Spring Vacation 2010 - Further Lessons from the French Autoroute

We learned a couple of lessons about the French Autoroute on this trip. One of these was covered in an earlier blog. It is expensive. If the West Virginia Turnpike would charge at the same rate as the French Autoroute, it would cost $5.28 per toll booth instead of the current $2.00.

Others can be guessed. Like the gas from the service stations on the toll road cost .10€/liter more that gas off the toll road. And traveling on Sunday is easier than other days of the week.

There are a couple of other lessons we learned and will not forget. One is that all roads lead to Paris. It is really pretty difficult to get around Paris.

The companion lesson to this is if you are traveling on a Friday afternoon, avoid Paris at all costs because all of France is either on the road ahead of you, or coming from behind. Take a smaller road, take a gravel road, take a dirt road. Whatever is available, as long as the road is not taking you to Paris.

We took the Autoroute that cuts through the southern part of Paris and got stuck in a 2 hour traffic jam. And there was no apparent reason for it, no accident, no lane closures, no construction, no nothing. That was just how it seems to work and the French are apparently fine with it.