not advertised as disabled, appear to be wheelchair accessible, and I know several branches elsewhere have installed disabled toilets specifically. And on the periphery of larger towns, Leclerc usually advertises prominently exactly - with directions.

Supermarkets are ok if their toilets haven’t been vanadlised. Sadly they often have missing seats, bars ripped from the walls or flooded with water. The larger Lidls are good,mainly because they are sited near the offices.
The biggest problem is not the journey but at tourist sites…we always contact all the tourist offices and plan ahead on holidays BUT still have enormous problems.
Believe it or not some toilets only open during July and August. Some the keys are held elsewhere, often at the town hall, some aren’t large enough to close the door, and one was actually down a flight of stairs…

I regularly leave the A10 at Tours on the way south and re-join north of Poitiers and then continue our journey to the Dordogne via the N10 to Angouleme etc. Saves a few pounds and the N10 is an easy drive even in July and August. Works in the opposite direction too of course. The peage 20 km south of Tours is a total nightmare, the 2 lanes only changes to 5 or 6 some 100 metres before the toll booths, rendering my telepeage ‘widget’ virtually useless
I am amazed every summer that ‘millions’ of french cars still stick to queuing all day on the autoroute rather than saving time and money by diverting! Don’t tell them though!!

Reminds me of that old mantra; If you always do what you’ve always done, you’re always get what you always got…

Using the Autoroute for that section saves about 50-55 minutes over the N10. Some people consider paying for the Autoroute money well spent.

Absolutely not. Let’s be honest, driving on high speed french autoroutes is not cheap, but hey…it is a modern network, with a fresh well maintained concrete, with rest areas and gas stations every 50 kms. It is Worth the price to me

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Do you take the D910 from Tours to Poitiers? If so do you move pretty quickly along the D910

We often take the A10 between the 2 also but it is always very busy compounded by slow overtaking lorries.

We also then take the N10 75% of the way to Lilbourne.

Hi Mat

We leave the A10 at Tours ( J 24) to pick up the D910, then down to Poitiers North (J 29) to re-join the A10 or J 30 to join the N10. We were caught once by sticking to the D910 until south of Poitiers/N10 by queues all along that section of the D910 to the west of Poitiers!

The only delay along the D910 has sometimes been through Montbazon.

Beware that the N10 south from Poitiers has variable speed limits.

Thanks Paul – we are heading that was in about 6 weeks – depending on how tired I am I will give it a go.

You’re welcome, the A10 between Tours and Poitiers is a car park between early July to mid August southwards and late July until late August northwards.
Paul

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Take the train! Look for the cheap tickets, prems, and if you travel enough invest in a seniors railcard. I use them a lot to get to Paris and can do it for 20’ish euros. I also use them now to go to London, either Eurostar direct from Lyon to London or SNCF via Lille to avoid changing stations in Paris. Off next week for 59euros…strikes willing of course!

Haaaa - we are looking at Young Persons Railcard! (yeah right we wish!)

I have travelled the route between Tours and Poitiers, in both directions, many times each year for the past 23 years. I sometimes use the N road to save money but never to save time. Using the N road always takes between 45 minutes and an hour longer than the autoroute. I have been stationary on the A10 twice, once because of a serious accident, once at the payage just before Tours travelling north. It’s worth remembering that on the N road you risk several speed cameras and from July 1st the 90kmh stretches will be restricted to 80 and that won’t make it any quicker.
Does the N10 south of Poitiers really have average speed cameras? It has a few fixed speed cameras and overhead gantries for recording HGV plates but I know of no average speed recording.

Hey yo Aquitaine !

I asked one of my old highschool friend who is a gendarme, and he said no. They do have speed cameras, but fixed. And as motorbikers that are speed fanatics often use the N10 to do “wild runs”, they often hide in the woods to do some interception. Because on public roads, motorbikers can escape to cops and gendarmes, not on highways that are private and “fenced”. So use it if you are on a budget and not tired. Because it is much more relaxing to drive at 110 km/h on a french highway being passed by everybody for a long drive.

I did the trip south east france to brittany and back last week, Thats passing Lyon ,St Etienne , Clermont Ferrand ,Bourges, Tour, Le Mans and Rennes autoroute all the way to Rennes.Compared with last year the peage was about 2.50€ extra. That is really not the issue ,but the price of diesel which varied from €1,54 to €1,60 .I planned the return so that I could come off the autoroute and use supermarket diesel .

€2.50 more doesn’t sound much until you state the cost of the trip in tolls, was it €100 each way? Blessed is the N154 :grin:

Thread creep, why in this day and age are motorway services allowed to charge what they do? I see access as much easier than fighting through towns to deliver the fuel.

78€ each way .This is for a car how much for Cat 2 and 3 I have no idea

because they have higher fees to pay to private autoroute companies