Hi
1st week in February driving through France to Torrevieja in Spain. Coming from Scotland. 1st stop this side somewhere South. Early morning Channel Tunnel to Calais and then head South through France. Going to stop off and make 1 or 2 weeks of it as we will be in Spain for 2 months.
Advice i need.
Heading for the Clermont Ferand direction and then on into Spain. If we stop for 4 days in a Gite in France and then make a similar stop in Spain where would be best.
Weather is my sticky point. Will we encounter snow at that time of year and if so where as that is the area we would want to avoid. Driving in snow not so much of a problem but would like to minimize it as much as possible as i will have a trailer and a roof box on my Kia Sportage 4x4

Any advice on stops and routes would be grateful

Thanks

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Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Welcome,
I did the journey last week, thought France was afloat the amount of water I had to drive through

I have found it better to arrange the journey to arrive in Calais in the evening and stay overnight in a local hotel, have a meal and get a full day's travel under your belt the following day. That would give you at least 500miles travelled.

you have a choice thru France of the Western Route or the Eastern Route, both missing Paris and its many traps.
you may want to have a look at
http://about-france.com/tourism/rout...ugh-france.htm
which gives some good information on travelling

hope this is of use to you
rgds
Dom

We also will be driving back to Spain on the 1st week of Febuary, but we now go via Santanderas we find it works out the same price wise at that time of year,the weather could be bad still, but its a long boring drive through France either way,may be worth looking at the ferrys to Spain as a alternative, its a easy journey that way, but enjoy it either way.

unfortunately me dear lady wife doesn't do boats so that's why we are making a week of it. no probs as we will be there for 2-3 months anyway.

We travelled via channel tunnel and through France to Valencia Province and found it a very pleasant journey. We used Via Michellin for information and went over the Millau Bridge/Viaduct which is spectacular.

Rosemary

Concerned. Someone on another site said that they thought there was a problem with trailers in Spain. Either not allowed or you needed a special certificate. I have a Daxara small 6x4 trailer. Anyone heard of this restriction?

When I drove the car over the other year I took the below route, just reverse the directions. I avoided toll roads, and enjoyed the trip very much.

I Wont Give Any Road Numbers As They Seem To Be Unreliably So I Find It Best To Follow Road Signs With The Next Place And Destination
ROUTE 1 VERY FAST TO THE BORDER OF SPAIN
ALGORFA to ELCHE on the AP7, take ALBACETE ROAD,
Just past VILLENA look out for VALENCIA sign, go around VALENCIA direction north just before the toll other side of Valencia come off at SAGUNTO.
Follow signs to TERUEL, then ZARAGOZA, then HUESCA then JACA all this is dual and empty roads nearly at the border now follow through the tunnel to PAU.
PAU to GARLIN to ROQUEFORT and LANGON this is a fast single lane road
Follow on to BORDEAUX ring road pick up signs for ANGOULEME
then POITIERS
Follow signs for CHATELLERAULT and TOURS, then VENDOME to CHATEAUDUN then to CHARTRES. ( PTO for Andorra)
Follow signs to DREUX, then EREUX then ROUEN here you will see and follow signs for CALAIS, nearly there now. Follow signs ABBEVILLE to CALIES
this route looks tricky but it is fast and if you follow this on a map it cuts right up the middle of France the toll roads will have you criss-crossing most of the time.

We drove down last July, stupidly taking the 'quickest' route as offered by viamichelin and google. Its the central route through Paris, AVOID like the plague!!

If we were to do it again we wold go the western route and cross into Spain at the top rather than the bottom of the Pyrenees. This is the area where you are likely to get snow and some of the roads are very steep with plenty of bends. It'll be like driving in the Highlands or around Cumbria.

Timewise we did Yorkshire down to Alicante in 32 hours non stop or thereabouts, using the tunnel of course. Something we would never do again, even spelling each other driving I was like a zombie on arrival, a stop over if definately to be recommended.

But if you drive from Scotland down to the tunnel in one step, you'll know your own limitations on driving, whether you are really tired or not. If so plan the same amount of mileage into France on a map and then look around that area for Gites or something similar.

We planned our trip to arrive in Calais at 11pm, thinking that doing a lot of the driving through France at night would be best, quieter roads. If you see how the French drive you will understand why, four wheel kamikaze pilots don't even enter into it!!

North route Pyrannees is exactly what I want to avoid. Just dont want SNOW. Had years of it in the Highlands. Hate and detest driving in it. Used to do 1000 1500 miles a week in the stuff for a living. Thats why want the other side and as coastal as possible to avoid it. Also why we are taking 1 - 2 weeks to make the jouirney breaking it twice. just not interested in the Northern Pyranean route. thanks anyway

afaik you can drive down with it no problem

I think it's only when you come to matriculate it that problems start

Trailer with a GB plate no problem, only if you import it, or the police see you driving around the area constantly attached to the car picking stuff up. If it looks like a camping trailer, its a camping trailer-if it looks like a commercial trailer, its being used for commercial purposes!

As to the route, I wasn't being specific about the northern route, whichever way you attempt to cross the Pyrenees at this time of year its going to involve some snow.

Even when we crossed using the southern route and the Millau Bridge which as somebody said, is spectacular scenery, we found at night the temperarue dropped below zero in July and warranted using the car heating system. We parked up for an hour after fuelling in the Pyrenees and the car had a heavy frost on it even at the height of summer.