If you ever get a chance get off the motorway and go through the villages - lovely and you get to see so much history.
We use the tolls only as a time saver but if your not going at 130kph stay on none toll roads and see what we call the real France.
Toll roads are boring for a driver as once in top gear you have nothing to do. I prefer to drive not just steer.
as long as you like small diameter roundabouts and lots of them! They also tend to have the camber the wrong way too. Great for throwing your tins around the cupboards!It is great though we always love the little villages with not a person in sight.
I've done both many times. I like the A roads but they are very slow, particularly in summer when everyone goes on holiday. The first time I shelled out for a toll it was a revelation. Personally I don't find the autoroutes boring, they're so much better than most English motorways and using them it's a pleasure to make progress at speed. That said I'm yet to use them in a bay, probably not the ideal vehicle, but still much less stressful than British motorways, with less traffic, fewer roadworks and better lane discipline from other motorists making overtaking etc much less stressful.
Can't disagree with you there apart from the boring bit as I said being sat sitting in a car in top gear just steering isn't driving in my head so use none tolls as often but then I live here. In August you might not speed along as the A10 I can see here often stands still.
If you worried about breaking down I would say sail to Santander or Bilbao, stick to the old roads and just amble up to Roscoff or St Malo nice easy journey over 10 days if you want to do it cheap can recommend all the aires France book which are free mostly or ACSI Camping Card for discounts on sites. To save caring wads of cash I have a top up card from Fair FX which I use for fuel and supermarket shopping eg wine!!! Exchange rate is very good at moment and fuel less than a pound a litre, so just go for it.
The trouble with A roads you hit a village and the wife says oh look at that patisserie ,look at the river ,what a lovely bridge etc,15 villages later you just want to chuck her out of the window.... Plan your route ,do a compromise of villages and tolls ,if you break down ,I have a doner van (not kabab van)which has most of the parts you may need...
We're looking at north & west coast France too, in mid-late July. A Yorkshire start but not sure about Hull ferries, probably coming down to Portsmouth or Newhaven. Newhaven is much cheaper, anyone sampled the ferry? P
Newhaven Dieppe is a grand little route, if you count up the fuel you don't use going to Dover and again on the other side it works out cheaper too. The ships aren't too bad either and everything is a tad more relaxed than the whole Dover Calais thing. I always get stopped at Customs loading up though but it's only to chat about The Bus which isn't that much of a problem. On the same ferry again at the end of the month.
Used Newhaven over Christmas , on return we got there early and was no charge to change crossing so got to france when we should of been in wet cold grey UK. . Free WiFi in terminal, only (bloody what's them called) snack/drinks machines things, got short changed on a coffee so a very nice South African man on the desk personally made Mrs TW coffee from the staffroom supplies. Newhaven not the prettiest town but found a nice café for breakfast.
