when do the French come home from Vac?
Jul 15th, 2001 | 05:23 AM
#1
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when do the French come home from Vac?
We'll be in France either the last week of August or the first week of September. Will we hit a ton of traffic in various areas from the French returning from vacation? When do the shops that close in Aug. reopen? <BR> <BR>Thanks! <BR>Bennett
Jul 15th, 2001 | 08:11 AM
#2
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The worst weekend is likely to be 1/2 September when everyone will be heading home. It really depends where you are, but try to avoid main roads from the coast and into large cities that weekend, or travel before dawn. The roads can be truly awful.
Jul 15th, 2001 | 08:39 AM
#3
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The French have left for their vacations yesterday on their national holiday with enormous traffic-jams in the bottleneck around Lyon upto 90 (ninety) km!! <BR>Most of them will be back around 15th August. We used to go to France the last two weeks of August and never had real problems. Shops were open as well.
Jul 15th, 2001 | 05:01 PM
#4
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There's a french organism which gives previsions about expected traffic conditions. They use a code color : black (the worst), red, orange and green (the best). <BR> <BR>For some reason, though I found the site, the link doesn't appear on my browser, so I can't give it, but on their calendar : <BR> <BR>August 24 and 31 and september 1 are ranked orange (so, there should be some traffic but no major problems), August 25 is ranked red (best to avoid) all other days during this period are ranked green (no unusual traffic). According to more detailed informations they give it seems that at the end of august, people tend not to come back all on the same day, this explaining the acceptable traffic conditions. Hope this helps. <BR> <BR>In all cases, the traffic issues will of course come from people coming back from holidays, so you should have no problems if you're driving, TO, say, the coast as opposed to FROM it. <BR>
Jul 15th, 2001 | 05:36 PM
#5
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"La rentrée" begins the beginning of September, meaning the first weekend. It is truly nightmarish on certain well-traveled routes, primarily the Autoroute du Soleil, coming from the Mediterranean back to Paris. Trains are jammed, too. You'll likely encounter some jams no matter when you travel during this period.
