milaedg

Hello,

We are planning our trip to France (starting in Toulouse and ending in Paris) in June 2016 (June 10 - July 4) which coincides with Euro 2016. We'll stay 2-3 days in Toulouse where we plan to pick up a car on the last day, and drive up to Dordogne/Lot, Normandy and Paris. Should we be concerned with huge crowds and heavy traffic in cities where the games are held (Toulouse, Bordeaux, Paris, etc)? Should we be reserving accommodations (for Toulouse and Paris) soon? Thank you!

historytraveler

I hate to tag on to another post but have similar questions. I'm taking the family to Europe in June and will be traveling from London to Mallorca ( assuming no problems there) but then some of us will be flying to Marseille on or around the 17th or 18th ( Ryan Air does not have their spring flights out yet. ) From Marseille we were thinking of driving along the Cote d"Azur or perhaps through Provence to Nice area before heading to the Gorges du Verdon and on to Paris around the 27th, 28th of June and returning to London on the 30th.

I've found some of the schedules for games but have the same questions as milaedg regarding crowds and bookings. And, does anyone know what's happening between June 27th ( game at St. Denis ) and July 10th?

annhig

I'd have thought that it's highly unlikely that you will be inconvenienced - particularly in Paris where there is so much accommodation that it can probably absorb whatever the tournament can throw at it.

and the stadiums are rarely in the centre - the only problem is likely to be on match days with transport to and from the venues. if you scroll down towards the bottom of this site, you'll see the timetable and venues for the knockout stage of the tournament between June 25th and July 10th at the Stade de France [aka St Denis]

That said, I would take advantage of the free cancellation terms on booking.com etc and book places asap in your main centres; I've done that in the past and got some great deals booking this far ahead.

flanneruk

No international football tournament in Europe can possibly attract bigger attendances than top flight national and European tournaments routinely attract every match day during the football season.

What the Euros do is attract people - very temporarily - from unaccustomed parts of Europe: abnormal pressure builds on bits of the intercity transport system and (on odd days) hotels, rather than the roads near the stadia.

One or two stadia might get a lick of paint - but in Europe neither the World Cup nor the Euros involve new or expanded stadia, and not even the national team playing Germany gets a bigger crowd than Man U vs Barcelona or Inter vs Real.

All European major cities handle this as a matter of routine every single weekend (and, it sometimes feels, every midweek evening in winter) - and football stadia are almost all in parts of cities visitors never go anywhere near, while most of their crowds arrive by bus or metro.

The big difference between the Euros and normal football is that the crowds don't immediately get the metro home or get a bus for the late night charter flight back to the other side of Europe.

They typically stay on overnight, then go home a day or so after the match they're interested in: the real pressure will be on flights and trains (and therefore their prices) to host cities from parts of Europe (like Poland or Norway) that typically generate little traffic to France. New routes won't be created, so there'll be strange fare spikes during the tournament in train and plane fares between related hubs (in the cases I've cited, if they qualify: London and Germany) and French hubs.

For a number of the venues (like Lille, Lens and St Etienne), those hubs may be a long way away, so there'll be fare and availability pressure on routes to train and plane hubs. But we can't begin to predict that till we know who's qualified, and where they'll be playing in the knock out round- which won't be till December 12 this year.

Bits of the public transport system feeding the routes out to the stadia will come under pressure - as they do every second autumn to spring Sunday. Some parts of some host cities' pedestrianised centres might attract large crowds for collective viewing, or pre and post match drinking, on those cities' match days. The easily shocked might prefer to avoid these area, but there's a lot more to Toulouse, Marseilles and Bordeaux than a few city centre streets, and life in any large city involves putting up with crowds when you don't want them.

It's just possible if France wins there'll be a few car horns sounding along the Champs Elysees. But, compared to the disruption in Paris on the last day of the Tour de France, the 14 July parade or whenever a few farmers want to inconvenience the people who fork out their subsidies, football matches are always a side issue in Paris.

The big shock, though, is likely to be the huge mid-June train and plane fare spike for some link routes from late June, once fans find out who's playing in later rounds.

PeterHorrocks

Hi Milaedg

I think you can expect some disruption and accommodation will book up earlier than usual in certain parts and that includes self catering properties as well as hotels.

Football is increasingly popular with families and people come from a long way to enjoy the experience and combine it with a holiday. Often the family stays by the pool whilst the menfolk go off to see the game.

France has done a huge amount of infra structure investment for the Euros. Have a look at this article.

http://peter-horrocks.tumblr.com/pos...uefa-euro-2016

Previous football tournaments held in France have been very well managed and the ambiance has been good, so it shouldn't put anyone off but it is worth bearing in mind when planning.

Best

Peter H

Alec

Try not to stay in host cities on days matches are scheduled. Most available accommodation will have been block-booked by organisers for officials, press, sponsors etc or only sold as part of match packages etc, or otherwise there's a big spike in price - expect 100-200% mark-up. It's possible, as it has happened at other sporting occasions, that some excess capacity may be released, but it's only likely to happen a month or so before the tournament starts.

annhig

When we have been to Paris and Rome to watch rugby matches, hotels there were not over-priced; the flights were expensive, though the Italian ones were at half term, which didn't help.

Booking as far in advance as possible is probably a good idea.

milaedg

Thank you ALL for your responses and insight. I am kind of relieved that the tournament will not adversely affect our plans.
@annhig, I will take advantage of booking.com's free cancellation terms to secure lodgings in Toulouse and Paris as soon as possible.
@PeterHorrocks, we are actually soccer fans and if it's not too difficult to get tickets, we might consider going to one of the games (in Toulouse or Bordeaux. Nice blog! I enjoyed reading a few of your blog entries. The lavender fields were in full bloom when we were there this past June. It was amazing!

thaisakura

Sweet kiss of the euro 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ8CyONyCwA

annhig

AAhhhh