Overnight stop towns

[silverthorn2151]

Heading to an area just north of Pau that we have been to before. Easy drive but I like to vary the places we stop and for a change this year my pin has dropped in Poitiers on the way down and Orleans on the way back.

Hotels in the middle of town on each Saturday night but I wondered if they are nice places to have a stroll around and relax for a while.

[phil y]

We've just come back from a trip with a stopover in Orleans, really nice city, although we were staying in a Hotel F1 on the outskirts, I'm sure your accommodation will be nicer. Plenty of shops and restaurants, big ol' cathedral if you're into that sort of thing.

Never been to Poitiers, so can't help on that front, sorry.

[silverthorn2151]

Thanks Phil and that is sufficient commendation for me.

Actually the hotels I have booked are really good value. €77 for the one in the middle of Orleans.

Were you heading back to Calais? If so, which route did you take?

[magooagain]

If you are in Orleon you could go straight up the A10 to Paris then onwards to Calais or you could go across to Le Man,Then Rouen and then up to Calais.

[phil y]

We were avoiding toll roads, so followed the sat nav, largely along the N154. Picturesque, but it was a good 5 hours of drving to Calais. Autoroutes would be much quicker, but I wouldn't go near Paris during daylight hours as it's too busy.

[silverthorn2151]

It will be on the Sunday.

I was thinking either mooch about Orleans for the morning and then blat up the Autoroutes or head straight north up the A10 for a bit then head off cross country to the west of Paris and keep heading north until we get to the seaside.

Not driven around Paris for many a year as I usually go a long way to avoid it but what the heck. What could possibly go wrong!

[phil y]

We thought the same driving through Paris at night on our way down. Firstly a road closure put us onto the Periphique, then that was shut which forced us onto the streets of Paris with hundreds of trucks. Every route the sat nav took us on was either closed or put us round in a circle. Eventually we found our way out, after more than 2 hours, as dawn was breaking. Frustrating to say the least

I'm sure you'll be fine though...