‘Extremely difficult’ conditions for road travel in France on Saturday

Road traffic will be particularly heavy this weekend, says Bison Futé, the government’s traffic monitoring service. This is because juillettistes - the French word for people who take their holiday in July - return and aoûtiens - August holiday-makers - depart this weekend.

Road travel on Saturday, July 31 is expected to be ‘extremely difficult’ throughout France for people leaving to begin their holidays.

It is expected to be ‘difficult’ for those returning home and especially so in the Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur regions along the Mediterranean coast.

Bison Futé recommends that on Friday, July 30, motorists avoid the A62 motorway between Toulouse and Agen from 14:00-20:00 for return journeys, and the A9 from Orange to Narbonne from 10:00-20:00 for departures.

On Saturday, motorists should avoid the A61 between Toulouse and Narbonne from 08:00-16:00 for departures and 10:00-13:00 for returns, and the A62 from Agen to Toulouse, from 09:00-17:00 in both directions.

In the south east and along the Mediterranean coast, difficulties are expected on the A7, A8 and A9.

Difficulties are expected on the A10 going towards the west.

And in the south west travel will be affected on the A20, A61, A62 and A63.

Access to France from Italy via the Mont Blanc tunnel (N205) is also expected to be impacted on Saturday, with waiting times of over 30 minutes from 11:00-16:00 and 18:00-20:00, and waiting times of over an hour from 16:00-18:00.

In Île-de-France, travellers leaving for holidays or travelling through the region should complete journeys before midday on Friday or Saturday, and before 09:00 on Sunday. Return travellers should aim to arrive before 14:00 on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Bison futé said: “We strongly advise against travelling during the night from Friday to Saturday, and during the day on Saturday.

It would be better to wait until Sunday, August 1 to travel.”

Or, even better, wait until Monday August 2, when travel conditions are predicted to return to normal throughout France.

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