Car - De Gaulle to Auxerre

You could map out a route using Viamichelin.com. It defaults to including toll roads and what it thinks is the most efficient route and you could look at that and see what they estimate at the cost and the amount of time and then after that select Avoid Tolls and Avoid Motorways and select Discovery for the type of route see the cost and time difference. Then you can decide if you are being penny wise and dollar foolish but I know lots of people, including me and my husband, who sometimes or even always avoid the toll highways because they have the time and affirmatively want to pass through all the little towns on the way.

Yes sure. The viamichelin idea is good, though if you are going to do this you should get actual maps.

My personal misgiving would have to do with committing to such a long (ish) drive right off the plane. But you surely must have thought of that.

I'm not a huge fan of Auxerre but northern Burgundy is wonderful. Have a great trip.

There is a wonderful little inn on the edge of the Morvan Forrest with a fine restaurant that draws from miles around not far from Auxerre. Moulin des Ruats near Avalon. We have stopped there a couple of times coming through this area and always enjoyed our stay.

Of course you can. My in-laws lived near Auxerre and none of us ever took the autoroute. Considered an extravagance in those days.

To be more specific, you do need to take the autoroute to get out of Paris, but you get off around Fontainebleau before the toll section begins. Even easier yet, and what we've done is take the Air France bus to Orly and pick up there. I sleep on the bus. It can take 2 or 2.5 hours depending on traffic.

Thanks to all of you for your contributions.

Being a Chicagoan I was particularly intrigued by the suggestion to take the A6 out of Paris just to avoid the congestion which we often experience here around O'Hare International Airport.

Have a very large, very detailed Road Atlas of France; looking at it seems to suggest getting off at D607 which becomes D606 , which may be a way of accomplishing the goal. If we tire on the way Sens seems to be a candidate for a nice stopover.

I am probably not clever enough to set my GPS for non-tolls; get on the A6 anyway and proceed ignoring the prompts until i get to the D607.

Anyway (pardon the very bad pun) but if i am not heading the right direction on this, please let me know.

We both extend our thanks to everyone for taking the time out to respond.

Richard and Mary

Our best adventures are with the big road atlas, much better than the GPS for back road driving. I can't verify which departmental roads to take because I'm away from maps now, but I'm sure you can map it out. I wouldn't use ViaMichelin for this but map your own route, using N and D roads. It used to take us 2.5 from the southern edge of Paris. I doubt you'll have to call it a day in Sens.

If you only think about the costs I doubt you will gain much, paying for the comfort of tollroads (some €10 this case) vs. the busy but tollfree alternative roads (are longer and having a lot of varying speedlimits costing extra fuel). But there are a few interesting places like Vaux le Vicomte and Fointainebleau and my experience is there is in France always a surprise around the corner, so worth trying some D-roads. Sens and Auxerre are in the Yonne region with a lot of lovely countryside, so I would give it a try.