up to 653 km of traffic jams on the roads at midday

The roads of France are seeing red. It was expected, motorists took to the road to reach their vacation spots on Saturday July 6, which marks the beginning of the first weekend of the summer holidays. “The traffic jam peaked at around 11:35 a.m. with a cumulative 653 km at the national level”assures Bison Futé on its website. “For the Province area, the maximum volume of traffic jams was reached around 11:35 a.m. with 537 km cumulative”the organization specifies. The maximum volume of traffic jams, 116 km, was reached around 12 noon for the Ile-de-France area. The main difficulties are located on the A7 (104 km), A10 (56 km), A9 (41 km), A13 (18 km), N814 (18 km) roads.

Sunday should be a calmer day, as Bison futé sees orange over a large part of the country, from Hauts-de-France to Brittany, including Normandy and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The organization therefore expects a “heavy traffic on most major routes heading North-West, South and from the Paris region” and invites motorists to leave or cross the Ile-de-France region before 6 a.m., to avoid the A63 between Bordeaux and Bayonne from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., the A75 between Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the Mont-Blanc tunnel (N205) between France and Italy from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The organization also recommends avoiding the A10 near Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., near Orléans from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and between Poitiers and Bordeaux from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Bison futé suggests avoiding the A7 between Lyon and Orange from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and between Salon-de-Provence and Marseille from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.