Driving to La Rochelle

sunshinetours

We are soon driving down to the La Rochalle area from the Eurotunnel with two small kids. We have the DVD's sorted so should be fine for them!

Question is that we are getting a very early tunnel crossing and wondered about best places to stop briefly along the way a couple of times (two good stops should be fine I would have thought). Any opinions?

Also is there an easy way to avoid some of teh more expensive tolls on part of the route as it looks like it could be c€70 each way via the main autoroutes. I do have BMW sat nav so can select the "avoid toll route" but wondered where abouts the rough points of departure for tolls would be

Thanks

pompeyrich

Have a look at Via Michelin, you can select avoid tolls and various other options. I had a quick look, it looks like 40 Euros each way and 6 hours on the toll roads and 9 hours not on the toll road. It shows you where and how much the tolls are so maybe you could break the journey down to avoid some, as you suggested.

PolishBigSpender

To be honest, it's quite a tricky place to access without paying tolls.

Calais-Boulogne and Abbeville-Rouen are toll free. You could quite easily do Alencon-Le Mans without paying tolls (the departmental road there is quite straight and has some good overtaking opportunities) - but don't do Rouen-Alencon toll free as it's quite a tortorous stretch of road.

Le Mans-Angers should be quite fast, although for that stretch, I'd recommend the toll route as far as Cholet (just south of Angers).

Roughly speaking, the optimal route is this -

A16 Calais-Abbeville. Calais-Boulogne is toll free, but take the toll road between Boulogne and Abbeville because the old N1 is a rather long winded, slow road. It's also very heavily used by trucks and isn't recommended.

A28 Abbeville-Rouen. It's a fast, non-toll route and is thoroughly recommended.

A28 Rouen-Alencon. It's tolled, but the alternative is very slow and tedious - again, highly used by trucks and should be avoided for your sanity.

D338 Alencon-Le Mans. It's non-toll, and is very straight and fast. It's single carriageway, but definitely a saving can be made on tolls there. I believe there's also some dual carriageway sections, and the road is very good for overtaking.

A11 Le Mans-Angers. Take the toll road here - the A11 is free around Angers, and the A87 is also free for a bit of the way towards Cholet.

A87 Angers-Junction 28 of the A87. Tolled, but the alternative is tedious and goes through many places.

Junction 28 (D160)-D137 (Le Quarter Chemins). It's quicker this way than by autoroute, as it'll take you straight onto the D137.

D137-La Rochelle. It's straight and wide, and will take you straight into La Rochelle without turning off. The autoroute doesn't actually go near La Rochelle - so the D137 is just as good and free!

Hope this helps, if you've got any questions, feel free to ask

knightstyle

Great answer! Plus the road Caen-Rennes-Nantes is free then D137 to Chantoney-La Rochelle is quite good. Beware of new speed cameras there seem to be more this year. 4 round Rouen and two as north of Le Mans. All preceded by warning signs.
If you are looking for a fantastic day out go to Puy du Fou better than Futuroscope and all the family enjoy it even grumpy teenagers!

sunshinetours

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

To be honest, it's quite a tricky place to access without paying tolls.

Calais-Boulogne and Abbeville-Rouen are toll free. You could quite easily do Alencon-Le Mans without paying tolls (the departmental road there is quite straight and has some good overtaking opportunities) - but don't do Rouen-Alencon toll free as it's quite a tortorous stretch of road.

Le Mans-Angers should be quite fast, although for that stretch, I'd recommend the toll route as far as Cholet (just south of Angers).

Roughly speaking, the optimal route is this -

A16 Calais-Abbeville. Calais-Boulogne is toll free, but take the toll road between Boulogne and Abbeville because the old N1 is a rather long winded, slow road. It's also very heavily used by trucks and isn't recommended.

A28 Abbeville-Rouen. It's a fast, non-toll route and is thoroughly recommended.

A28 Rouen-Alencon. It's tolled, but the alternative is very slow and tedious - again, highly used by trucks and should be avoided for your sanity.

D338 Alencon-Le Mans. It's non-toll, and is very straight and fast. It's single carriageway, but definitely a saving can be made on tolls there. I believe there's also some dual carriageway sections, and the road is very good for overtaking.

A11 Le Mans-Angers. Take the toll road here - the A11 is free around Angers, and the A87 is also free for a bit of the way towards Cholet.

A87 Angers-Junction 28 of the A87. Tolled, but the alternative is tedious and goes through many places.

Junction 28 (D160)-D137 (Le Quarter Chemins). It's quicker this way than by autoroute, as it'll take you straight onto the D137.

D137-La Rochelle. It's straight and wide, and will take you straight into La Rochelle without turning off. The autoroute doesn't actually go near La Rochelle - so the D137 is just as good and free!

Hope this helps, if you've got any questions, feel free to ask

Brilliant thanks very much!!

The only slight change (my bad!) is that I was being a bit too general and we are staying inland from La Rochelle and turn off autoroute at St Jean D'Angely and go East slightly, so the part south of LE Mans in your post is different I guess, as we would go on the A28 to Tours and then A10 down to St Jean if taking the Autoroute

Sorry any different routes on that part of the journey you would recommend?

PolishBigSpender

sunshinetours wrote: »

Brilliant thanks very much!!

The only slight change (my bad!) is that I was being a bit too general and we are staying inland from La Rochelle and turn off autoroute at St Jean D'Angely and go East slightly, so the part south of LE Mans in your post is different I guess, as we would go on the A28 to Tours and then A10 down to St Jean if taking the Autoroute

Sorry any different routes on that part of the journey you would recommend?

Okay, no problem

The A28 is quite expensive as far as I recall. Likewise, the A10 between Tours and Poitiers is quite pricey because it's such a busy section.

You could give the D323 a shot out of Le Mans. This runs to La Fleche, from where you can pick up the D938. From there, onto the D347 towards Saumur and southwards, then onto the D938 again (French road numbering is crazy!) towards Parthenay. At Parthenay, you can pick up the D743 south towards Niort.

Just north of Niort, you have two options - you can go through Niort and avoid the tolls (it looks like a straight southwards route to your destination), or you can take the A83 and A10. I'd personally take the autoroute for this part of the journey, Niort isn't such a small place and there's a possibility of getting lost around it.

The route is mostly on Departmental roads - but, and this is the but. Most of these are former 'Route Nationales' and are of a very high standard. I'd certainly recommend this route over the Autoroute - and it may in fact be much quicker.

sunshinetours

Just an update now we are back! Took the autoroute all the way on way down as it was so easy. Cost approx €55 but basically meant we could so 130km/hr most of the way

Tips:
1. UK Barclaycard worked fine for tolls
2. Watch the speed limits when they drop to 110 and 90in certain parts as we did see cameras and police
3. If you have cruise control it will be a god send to keep to speed limits!

On way back we used some of the routes nationalles on the part south of Niort and was fine although defnitely slower than the autoroute. We rejoined the autoroute for the remaining way as time was slightly against us for the tunnel crossing

Finally have to say the Charente Maritime are is absolutely lovely and thoroughly recommend it and driving really is a doddle in france so for those posters who are worried please do not.

The advantage sof having your own car when you have kids is a massive plus. Also if you ahve a diesel then "gazole" is noticably cheaper (off the main autoroutes) even with a dire exchange rate. We were paying 96c a litre in the local supermarket. Unleaded is not as much difference