LeHavre to La Rochelle help
Discussion
Well since no-one else has answered, here's my take on a couple of routes and detours.
I guess you're coming off the ferry so take the A29 direction Caen. Come off the A29 at junction 29 on to the D16 which turns in to the D511. You're aiming for Falaise and eventually Fougeres. The road number changes a few times, but keep pointing at Fougeres. You do have a Satnav don't you? Or a good mapreader?
At Fougeres you'll want the A84 to Rennes. By the time you get to Rennes you'll propbably be totally hacked off with this damn cross country route, so pop on to the motorway for a while. E3 to Nantes then on to small roads for the last bit to la Rochelle. On the offchance that you're enjoying the average 25mph drive, then at Fougeres turn left on to the D179/178 dir Erbree and then Chateaubriant then on to Nantes.
At Nantes a good diversion is to the WW2 U boat pens, well worth the trip. though maybe not if you're German? It's about 6 hours Le Havre to Nantes by this route. You'll have got off the ferry at 08:00 and allowing a couple of stops for wee wee's and lunch it's now going to be late afternoon so maybe do an overnight there?
Going on from Nantes, you want either the motorway A83 for a few miles or the smaller D783 to La Roche sur Yon (again very pretty and a good jump off to les Sables d'Olonne for a magnificent beach. Ignoring that though, from La R sur Y, it'll be the D746 to Lucon then the D25 to La Rochelle.
And if you think I did this all from memory, you're wrong. According to my 'puter, Autoroute says this is 336 miles and will take you a tad over 9 and a half hours. If you do it direct by motorway, the distance is near as dammit the same but you can do the whole trip in under five and a half hours. But don't forget to figure in toll chanrges. Sorry I can't help with those
If you do decide on the more direct route, around Tours is the Loire valley and very pretty scenery with some stunning chateaux and magnificent touristy culture stuff. Well worth a half day detour around Tours and Saumur. Have a look at http://www.ligeris.com/index_en.php. The Tours tourist information office, it's all in English.
HTH, Colin
I guess you're coming off the ferry so take the A29 direction Caen. Come off the A29 at junction 29 on to the D16 which turns in to the D511. You're aiming for Falaise and eventually Fougeres. The road number changes a few times, but keep pointing at Fougeres. You do have a Satnav don't you? Or a good mapreader?
At Fougeres you'll want the A84 to Rennes. By the time you get to Rennes you'll propbably be totally hacked off with this damn cross country route, so pop on to the motorway for a while. E3 to Nantes then on to small roads for the last bit to la Rochelle. On the offchance that you're enjoying the average 25mph drive, then at Fougeres turn left on to the D179/178 dir Erbree and then Chateaubriant then on to Nantes.
At Nantes a good diversion is to the WW2 U boat pens, well worth the trip. though maybe not if you're German? It's about 6 hours Le Havre to Nantes by this route. You'll have got off the ferry at 08:00 and allowing a couple of stops for wee wee's and lunch it's now going to be late afternoon so maybe do an overnight there?
Going on from Nantes, you want either the motorway A83 for a few miles or the smaller D783 to La Roche sur Yon (again very pretty and a good jump off to les Sables d'Olonne for a magnificent beach. Ignoring that though, from La R sur Y, it'll be the D746 to Lucon then the D25 to La Rochelle.
And if you think I did this all from memory, you're wrong. According to my 'puter, Autoroute says this is 336 miles and will take you a tad over 9 and a half hours. If you do it direct by motorway, the distance is near as dammit the same but you can do the whole trip in under five and a half hours. But don't forget to figure in toll chanrges. Sorry I can't help with those
If you do decide on the more direct route, around Tours is the Loire valley and very pretty scenery with some stunning chateaux and magnificent touristy culture stuff. Well worth a half day detour around Tours and Saumur. Have a look at http://www.ligeris.com/index_en.php. The Tours tourist information office, it's all in English.
HTH, Colin
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