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Travelling on Easter Monday from Boulogne to Dordogne. Am I mad?


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Hi everyone,

my sanity is maybe for others to question ! However through circumstances I am to travel from Boulogne to Mussidan (Dordogne) this Easter Monday. I have two pictures floating in my head. Firstly one with open roads, empty because most of France is spending quality time with their loved ones at home and secondly a gridlocked motorway for all 500+ miles I will be travelling because that is allegedly what happens on bank holidays.

Has anyone any experience of such journeys on an Easter Monday? If so I would be pleased to hear about it. Secondly any suggestions for making this journey as stress free as possible, I'm all ears.

Thanks

Ian

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Well you could get a beeper that automatically clocks up your motorway tolls and lets you go through the telepeage lane at the toll booths!

You would have time to apply for one on their website and to receive it before your trip I should think. Mine came in less than a week after I applied.
In theory you can sign up for one on the spot at the SANEF office just outside Boulogne (at the Hercquelingues (sp?) peage.  But being Easter Monday, perhaps the office will be closed.

I think a search in the Motoring forum would give you more detail.

Angela

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No, only the usual traffic.BE careful though, anywhere too close to

Paris on a Friday afternoon is fraught with the likelihood of hold ups.

Good Friday is only recognised in rare areas of France, for nearly all regions, it is a normal working day.

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In my experience, remembering that I now avoid Paris like the plague

and  have done for a few years since moving up to Brittany, after

suffering the Peripherique's worst bouchons, I would say after 20h00 or

so. I hope someone will have an update on the times for the actual

route you were planning on taking.

There are known routes to avoid the worst of the Peripherique and avoiding the well known bouchon areas.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Robert. Had just made a decision to take similar route (with the help of the Michelin online route finder but ignoring the suggested route when Boulogne was my starting point.)

Interesting that all these services (including Mappy and Multimap) suggest the quickest route from Boulogne is via Paris. Really depends on when you hit the peripherique. Several times I have skipped round it without any problems or delays at all. On others it has been grid-lock....

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just returned to UK.

Took Rouen route down but wished I had stuck with Paris. May have just been unlucky with holiday traffic on Rouen bypass and around Dreux but I reckon it cost me at least extra 2 hours, even allowing for possible gridlock in Paris. Definitely our slowest trip down so far.

Journey down - Boulogne to Allier (Rouen route)  over 8 1/4 hours in car (i.e. ignoring stops)

Journey back (via Paris)  5 1/2 hours in car.

Of course, if we had ended up motionless on Peripherique for 3 hours, I might have reached different conclusion....  

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