driving from London to Lourdes

Old May 24th, 2017, 03:33 AM
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driving from London to Lourdes

Hi Friends, I'm intending to drive from London via Calais to Lourdes this weekend. it's a total 10hrs drive in France ( excluding Ferry and driving in London)
Roughly I think Toll charges would be around EUR 100 from Calais to Lourdes.

I will be travelling with my one yr old and 5 yr old and my wife.
I have not driven in France before so little bit nervous. Any advice/tip is appreciated.
Also we want to stay one night close to Paris on our way back from Lourdes. what is the best area to stay over night and take a train journey ( perhaps max 1 hr) to visit Paris City. We will be taking the Ferry back from Calais to London.

Any information is much appreciated.

thanks,
Dev
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Old May 24th, 2017, 04:45 AM
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Hi
Keep on the right..
Why not drive into Paris ? You stay in the outskirts but frankly you go out of perpherique (ring road) then follow a few large boulevards and that it is.

If not, I would stay in Chartres then. Or Orleans.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 04:59 AM
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Tolls will depend on the route. Did you check on viamichelin.com? There is a cheaper route that is not that much longer.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 05:11 AM
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It's an awfully long drive, and other than a few sections near the Millau Viaduct, not particularly interesting. How long are you going for? If you are only going Sat to Mon using Bank Holiday, you spend most of your time in car with little time to explore Lourdes or to take part in pilgrimage. If you are going longer, perhaps using half term, then it makes more sense. I flew to Toulouse, hired a car and stayed in Lourdes for 4 nights, which was ok (could have stayed longer as I fell in love with the town and its surroundings).
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Old May 24th, 2017, 06:34 AM
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Have you already booked the ferry? I ask because we lived for seven years about an hour from Lourdes and much preferred the Portsmouth-Caen ferry route which avoids all the congestion and traffic around Paris.

Have you thought about the train or flights to Toulouse, picking up a rental car there for the 90 minutes to Lourdes? If your goal is Lourdes with nothing much in between, I would look at easyjet flights to Toulouse or Eurostar to Paris, see a bit of Paris, then on via TGV to Pau or Toulouse.

Re-reading your post, probably too late to change your basic plan. Orléans is a good suggestion to stop or Paris outskirts, lots of very reasonable chain hotels. France now has almost as many roundabouts (ronds points) as England, just be sure to enter to the right and yield to those on your left entering or already in the roundabout.

The autoroute toll booths should take any chip/pin credit/debit card. Most booths have a staffed booth/toll taker in the far right lane. Most of the autoroute rest stops are clean-ish. Food at the stops is expensive and dreadful. Petrol/gasoline (essence) is expensive on the autoroutes, if possible look for a Leclerc or further south Intermarché, grocery stores which sell less expensive fuel. Diesel is gazole.

Tomorrow, May 25th, is a holiday in France. Might impact traffic some over the weekend but once past Paris until you reach Toulouse, it's usually not too bad.
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