[Closed] Driving through Lyon and Paris.

from Geneva to Calais , follow Reims , you will avoid Paris .

In the "old days" you had to go via Paris and Lyon, the smart way today is to avoid them. OP you are correct Lyon has a series of tunnels and is generally 2-4 lanes. Likewise the Peripherique around Paris. Both are susectable to heavy traffic and accidents which can close the road.

For the West/East route you described you can go through Lyon especially if you avoid the morning and evening rush hours. If you have data on your phone you can route plan with the waze app which has good live traffic data.

For Geneva / Calais 100% go via Reims/Troyes, last time I went via Paris (not paying attention when navigating) I added nearly 3 hours to the journey due to traffic.

What they said. But driving through Paris and Lyon is easy enough.

I've never found Lyon too bad. The road gets clogged with traffic at certain times but it's very easy to find your way.

I've only done paris on a motorbike, it's like commuting on the North Circular in London. Again, no problem with route finding but I've never fancied it in a car so will avoid.

For the Pyrenees I go via Le Mans, for Provence I go across the top via Reims then through Lyon.

I now fancy a trip to Provence with road bike.

Cheers guys. It's a regular journey. Family in the Tours and Poitiers areas, holiday fun in the Alps generally lead to some form of a triangular journey that ever changing French roads only seem to complicate. It's good to hear that Lyon is OK, it could save an hour travelling possibly? Calais to Tours us done via Le Mans, despite the (easily bypassed) shenanigans in Rouen.

did Paris peripherique a few months ago....at 8pm Friday night....in a right hand drive LWB Transit....in the rain.
Most tense I've ever been whilst driving - too many motorbike nutters all trying to get home too quickly

@Ambrose I lived in Paris last year and use the "periph" regularly, you get to learn when it's busy and always check the traffic. My worst experience was 2 hours for half a mile. The West side is a bit of a maze in terms of getting round and then out on the road to Calais (via A16 / Amiens) but as we are West side that's our nomral route. We generally drive to Paris for the w/end if there are two of us as train is expensive. If you are there regularly you can use infofraffic.fr or get the traffic updates for TomTom. Waze is a community based traffic app and it's used a lot by French inc Lorry Drivers.

Trust all is well with you, I still use the Morzine routes you shared with me !

Back at you Jambalaya 🙂 . Thanks for the advice re Paris, it just confirms what I feared. Bizarrely the industrial wasteland I once ended up in after the Eastern Peripherique was closed (with minimally signed 'deviations') turned out to be twinned with Ammanford, Carmarthenshire. Just down the road from home. Never could two places be more appropriately linked.

Anyway, Off Topic, Team Hearne made it out to Les Gets this summer after a two year break but the weather was not as good as it could have been. Despite that we rode the Col de Cou and I even managed to persuade myself that all those people whizzing down the Chavannes DH course must know something, so I now have a few extra GPX traces of that particular route if you really want. TBH, the top is great fun but brake bumps get worse and worse. The middle section is so bust up it was a waste of a lift pass but the last section and then the 4 cross are fun.

For Geneva / Calais 100% go via Reims/Troyes

This! I drive through this way most years.

I got lost in the old quarter of Paris many, many years ago. I could have cried!

Get one if those toll electronic tags too. So much better!

Lyon is almost always a bottleneck but I'd head into the city and stop for lunch if you have time. It's THE place in France for food, even in a country renowned for its food.

I always go through Lyon since I broke down there in my old air-cooled vw bus en route to San Sebastian. As I waited for the smoke to settle I noticed that it'd stopped right outside an air-cooled vw specialist. Mechanic came out and got it going again for free.

I don't see why any route now is an issue, you'll have a SatNav of some form.

Try it back-in-the-day when all you had was a crap map and even crapper road-signs.

And yes, I've navigated across most of the cities of Europe over the years.

Sorry, just a quick hijack. We are going to be driving down to Chateauroux. Any advice on the best route? We are going to be passing Paris about 1700 on Friday. Will we die?

We are going to be passing Paris about 1700 on Friday. Will we die?

You're probably better off going via Rouen - Le Mans - Tours. It's a slightly longer route, but with far less traffic.

Ambrose, are you related to Iron bru cove of this Parish? i.e. Adam and Alice? We live between Lyon and Grenoble. The google maps route through Lyon is fine generally. Dan.

Try it back-in-the-day when all you had was a crap map and even crapper road-signs.
And yes, I've navigated across most of the cities of Europe over the years.

Those were the days...

Hi Dan, yup I am. Alice is my younger sister. How did you work that out?

Rouen has roadworks, diversion is easy enough to follow, puts 15 mins and a couple of euros on the journey, if you have bikes on the roof don't ignore the diversion.. Rouen has some low tunnels.