Good Morning, We will be staying in the region just south and west of Troyes this July. We will rent a car in Paris at Charles de Gaulle. Has anyone driven from Troyes, or near there, to Avignon? We plan to make that drive on July 20th and may possibly stop in Lyon on the way south. How are the roads and traffic?
Thank you very much. Merci.
Sean
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
11751 posts
Easy drive. You have the choice of a couple of autoroutes and it's a Monday, so no weekend vacation traffic jams.
One route has 30 kilometers of departmental road through several villages before you get on the A6, the other is the A39 from Troyes to the A6. You can take the A31 to the A39 into Lyon and leave via the A6. The A6 through Lyon is well-known for jams, stuck in tunnels. Just a fact of life unless they've made improvements in recent years.
Balso or JoLui, who know the roads very well, should be able to tell you if approaching via A39 is any better. We hit a jam driving out of Lyon on the A39, but it could have been a fluke.
Posted by
OP
11 posts
Thank you very much Elizabeth. I was wondering of you know of any 'must see' locations along the way to Avignon?
Posted by
Washington DC
30564 posts
Troyes itself is very picturesque, with many higgledy-piggledy half-timbered buildings. As of 2017 I saw very, very few foreign tourists.
Two significant cities of interest on the way to Avignon--aside from the obvious Lyon, which has multiple days' worth of sights--are Dijon and Beaune.
I don't drive in Europe, so I cannot comment on that aspect of your trip. You might check ViaMichelin.com for driving-time estimates. As with Google, you'll want to add time to account for any necessary stops and the occasional traffic issue.
Posted by
Paris
7880 posts
Driving through northern Burgundy via Tonnerre to the A6 at Nitry, then on to Lyon, is a hair slower than using the A5+A31+A6 route to Lyon, but it is much more scenic: the drive from Troyes to Nitry will be very pretty, with vineyards, and the A6 through Burgundy is much more interesting than the A5 through the forest.
As for the A39 to Lyon: coming from the A31, it can be useful on a high traffic day, but it is a bit longer than the A6 and shouldn't be needed on 20 July. It's also not really a viable option if you're going via Nitry anyway.
To cross Lyon, it is usually best to use the bypass A46/N346. The signage steers you that way, instead of crossing the city center of Lyon.
In any case, the most annoying part of the drive is the A7 south of Lyon: invariably busy. No good alternative routes exist.
Posted by
Western Canada
4135 posts
I spent four days in Troyes last September and loved it.
No tourists to speak of, and many charming buildings, churches, parks, canals.
Just don’t be there on a Sunday, there is nothing much open!
Just a few ethnic restaurants.