Cherbourg to NE Spain, best place to stop over?

Cianos

Hi folks,
I'll be doing this trip on Wednesday, and I'm wondering where the best place would be stop over for Wednesday night?

I just want to get to Spain as quickly as possible really, so I don't want to pull in to a big city that will take ages to get through to the hotel, and back out again.

Somewhere cheap and cheerful would be nice

Any tips much appreciated

Bumpstop

I have done this route almost ( slightly different) a couple of times. I stayed in Bordeaux once but the traffic in the city was awful in the morning leaving. I have also stayed in the suburbs of La Rochelle much easier. I have spotted those Formel hotels I think they are called, ( no staff, really cheap) along the toll route south of La rochelle, someone will correct me on the hotel name.

I have never done this drive in 2 days, I usually do it over 3 days much more relaxing, I sometimes don't use the toll routes either, as they are fairly expensive. But if time is of the essence the toll routes are really fast with posted limits of 130 KPH although a lot of people go much faster. The traffic on them is reasonably light also.

Be carefull in rural france where priorite au droit still exists, where drivers on your right at a junction have the right of way, even if he is on a side road.

Hope this is of some help.

Drummerboy08

Second vote here for La Rochelle.

Cianos

Thanks for the posts. La Rochelle is only about 5 hours from Cherbourg, and I was hoping to get the larger chunk of the trip done on the first day so I wouldn't have to be under too much pressure on the 2nd day.

Also, La Rochelle looks like a bit of a detour off the route I linked to above?

melikebanana

I drove the same route this summer. I would aim to get past Bordeaux 9Just) if I were you. I dont know what the traffic is like this time of year, but in August It was very heavy from Perpignan all the way to Barcelona. If you could get somewhere half way between Bordeaux and Toulouse it would make the second day allot easier,

RobAMerc

Its been some time since I drove through France but doesn't the French motorways have a reasonable selection of motels on them ?

Just keep going till you tire and stop at one of those - most are attached to a big service station so you can eat and hit the hay.

*Kol*

What about this route with a stop in Clermont Ferrand? It's around 7 hours to Clermont.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Avenue+Carnot%2FD901&daddr=47.0425626,2.3407702+to:AP-7&hl=en&geocode=Fcxo9QIdHlXn_w%3BFQLQzQIdorcjACmdDme5hZT6RzFhtgg118gNEw%3BFSBNgQId6B4rAA&mra=mift&mrsp=1,0&sz=6&sll=43.739352,0.527344&sspn=7.539194,19.665527&ie=UTF8&ll=45.675482,2.856445&spn=14.582667,39.331055&z=5&via=1

There are loads of cheap hotels along the motorways to stop at.

bigSuzi12

melikebanana wrote: »

I drove the same route this summer. I would aim to get past Bordeaux 9Just) if I were you. I dont know what the traffic is like this time of year, but in August It was very heavy from Perpignan all the way to Barcelona. If you could get somewhere half way between Bordeaux and Toulouse it would make the second day allot easier,

I did the same route too. Agree about the traffic as you get nearer to Spain.

mrskinner

I stay here each time I head to Spain. Google Lormont hotels . It is a suburb of bordeaux just off the motorway about half way to ne spain. lots of hotels here. have stayed in P'tit hotel and is ok.

Bumpstop

God I hope he is not at sea now, Tue nite. Massive storm over Cherbourg and western France.

Cianos

Thanks for all the input. In the end I just said I'd get somewhere past Bordeaux and use the GPS to find a hotel that wasn't too far from the Motorway. I got past Bordeaux and as the weather turned quite heavy I stopped in a place just outside Marmande, basic enough but does the job!

Bumpstop wrote:

God I hope he is not at sea now, Tue nite. Massive storm over Cherbourg and western France.

The crossing was actually really really calm. Hardly any swells, very steady all the way thankfully

While I'm here, tomorrow my journey looks like this; 654km in 6hours 5mins, taking me via Barcelona as the default route by Google maps.

This route is 150km less but Google is saying it's 5 minutes longer. Would there be any sense in going the shorter route? 150km extra seems a lot for the sake of more motorway!

I don't want to navigate a lot of winding roads though, especially if the weather was like this evenings with very heavy rain.

Thanks

Big Nasty

E Routes are motorways, go with that especially if the weather is bad and you're on unfamiliar roads.

Bumpstop

Yea the motorways are the way to go 80 mph or more all the way, The rural routes go through town after town, and you have to be carefull of speed limits a friend of mine was caught by a mobile speed trap stopped, brought to the station and then an atm to pay his 350 E fine. Though he would be a bit cheeky.

I am in S/W France at the mo, our reataurant last nite and the local area got pretty thrashed by the weather, It was very scary walking back to the gaff( chairs and debris flying through the air).
Today was very cloudy, so we upsticks, and headed down into Spain, about 60 miles beautifull sunny weather. When we got back the weather was a beautifull sunny evening, but the wind and rain is back now.

Your trip seems to be going pretty well and your making good headway. How long are you away for ?