The roads to avoid on France's 'worst travel weekend' of the summer

If you can avoid travel this weekend, do. France’s road’s watchdog Bison Futé has forecast the worst travel day of the year will be on Saturday, July 31st - the so-called "crossover weekend" as July holidaymakers head home and the first wave of August getaways begin.

Traffic will be much busier than normal from Friday, with some hoping to avoid the worst of the expected traffic jams by setting off early, until late on Sunday.

But while travel is classed as difficult or very difficult - orange and red on Bison Futé’s four-level colour-coded alert system - Saturday is classed as "extremely difficult" - or black on its colour system, its highest alert level.

Image: Bison Futé

On Saturday, Bison Futé recommends motorists avoid:

Outward journeys:

• Travel in the Île-de-France after 12noon;
  
  
• Travel in larger cities before 8am;
  
  
• The A11 motorway between Paris and Le Mans, from 9am to 12noon;
  
  
• The A81 motorway between Le Mans and Rennes, from 9am to 12noon;
  
  
• The A13 motorway between Rouen and Caen, from 9am to 4pm;
  
  
• The A10 motorway between Orléans and Bordeaux, from 8am to 4pm;
  
  
• The A63 motorway between Bordeaux and the Spanish border, from 9am to 6pm;
  
  
• The A6 motorway between Beaune and Lyon from 8am to 12noon;
  
  
• The A7 motorway between Lyon and Orange from 6am to 6pm, and between Orange and Marseille from 8am to 7pm;
  
  
• The A8 motorway between Salon-de-Provence and Aix-en-Provence from 9am to 5pm;
  
  
• The A9 motorway between Orange and Perpignan via Narbonne from 8am to 4pm;
  
  
• The A20 motorway between Limoges and Brive-la-Gaillarde, from 9am to 6pm;
  
  
• The A75 motorway between Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier, from 9am to 3pm;
  
  
• The A62 motorway between Agen and Toulouse, from 9am to 4pm;
  
  
• The A61 motorway between Toulouse and Narbonne, from 8am to 4pm;
  
  
• The A43 motorway between Lyon and Chambéry, from 9am to 6pm;
  
  
• The Mont-Blanc tunnel (N205): sustained traffic from 7am to 10pm, particularly between 12noon to 4pm.

Homeward journeys

• Travel in the Île-de-France before 2pm;
  
  
• The A10 motorway between Bordeaux and Poitiers, from 10am to 4pm;
  
  
• The A6 motorway between Lyon and Beaune, from 10am to 5pm;
  
  
• The A7 motorway between Orange and Lyon, from 9am to 5pm, and between Marseille and Salon-en-Provence from 8am to 3pm;
  
  
• The A9 motorway between Narbonne and Orange, from 9am to 4pm;
  
  
• The A61 motorway between Narbonne and Carcassonne, from 10am to 1pm;
  
  
• The A62 motorway between Toulouse and Bordeaux, from 9am to 5pm;
  
  
• The Mont-Blanc tunnel (N205) from 11am to 8pm, particularly from 4pm to 6pm.

Looking further ahead, Bison Futé predicts that travel will be busy every weekend throughout August.