This time next week we’ll be disembarking the ferry in Calais and heading to a campsite in Barcelona. I know loads of people here know their way around France. I’ve never done it top to bottom before in one go we’ve usually meandered about.

But, Barcelona is the starting point for the annual mission and we just want to get there as quickly and easily as possible. I’m the only driver. I’m not looking forward to it to honest. I won’t be able to relax until we’ve got the tent up in Barca and I crack open an Estrella.

I can see some of these being purchased around Friday lunch time,

Once you get to Spain don’t bother using your indicators at roundabouts, that way you will fit right in

get off the motorway and stop for a lunch not in a services: sandwhich from a boulongerie in a square/ park. much more restful than services and allows you to break the day up a bit.

avoid paris
avoid energy drinks.

When you get there have a night out at the Bagdhad Club.

😯

Get the ferry to Santander instead?

Dunno if I’d drive that far in one day tbh, pretty sure that’s too much for someone who does it for a living ie lorry drivers with tacometers?.

Have an overnight stop?.

via Michelin is a good place to start for routes

I drove solo to the Pyrenees last year (well, MTB-idle junior was in the passenger seat but too young to drive in Europe).

Did it in one stint, just stopping for petrol, it’s tough. There was one section of about 80km where i only saw two other cars.

top tip? steer clear of the energy drinks. Don’t have a large lunch. When your stomach is full all your blood supply goes to digesting the food and makes you sleepy. Eat little and more often instead.

Stop somewhere and get in the back and just close your eyes for 30 minutes. you will be sick of sitting in the same seat. Even if you don’t sleep the rest will do you good.

Should have said we’ll be in the van with a comfy bed in the back. Stopping for shuteye will be easy. I did Amsterdam to Val di Sole two years ago. 13 hours with a few short rests. The last part in the mountains in the pitch black was horrible. This is similar distance but a much more direct route.

Done it quite a few times on my way to ibiza. Straight down the middle past Orleans and Clermont-Ferrand is the best way imo. You’ll get to drive over the Milau bridge too, though they were just building it the last time I went.

Traffic really thins out south of orleans until you get down close to Montpellier.

Take lots of music/podcasts as French radio is utterly shite.

Drive as fast as you can, right up a frog’s chuff. The adrenalin will keep you awake until Barca.

It is a long way.
Depending if you want to pay for the tolls.
If you do, from Calais to Reims, Lyon, Nimes, Montpellier, Perpignan.
Motorway all the way, avoiding Paris.
Central route, calais, Paris, orleans, clermond ferrand, and then perpignan. Should be cheaper on the tolls but more difficult to drive.

I could not drive that distance without a few hours of sleep, I have done it with a lunch stop with a decent nap and then a couple more breaks through the night.
But it is much nicer to do a stop somewhere on the way.

San Sebastian is nice and reachable in a day then on through Zaragoza to Barca
maybe not the quickest..

Any tips?

Fit cruise control to the van if you don’t already have it.
Fit a Sanef tolling tag, it’s so much less faff than paying them.

I do the little and often method, drive for 1-2 hours and have a 10 min break and a drink and walk around. Every few stops have 15mins kip and a bite to eat.

Via Michelin is great for route planning, check any mountain roads you want to use are going to be open and OK.

IMO its too far to drive safely in one go. Get as far down as you can and stop at a Formule 1 overnight. Don’t drive more than 4 hours without a break either. Driving on “energy drinks” is just endangering yourself and other road users.

Read ”Barcelona Plates” by Alexei Sayle.

Don’t do anything that he does.

Hope this helps!

Read “Barcelona Plates” by Alexei Sayle.

This. Though the point is he was driving elsewhere in a car with Barcelons plates.

Stupid to drive it one go. Take a few breaks, ideally take a cool box with all your food in for the trip. Plenty of nice places to take a rest and take on some food. A20 is my normal route through central France as described above. I normally take an overnight stop around Limoges/Bellac in a guest house. Plenty of them about and much better than stopping at a budget hotel.
A Sanef tag will save you time and hassle at the tolls with the bill taken following month by direct debit.
You’ll hear lots of horror stories about driving in Barcelona but miss rush our and it is simple. If you do hit rush hour especially on an evening expect to spend a few hours going nowhere fast.

If you’ve not already booked the ferry get the tunnel, much quicker and less hassle.

If you’ve not already booked the ferry

I haven’t. I’ve also never used the chunnel. I’ll look it up, thanks.

We did Bilbao to Algercerias a few years back in one hit – in a knackered Landrover Discovery Tdi.
It was relentless, but we swapped drivers (my wife did a couple of hours mid-way) which really helped.
As others have said, the tunnel is much quicker (and cheaper – the long ferries are really expensive) so just keep at it, don’t do more than 3-4 hours without a stop, drink lots of water, etc.

Driving long distances in Europe is very different to the UK simply because it feels like there is nobody about… you can go miles without seeing another car.

Ferry to Santander and enjoy the cruise and join in with the school disco onboard.

Better for both ways as you only mention going there, you have to return as well.

Offset the ferry cost against fuel and tolls and its a better way of getting there and not wiped out when you arrive.

I’ve done denia to Liverpool in one hit once after an hours sleep. It was probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. I did between 120-150 all the way from North of Barcelona to calais. I can’t believe I wasn’t stopped. I was so tired I just wanted to get home and to hell with the consequences. I did many stupid things when I was younger.

I’d echo the points above, take lots of breaks. French Aire stopping places are pretty frequent and nice places to relax for 20 mins usually.

don’t do more than 3-4 hours without a stop

Don’t drive more than 4 hours without a break either

One fatal accident in three on autoroutes is caused by drivers dozing off. 4 hours is a long time to stay vigilant.

Ferry to Santander

Wrong coast, worse roads.

Drive as fast as you can, right up a frog’s chuff.

Chances are the Frog will be a Gendarme in an unmarked car. Every other Frog will pull over to let you by when they see your lights in the mirrors.

Fit cruise control to the van if you don’t already have it.

Swiss research says that increases you chances of falling asleep and dying.

you can go miles without seeing another car.

On one of the busiest autoroutes in Europe. :-/ I predict at least half an hour in slow moving traffic.

San Sebastian is nice and reachable in a day then on through Zaragoza to Barca
maybe not the quickest..

Only an extra 300km with half of them on lousy roads.

French radio is utterly shite.

You mean it isn’t Radio 2.

Enjoy the journey, it’ll be the best part. Not much fun in getting drunk then ….ing clapped-up pros and getting robbed which I suspect is the other part of the programme.

Fly instead.

Edukator – Troll
Only an extra 300km with half of them on lousy roads.

mostly empty well surfaced dual cariageway with a 120 limit and no tolls

A 90 limit and regular jams on the autoroute along the Basque coast, not helped by road works at present. It was also the most expensive autoroute per km in France before they built Pau-Langon. Then there’s the Bordeaux rocade which is again 90 and a continuous jam for several hours a day. Tours snarls up and Nantes adds even more distance if you go further west. There are some sections in Spain which are main road and not 120 and you sit in a convoi of trucks. Your suggestion is about 300km extra and includes 150km of lousy roads.

if you say so 😉

Enjoy the journey, it’ll be the best part. Not much fun in getting drunk then ….ing clapped-up pros and getting robbed which I suspect is the other part of the programme.

Wow, you’re a barrel of laughs.

A 90 limit and regular jams on the autoroute along the Basque coast, not helped by road works at present. It was also the most expensive autoroute per km in France before they built Pau-Langon. Then there’s the Bordeaux rocade which is again 90 and a continuous jam for several hours a day. Tours snarls up and Nantes adds even more distance if you go further west. There are some sections in Spain which are main road and not 120 and you sit in a convoi of trucks. Your suggestion is about 300km extra and includes 150km of lousy roads.

Why would you go along the coast??? Autovia to Zaragoza, then autovía to Barcelona. Hardly any main road at all! It is getting on for 600km though, and you would have to pay tolls.

Edit: I think you’re referring to driving to San Sebastian, then driving to Barcelona. In which case you might have a point, I don’t know the roads in France.

You’re still wrong about Barcelona, though – I’ve been quite a few times and it’s great, not been robbed yet.

Dont use energy drinks, its buy now pay later.

Do stop frequently LGV driver stop every 2/3 hours for at least 15 minutes and every 4/5 hours for 45 and it makes sense no trip is worth dying for! and the amount of people that go off the road driving down through France every summer is scary.

Barcelona is further than I would drive in a day.
Did Cognac to Leeds last year in one go and that was as far as I would ever drive without an overnight stay. My approach is to not to rush, going there I did the tolls and drove as fast as limits allowed.
Coming back I used the non-toll roads and drove through some really pretty villages and stopped somewhere fab for lunch. The return leg to Calais took an hour longer than using the motorway, but was a much nicer drive than staring at motorway for hours.

I lived in Barcelona for a year, well lived in Sitges and commuted into Barcelona. Madame’s American colleague was robbed on holiday there last year. My comments on what British tourists do there are based on what we saw tourists doing there.

It’s great if you like hot, sweaty night clubs, cheap sex, popping pills and staggering around drunk/stoned.

It’s also great if you like art, architecture, Catalan culture, stifling polluted air, markets, mad fiestas with fireworks in the streets, the howl of scooters each time the lights change.

Swim in the olympic pool, spend a day in Sitges (go on the train) and a night down the street of sin, visit Montserrat (and climb there), go to Parc guell (even if you have to pay now).

Like any city it’s what you make of it, I’m interested to know what the OP intends to make of it if it’s not the first things that came to mind in my first post.

It’s too far to drive in one go. It’s dangerous and stupid. Pick a couple of nice places on the way and have a good meal and a good nights sleep.

getting drunk then ….ing clapped-up pros and getting robbed which I suspect is the other part of the programme.

It’s great if you like hot, sweaty night clubs, cheap sex, popping pills and staggering around drunk/stoned.

Not judgmental at all then. I’ll have to inform the wife I’ve planned a hedonistic change of pace in order to live up to your expectations.

Would you drive from London to Edinburgh and back in one go? The distances are the same…

Go on, OP. What are you going to do in Barcelona? You’ve told us you’ll be camping and opening an Estrella. It’s a long way to drive even the quickest and easiest way (probably autoroutes via Millau) to sit around on a campsite drinking beer.

Go on, OP. What are you going to do in Barcelona?

Sorry but it sounds like you’re begging for an argument and I can’t be bothered to get into it. I’m not emailing you a copy of our itinerary but our campsite (actually a few miles outside the hotbed of wickedness and depravity that you imagine I’m visiting) is just a starting point for a bigger trip.

I apologise for mentioning the name of an alcoholic beverage but we certainly won’t be sitting around drinking for 4 weeks. I wouldn’t be taking a van full of bikes if that’s what we were into.

Thanks everyone, for all the useful stuff. I’ve taken some stuff on board and I think we’ll break the drive up over Friday and Saturday.

I sometimes forget this is a bike forum.

I sometimes forget this is a bike forum

No this is the chat forum 😛