[F] Motorways in France • Autoroutes de France

[ChrisZwolle]

I don't think you can count the A28 or A26 to the Paris beltway, they are like 100 or more kilometers away from the city.

By the way, i just calculated i drove 39,85% of the French Autoroutes

[Blijdorp]

I think the french motorways are really good. i like the way they blend into the landscape, for example the A20 crossing the Lot near Cahors(sorry can't find a picture).
A downside is that sometimes it is a very long ride to get to the motorway in some areas and that most roads run north-south and not east-west.

[ChrisZwolle]

Originally Posted by Blijdorp

for example the A20 crossing the Lot near Cahors(sorry can't find a picture).

[Verso]

I love French motorways, they are great, but rare exits bother me, and a quite 'old-looking' fonts on signs (or it's b/c of "R" ). Why don't signs shine, like e.g. in the Netherlands; signs not shining look old to me.

Otherwise cheers to the fabulous French motorways!


Oh, and I don't like the 'nationalistic' signage either.

[juanico]

Originally Posted by Nephasto

Really?... Well... let's start for example in the southwesternmost corner of France:
-The road from Pau to the spanish border is just a crappy road... certainly not an expressways.
-The road from Tarbes to Auch and Agen is just a regular road, not expressway
-The road from Bordeux to Auch and Toulouse is just a regular road, not expressway, with some short 2x2 sections.
-The road from Foix to Perpignan is just a regular road, not expressway, with some short 2x2 sections. Only the stretch near Perpignan is an expressway


... And I could go on and on...

I said that the vast majority were, not all.

And you know as I do that the southwesternmost corner of France is not really representative of what the french motorways/expressways network actually is: 2 out of your 4 examples are mountain roads in the Pyrénées..., the 2 other ones are roads crossing a département - the Gers - which not only being one of the least populated in France (a rural desert in other words) is under an order ("arrêté préfectoral") which forbids expressways on its territory (for natural preservation)...

Anyway this map has been made by a foreign forumer, nothing official.

[juanico]

Originally Posted by Verso

Oh, and I don't like the 'nationalistic' signage either.

What do you mean by that?

[Verso]

^ Signs showing just Milan, Turin, Barcelonne (the spelling?), Saarbruck, Bâle (here I think there's also Basel in brackets) etc., like Belgium usually.

[Nephasto]

Originally Posted by juanico

I said that the vast majority were, not all.

And you know as I do that the southwesternmost corner of France is not really representative of what the french motorways/expressways network actually is: 2 out of your 4 examples are mountain roads in the Pyrénées..., the 2 other ones are roads crossing a département - the Gers - which not only being one of the least populated in France (a rural desert in other words) is under an order ("arrêté préfectoral") which forbids expressways on its territory (for natural preservation)...

Anyway this map has been made by a foreign forumer, nothing official.

Yes, ok. It's not a big deal. I just wanted to point out that many of those blue routes aren't expressways.
And even major roads like N-10 just have some sections with 2x2 intercalated by regular road sections. It's messy and only some of the 2x2 (I would say not the majority, based on viamichelin maps) are up to motorway standards.

But, as I've also refered, in Bretagne for example, all (or almost all) of the blue routes are expressways with motorway standards, so in that case, they work just like autoroutes, but with a diferent name. Like that section of N-10 in between Bordeux and Biarritz, were there's no paralel autoroute.

[Minato ku]

Originally Posted by Chris1491

I don't think you can count the A28 or A26 to the Paris beltway, they are like 100 or more kilometers away from the city.

By the way, i just calculated i drove 39,85% of the French Autoroutes

Yes but these motorway was built for that's it is the "Grand Contournement de Paris".
________________________________________________________________

If you like that. The french sign in Paris metro

[ChrisZwolle]

I used the A28 last year to avoid Paris. A bit longer but much faster. It's a shame that there ain't a good bypass near Paris, in particular a tollroad with only 3 exits near Paris or so. So through traffic can use the tollway, and local traffic uses the A3/A86/A4 etc.

[Minato ku]

It is a shame, exept if you like traffic jam.

[Nephasto]

Yeah... I'd say that from all the big cities in europe, Paris is in the top of those you want to avoid in a long trip.
Exactly because it's very difficult to avoid gettin on the peripherique. There are just some confusing stretches of motorway around Paris, but the peripherique is the only complete expressway around Paris. And for using the other(many but baddly connected) stretcher of motorways around Paris you've got to know them, because the signaling doesn't help. For example, if you come from the south, in the A-10 and want to go to the north to the A-1, the signing you send you through the peripherique, although it would be possible to avoid it using several diferent freeways... it's just too confusing.

[ChrisZwolle]

That's wrong!

From the A10, you see Lille signed all the way to the A1! Southbound, you see Nantes-Lyon-Bordeaux signed all the way to the A6/A10!

You are send via the A3/A86/A4/A86 connection.

[Minato ku]

This is the incredible plan for freeway and motorway for Paris in the 1970's

Paris region


red : Motorway built
dark purple : deleted
green : renamed project
orange : plan Pompidou (freeway in the center of Paris) deleted
light purple : freeways built
brown : project approved.

plan Pompidou for inner Paris



Double blue line : freeway. (6 at 8 lanes)
Dark blue line : avenue, boulevard without intersection or single way freeway for the Seine banks.
light blue line : avenue or boulevard with underground passage.
blue circle : interchange

[Nephasto]

Originally Posted by Chris1491

That's wrong!

From the A10, you see Lille signed all the way to the A1! Southbound, you see Nantes-Lyon-Bordeaux signed all the way to the A6/A10!

You are send via the A3/A86/A4/A86 connection.

That's good news!

Last time I passed in Paris I had to went to the peripherique, but that was some years ago.

[ChrisZwolle]

I can show some pics from autoroutes.free.fr

on the A10 heading for Paris:



Near the Boulevard Périphérique.


Soutbound, Bordeaux-Nantes-Lyon is signed all the time.


Maybe it's different on the BP, never been there.

[Verso]

Originally Posted by Chris1491

Maybe it's different on the BP, never been there.

You haven't been on the Boulevard Périphérique yet?! Considering you're a freeway fanatic, that's a crime!

[ChrisZwolle]

If i was a real fanatic, i should be around Madrid too. (never been there). That's the ultimate mecca for drivers in Europe. They have like 5 beltways, and the biggest urban freeway system in Europe. Now that's hot

[juanico]

Originally Posted by Nephasto

That's good news!

Last time I passed in Paris I had to went to the peripherique, but that was some years ago.

Here's some tip for you next time you coming here :

on the autoroutes around Paris, the road signs have different levels of reading, the upper sign always indicates the main direction (cardinal points) as following : LILLE = North (by A1) / METZ - NANCY = East ( by A4) / BORDEAUX - NANTES - LYON = South (by A5, A6, A10) / ROUEN = West (by A13)

The lower sign indicates from top to bottom :
- the main points of reference of Paris area (which are Marne-la-Vallée, Fontenay, Bobigny for the East : Créteil, Evry for the South ; Versailles, Nanterre for the West ; Cergy-Pontoise, St Denis, Sarcelles for the North ; and of course Paris for the centre)
- and then the local exits.

On a picture taken from above I have highlighted the 3 levels of reference:
- national (cardinal points)
- Paris area
- local (next exit)
(that's generality of course, some signs at the crossing of several highways/expressways are really a mess)



Once you know that you should be able to avoid the Périphérique and take the right road

[Nephasto]

Thank's for the excelent explanation!

This summer I'm travelling from the south (A10) to Calais, and back, but I'il avoid Paris by using the A28. It's an excelet bypass, I just don't understand why it doesn't bypass Rouen.. I'il have to go through it using an avenue, from what I see in the maps.

Anyway, next year I'm going to spend a semester (2nd semester of 07/08) studying in Paris, so I should get to know the motorway system.