We are heading down to Perpignon and intend to cross the Millau Bridge.

So what i need to know is as the peripherique can be a bit of a mare lets keep it simple.

Which road signs/city should i head for to get off the ring road in the right direction?

n104 (la francilliene) this is an outer ring road that heads off left after charles de gaulle. follow the signs for creteil, a6 and then a10. bit longer but way less hassle than the periferique. do not take the d104 heading right as you will end up eventually in versaille.

Peripherique is much over-rated as a traffic mare IME. The traffic moves OK out of peak hours, the exits are layed out in a consistent way, and it is very well signposted.

I prefer the A104 to the East of the city

mappy is your friend

The ones that say “Route du Sud”.

Seriously it will take 10 years off your life. It’s not a ring road as we would know it, more a connection of 752 interlinked motorways with off/on ramps coming from 7 directions. Don’t attempt it alone…

This is based admittedly on one experience, mid afternoon during the holidays. Well signed my bottom.

Google Maps directions are very good for France, they give you an image of the road sign you are looking for which helps with last-minute junction panic.

Driving through France, I always wonder why there are signposts to a woman I’ve heard of but never seen.

Nancy Mulhouse.

Drove down to Perpignon a couple of weeks back via Paris-hated the ring road, absolute mare! Think I prefer the Dijon route!

Seriously it will take 10 years off your life. It’s not a ring road as we would know it, more a connection of 752 interlinked motorways with off/on ramps coming from 7 directions. Don’t attempt it alone…

This is my memory of it as well. The exit we needed was closed and borrowed Sat nav was too slow sorting its sel out.

Getting the 3.00am tunnel so traffic shouldn’t be a problem.

I drove down to the Dordogne a few years back. To get past Paris I went calais – boulogne – rouen – dreux – limoges and so on.
No idea about the Millau bridge though

i remember doing 2 laps as a child. oh what fun our family holidays were!

Getting the 3.00am tunnel so traffic shouldn’t be a problem.

On the tunnel at 03:00
off at [say] – 03:45
put watch forward 1 hour – 04:45
2.5 Hours to the outskirts of Paris – 06:45

what rush hour? 🙂

Got well and truly lost on the pirepherique in 2001 in the days before satnav whilst driving to Ibiza. Got on it about 23.00 saturday night and finally managed to start heading south about 03.00, seems like I went every way but south until I found the right way!

before satnavs yeah, me too. However, when you drop into one of the numerous tunnels at 80mph and emerge to 34 lanes of motorways with seconds to make a choice and your satnav is still ‘finding itself’ and theres motorbikes doing 7 lane changes and every car has a dented quarter….its great 😯

FFS borrow or buy a satnav. I’ll never forget the turning we missed and the 3hour nighmare which unfolded following the missed turning.

My first time on the Peripherique was magic: I got into a state of flow and treated it like a slalom, we moved through the traffic like a hot knife through butter and found the exit so easily.

But on the whole if you’re heading south I’d recommend going via the A26, Arras- St-Quentin – Reims – Dijon. It’ll be much easier. The extra miles are nothing when you can keep moving instead of retracing your route & getting stuck in traffic.

I had a good navigator and we done our research. It was like a motor rally. “Cross 3 lanes left NOW ! Take exit on left. You have 27 metres to cross 7 lanes and take the right exit go NOW NOW NOW NOW !” Etc for about an hour. We made it through.

It isn’t that bad, we managed OK long before satnavs

It isn’t that bad, we managed OK long before satnavs

I know you can do without them(as you could a lot of things in life) but our Tomtom has been worth it’s weight in gold the last couple of years went we went through Paris (and around France generally). It just takes most of the stress out of you jouney.

Moses speaks wisely. I’d do that for sure.

Oh yes and one more piece of advice. Put your hand up in front of your face and measure the distance between the tip of your finger and thumb. That is the standard measure of traffic space in which to insert one standard sized French delivery van.

I know you can do without them(as you could a lot of things in life) but our Tomtom has been worth it’s weight in gold the last couple of years went we went through Paris (and around France generally). It just takes most of the stress out of you jouney.

me too – I wouldn’t be without one now – I was just remarking that the doomsday scenario if you don’t have one is somewhat exaggerated in some of the posts

Oh yes and one more piece of advice. Put your hand up in front of your face and measure the distance between the tip of your finger and thumb. That is the standard measure of traffic space in which to insert one standard sized French delivery van.

😆 and Parisienne drivers in general I’d say!

I did it at 3am on a weekday in a hired car after a terrible series of travel disasters involving the keys for my flat in Helsinki being left in Brittany. It was still busy as hell and the roundabouts were like stock car ovals.

I found the periferique and utter nightmare at 10 pm on a Sunday night – I would say avoid. I was driving a rented 3 tonne motorhome with the steering wheel on the wrong side tho.

I would go a long way round to avoid it in future

This isn’t very scientific, but on the way down to the Massif Central we went WAAAAAY out of the way (colonial ignorance of how mahoosive France really is) to avoid Paris. On the way back decided to be brave and go via Paris. It took pretty much exactly the same amount of time, due to traffic jams and having to pull over and get breathing under control every 30 mins or so.

Try doing it with a screaming 8 month old, 2 faulty ignition coils and a badly misfiring engine, all on friday evening rushhour. Thats a nightmare!

The n104 is a bit longer but at least you keep moving and it always seems a bit quicker.

Not as bad as people make out. Wouldn’t like to make the worng turn that takes me into Paris centre, but the whole motorway network around Paris is well planned & thought out in my opinion. Example, drove to Disneyland Paris in May, wife was driving, she’s always shyed away from driving “over there”, but she got us there with no nightmares, even taking the Charles De Gaulle route. In this day & age with even a basic sat nav, so long as the maps are fairly current there should not be a problem.

The autoroute through Riems & Lyon are much scarier I feel!

Jason, We had a TomTom for Switzerland (A26, Arras- St-Quentin – Reims – Dijon etc), it was brilliant (apart from the odd new built junction/roundabout). It worked a treat, even showing the lane you needed to be in. meant that everyone else could sleep whilst the driver drove, no one had to stay awake to navigate. Occasionally had to wake the front passenger to pay tolls. I was a bit “fuss and nonsense” over it to start, but quickly realised it made a big difference to karma in the car.

The peripherique is easy if you avoid peak times, my children always ask Daddy to drive around the Arc d’Triomphe, just to see Daddy stressed :D,

The peripherique is easy if you avoid peak times, my children always ask Daddy to drive around the Arc d’Triomphe, just to see Daddy stressed :D, also the Millau Bridge is a modern wonder of the world, well worth stopping at the visitor centre and if possible drive underneath it.

ooh a visitor coming my way – what are you coming to Perpignan to do?

Can’t offer any Paris tips – I went through at 2am last time with a map and co-driver. I found there wasn’t any signage for “Le Sud”. Had to be careful of a few drunk drivers.

Miilau is my home town .

Viaduc is amazing , and after you drove on it , go back down to the town for views underneath .

from calais , 3 hours to paris , 1 hour to cross paris and then 6 hours to millau .

to cross paris if you go on the peripherique , it is porte d orleans you need , and then follow signs for orleans and clermond ferrant .

I’ve done this journey quite a few times with guys who have done the beaujolais run years ago (full on night navigation jobbie) and never do they go anywhere near paris

there is a quite nice ibis in Chateau Thierry

Beaune is a lovely little town (lots of inexpensive hotels) and if you like wine, go to Pommard and find the wine cooperative in the village, it’s astoundingly good and not too terribly priced

or if you get towards Lyon, try Villefrance Sur Saonne for a night stop

after this I’m not that au fait with the coast but hopefully the length of the trip is starting to dawn on you, it’s a long drive !

I go via Porte D’Italie marked A6a/b A10 to Orleans. I like the Periperique. Avoid as others have said at peak times.

The Millau Bridge is awesome. I made the same detour to get to Perpignan. Coming back I’d visit Carcasonne and come up the A20 via Limoges.

Arc de Triomphe is easy – cars go slowly and watch out for each other. Porte Maillot, one further out, is my least favourite – traffic is moving faster and the exits are not obvious. Signs in France are confusing cos they often don’t seem to point in the right direction, just at the road that goes in that direction. If you see what I mean. Also French drivers are aware that people do daft things and don’t honk in an annoying self-righteous way if you do something weird. Much prefer driving in France to driving in UK or (spit) Holland.

Rich tee

Heading that way to in laws in Spain nr Moraira (Alicante ish).

Decided that as last time we did Limoge/Carcassone/Aix le Thermes/Luchon/La Rochelle (where they used to live) that we would go a different way.

Difference is this time the missus is six months pregnant so no massive Pyrennean walks and rides this time. I am taking my bike though and she is happy to drop me at the top of the ‘hill’!

3 days nr Perpignon, camping.

5 days in Moraira (bro in law flying down so i’m taking his bike as well)

3 days to be decided on the way back but somewhere around the border.

Cchristolou – not sure i have time to go down into Milau. How long will this take? Am i fool if i miss this view? And thanks for these directions, just what i need.

Do take the route that takes you over the viaduct/bridge as it is well worth it!

sounds good –
i actually live just south of perpy near Argeles sur mer, so if you fancy a ride in the hills let me know.

Millau bridge is great – you can actually stop at an oh so civilised rest area on the north side to take pictures. the millau route has now been linked to the motorway by the Med so is now faster