Anyone done a route to the alps which avoids the french auto tolls

A snowHead

Hi there

Am driving out to the three valleys after christmas.

Just wonderring if anyone has driven out using the french 'nationales' A-roads and avoid having to pay the auto tolls?

steely

A snowHead

Tried once, have paid for the tolls ever since.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Boredsurfing, and you are tight so it must have been bad wink

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It was.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

jonsteel, not something you can do if you're in a hurry, i.e. can't afford three times the usual journey stretch Shock

A couple of years ago, MrsTallTone and I drove back from Val Thorens to Lyons airport keeping off the autoroutes; it took about four hours IIRC, but was thoroughly enjoyable as we saw so much of France that we'd missed on the (motor)way there.

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Boredsurfing, I reckon that 140 Euro I spend on tolls for the journey to the Alps is the best investment on the journey. Did once make the mistake on a long journey in France of going cross country Shocked

. Never again, way back form the place we did tolls and shaved 2 hours of the journey. Never again.

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We've done it. Doesn't take that much longer as you can still stay on motorway for much of the way.

From Calais head to Dunkirk, then Lille (no toll on the A25), into Belguim, south to Luxembourg, continue to Metz, Nancy (no tolls on this bit), to Epinal. The stretch from here via Besancon and then N83/N5 into Switzerland to Geneva is single-carriageway but not that slow. From Geneva take the normal N-road route to the 3V.

[Viamichelin says this is about 3hrs and 100km further than the toll route.]

After all it is free

Same as what RobW, says - only we don't go into Switzerland (and only do the reverse - we do the tolls overnight on the way there)

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davidof, Don't forget to check your credit card is in date as the toll machines dont check if they are valid or expired.....so I'm told Toofy Grin

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dulcamara, About 70 each, good value IMO.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

If we are pressed for time we use the toll roads but I prefer the slow trip. My wife and I have often made the trip avoiding tolls, if you can afford the extra day travelling it can be a pleasant journey. Our minibus is over 2 metres so the money we save on tolls covers the cost of a nights accommodation and food.

A snowHead · (and at 31/08/2009 )

Tolls Calais to Albertville

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

bertie bassett, Updated cost as at 31.08.2009 now shown in brown in my post above

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I would have though that what you save in tolls you spend on fuel accelerating and braking a lot more.

Some of the route to the Pyrenees is toll free autoroute standard (A20) if I remember rightly.

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Just smash straight through the toll barriers like they do in the movies wink

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Thank you all guys and robw in particular. confirms what i thought. Actually heading down from dunkirk as my girlfirends in Bruge. Have driven in belguim before and seemed pretty quick to get down to Luxembourg. But after that could be slow going though

After all it is free

We often do "off toll" for the southern part of the journey (between Calais and Reims is just dire, though we have done it). But that's always been in the summer, when you can shop in the morning for fresh baguettes, cheese and fruit, and sit by a river or a canal for an hour for a sleepy picnic etc. In the winter, we generally just get on with it, and pay. Oddly enough, although the journey takes a lot longer off the péage, it's so much less boring that it doesn't feel like it. The best journey we did I spent a happy time planning a route which was almost all on "picturesque" routes as defined by Michelin (ie the roads with a green line along them). It was delightful - but it's not the way to go if you have a one week ski holiday and limited time off work.

On one occasion when I was determined to do the whole way without péage I got done for speeding through a completely deserted village, with no speed limit signs at all (but it had a name, so I should have been going at 50 kph). I was racing through this desert of a place, where the last sentient inhabitant must have moved out in about 1974, at a good clip - oh, must have been 43 mph. That cost me 90 euros so was a bit of a false economy. Sad

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On my motorbike tours I now just set the sat nav to avoid toll roads. And program in every high Alpine pass I can find Cool

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Like pam w, says, if you want to see lots of lovely pretty little spots, eat nicer lunches and tootle your way to the slopes it is good. Until you get behind Fermier Permier and his grand tracteur...or mad Tante Nelly and her compulsory beige peugeot 205...all good fun in summer when it is all an adventure...

The tolls prices that Boredsurfing, quotes came out about similar for our summer trip down to Annecy.

So the answer is, yes it is doable, and has its attractions if you want to discover what a fantastic place rural France is.

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Scarpa, however, this would be a poor strategy in January. Laughing

You know it makes sense.

pam w,

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I'm busy nesting.

A snowHead

My wife made me do it once (she was Scotish) because she wanted to see more of France rolling eyes

she then slept most of the way.
I spent more than the tolls on a room and meals for the night and lost a day at each end. I don't do that now!!!

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

and mis-spelt....

and ungrateful?

Help!!

Anyone done a route to the alps which avoids the french auto tolls

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