Perhaps one of our posters from Europe could fill us in on the exact dates of the beginning of the school holidays in the Uk, France, etc. I know that the weekend they begin in the Uk, there is a mad scramble as families take off for the continent for their summer holidays. This weekend is too be avoided at all costs. It is near the end of July. I have seen on TV (BBC and France 2 on cable) the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Autoroute going south in France. Also to be avoided if possible. I know that the French have instituted a program of staggered holidays to avoid the "everyone leaving at the same time" syndrome, but I believe it is still pretty bad. We as travelers need to be aware of these crunch dates so we can avoid them if at all possible. Can anyone help with exact dates for this summer?
Posted by
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2779 posts
In France they group down the beginning and end dates of their school holidays to a smaller number of departements in order to avoid complete gridlock. That means that over a period of 3 months or so you've constantly got heavy traffic. Last Monday e.g. school for the last departments started after the Easter break (the holiday was over a month ago) so that the drive from the South back up to Lyon or even further to Paris was horrible on Sunday.
Posted by
victoria, Canada
11507 posts
My dad and I were in France a few years ago, travelling at 5 AM since my dad knew that day was going to be bad, it was August 1st. I heard on the radio that August 1st was considered a bad day for accidents, one of the worst in the year, because of the volume of people starting out for vacation.
I think things have improved a bit now( thi swas about 8 years ago) , but , my dad and his wife are going to Europe this summer again, and have planned their trip so they will not be in transit anywhere for the last day , or first two days of August.
My dad is born and raised French so he does go by his memories ,( he has lived in Canada for 45 years now, but of course goes back for family visits every few years) I do think you will be fine most of the time.
Posted by
OP
near NY, NJ, USA
445 posts
Thanks for your comments. How nice to have all that French blood flowing in your veins. I hope your Father has a nice trip this year. Americans have absolutely no idea how bad the traffic can be. And since schools get out so much earlier here they are really caught unawares. Since I watch both the BBC as well as France 2 (do you get that?) on cable it helps me to keep up on issues across the pond. ANd I also have very good friends in England.
Am enjoying this board very much even if one of my threads got cut last week much to my annoyance...
ugly American sightings! I thought there were lots of good responses and it was a help to newer travelers.Oh well you can't win them all. I hope some day to get out your way but it is usually cheaper to go to Europe from the East coast (I usually travel in off-season)!! CHeers.Maryann
Posted by
Ohio
2161 posts
Maryann - I found this website that lists the French public & school holidays. Hope it helps!
http://www.french-property.com/reference/french_public_holidays.htm
Posted by
Lodi, California, USA
149 posts
A couple of years ago we were traveling south from Grenoble to Avignon on the first Saturday of July. When we hit the A7 it was a parking lot. After an hour, we had gone 25 kilometers. The stop and go (mostly stop) was driving us crazy so we got off the A7 and drove secondary roads which were no too busy and we didn't have to pay tolls for going 25 km/hr.