French motorways

"Hatunen" kirjoitti
om...

If one is on a leisurely trip and wants to enjoy a lot of local
color, you can easily shunpike and go through the little towns.
It can be an enjoyable way to travel. I enjoy doing it myself
from time to time (my kids used to graon whenever I said "Let's
take the scenic route"). But if my plans are for my time to be
spent at a distant destination, motorways, autoroutes,
Interstates, and autobahnen are the way to go, even if a toll is
involved.

And yet the French system is implemented very poorly.

Mike Lane wrote:
On Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:04:57 +0100, Hatunen wrote
(in article ):

On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:53:42 +0200, le_voyageur_en_velo
wrote:

In article ,
Jesper Lauridsen wrote:

are bloody expensive! Some light motorway travelling, spread over 3
days = EUR 44.80. For that kind of money you can buy a one year
sticker for Switzerland and a 10 day sticker for Austria and still
have money to spare.

Capitalism is evil incarnate.

Take the nationales and the départementales. Much more fun.

And after a while, if you're on a longer trip, you may decide the
fare on the autoroute is reasonable after all.



I've driven across France many times without using motorways at all,
and enjoyed the trip each time. It seems to me the only reason to use
motorways there is if you're not interested in seeing the country at
all, and simply want to get to your destination as quickly as
possible. If that's the case then why drive at all?

You're obviously a very wealthy man who can afford to be on holiday for more
than two weeks at a time and bimble along at your own pace. A friend of mine
only gets 20 days per year annual leave but has to drive to holiday
destinations as his wife is terrified of flying.

On Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:15:00 +0100, John wrote
(in article ):

Mike Lane wrote:
On Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:04:57 +0100, Hatunen wrote
(in article ):

On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:53:42 +0200, le_voyageur_en_velo
wrote:

In article ,
Jesper Lauridsen wrote:

are bloody expensive! Some light motorway travelling, spread over 3
days = EUR 44.80. For that kind of money you can buy a one year
sticker for Switzerland and a 10 day sticker for Austria and still
have money to spare.

Capitalism is evil incarnate.

Take the nationales and the départementales. Much more fun.

And after a while, if you're on a longer trip, you may decide the
fare on the autoroute is reasonable after all.



I've driven across France many times without using motorways at
all, and enjoyed the trip each time. It seems to me the only
reason to use motorways there is if you're not interested in
seeing the country at all, and simply want to get to your
destination as quickly as possible. If that's the case then why
drive at all?

You're obviously a very wealthy man who can afford to be on
holiday for more than two weeks at a time and bimble along at your
own pace.

I've been accused of many things, but extreme wealth is a new one.
Far from the truth I'm afraid.

In the UK, full time employees are entitled to at least 4.8 weeks
annual leave at the moment, which is due to increase to 5.6 weeks
from April next year. Some (like teachers) get far more than that of
course. It costs me the princely sum of 30 pounds to take a car with
passengers across the channel to France, so a modest amount of
bimbling in Europe doesn't require great wealth.

Incidentally the verb "to bimble" (a new one for me I must confess),
apparently implies a degree of aimlessness, which doesn't really
describe my preferred method of travelling. I always have a
destination in mind, but for me the 'travelling hopefully' really is
much more enjoyable than the arrival.

A friend of mine only gets 20 days per year annual leave but has
to drive to holiday destinations as his wife is terrified of
flying.

I sympathise with your friend and his wife. It must be very
inconvenient. I am not terrified of flying, I merely detest it. I do
realise however that it's sometimes the best way of getting
somewhere. Has she tried any kind of counselling for her phobia?
Virgin Atlantic run courses costing 199 pounds which claim a 98%
success rate. Something like that might save your friend a lot of
money in the long term.

--
Mike Lane (UK North Yorkshire)
To contact me replace invalid with mike underscore lane

For holiday makers this is ideal: you drive through interesting small
towns and villages which are hidden from those who are storming their
way on motorways.

Hi,

the few times I've bothered with a car in europe I've always (well
except in Metro type areas) driven the side roads and had a great time.
you see all the little things that life in the fast lane has literally
driven right on by.

--

== Hackamore ==
http://www.hackamore.com/
http://hackamoretravel.blogspot.com/

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:52:43 -0500, Hackamore
wrote:


For holiday makers this is ideal: you drive through interesting small
towns and villages which are hidden from those who are storming their
way on motorways.

Hi,

the few times I've bothered with a car in europe I've always (well
except in Metro type areas) driven the side roads and had a great time.
you see all the little things that life in the fast lane has literally
driven right on by.

The same is true in the USA, of course. It's called "shunpiking".

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On 2008-09-28, =?Windows-1252?Q?Markku_Gr=F6nroos?= wrote:

"Jesper Lauridsen" kirjoitti
.net...
are bloody expensive! Some light motorway travelling, spread over 3
days = EUR 44.80. For that kind of money you can buy a one year sticker
for Switzerland and a 10 day sticker for Austria and still have money
to spare.

That's right. Tariffs are really ridiculous in France. Around 10 cents a
kilometre in 2006 when I was cruising in the country. That's more than the
gasoline expenses...... However, anyone can easily generate an alternative
route by a built in GPS database engine to avoid toll roads.

Sure. One just have to be aware how expensive those roads are. You hear a
lot of whining about the Swiss sticker, but the much more expensive (and
cumbersome) French rarely gets a comment.