Route Napoleon Trip and Speeding

Hi,

I'm taking my car to the south of France this year for the first time and obviously will go via the Route Napoleon. So there are some of questions. Hope it will be useful to all other chat members considering similar trip which I believe is quite popular.

1.In August, what time of the day it's not too congested? I'm looking at leaving at about 5:30-6AM from Lyon and reach Cap-Ferrat in one go around midday. Will I get stuck in traffic considering it is going to be Saturday?

2.How hard can UK-licensed driver in a humble GB-plated Ferrari push their without facing serious problems? Any advice on safe indulgence both in the mountains and on motorways will be much appreciated.

3.Anything you believe is useful to know, please, share.

Cheers,
Roman

 

1 - Dutch caravans........

 

If you're leaving the first Saturday in August, so is the rest of France, most of it heading south. On the other hand you are already in Lyon and by leaving at dawn, you will avoid many problems.

Traffic jams are notorious at some spots on the motorway south of Lyon (mostly near towns) during the holiday period, but it appears that you are not using these. Greyboxer is right, Dutch caravans on the Route Napoléon will slow you down and so will the others: Belgian, British and German; plus local traffic pottering from one village to the next, cyclists, delivery vans, sightseers and goodness knows what else. You'll have to be patient.

If you're going to use the autoroutes, I suggest you pick up a Liber-T chip. This is obtained at many autoroute service stations. You register and give credit card details. You get handed the chip in a plastic case which affixes to the windscreen. When you approach a 'péage', you are invited to use the left-hand lanes, reserved for Liber-T users. The barriers open on approach and you avoid the massive queues that build up in the other lanes. Your card will only be debited for the péages you use and unlike French residents, you don't pay a service fee for using the chip.

 

Thanks René.

 

To be avoided in August as ALL of France seems to travel south in August for the summer break.

 

Well, I want to take my car to Cap-Ferrat for a holiday and finally dine at the restaurant of Paul Bocuse in Lyon, so I kind of have no choice

 

Paul Bocuse and Cap Ferrat? Wonderful.

The Route Napoléon is a scenic drive, you'll have time to take it in. If the traffic becomes too much of a problem, head for the autoroutes.

You could always take a detour home and use the north-south German autobahn although in my opinion they are so heavily used that it cancels out the advantage of having no speed limit. Still, that burst of adrenaline when you do find a stretch....

 

I drive down twice a year, albeit usually down the other side of the Rhone. Use this to plan your travel days: Site Internet Bison Futé - Le calendrier Bison Futé Use the main site there to look for traffic problems on the day of your journey.

Normally, I'd say travel 12-2pm to avoid traffic in France as everyone is at lunch (including the gendarmerie). But all bets are off in August as such a high % of road users are foreign. I tend to avoid France in August..

Plenty of fixed radar traps these days but they are all clearly signposted and you can look them all up before travelling (GPS tools like TomTom POI overlays are now banned) Carte des radars automatiques Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur - carte par radar fixe en france. The mobile flic units hide in the obvious places but sometimes they are only obvious after the fact when you are enjoying yourself. You'll usually get flashed by oncoming to warn you but less so if it's chock full of tourists..

 

FerrariChat cannot condone speeding or road racing on public roads. Therefore, please refrain from any discussion of the extent you intend to break the law.

I recommend either the de-restricted sections of the Autobahn in Germany or a controlled racetrack/airfield.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Sure, no problem. Is there any way I can edit opening message of the thread?

Andrew, just curious, is it some potential legal consequences for the forum or it is just a policy? I've seen quite a lot of threads with similar discussions on PistonHeads and some other forums, so really didn't see that coming

Cheers,
Roman

 

I've edited a few posts in the thread to clean-up the discussion. There haven't been any legal consequences for the forum yet, but we don't want to risk any unwanted attention in that regard.

Thanks for being understanding.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

OK but surely the remainder of my initial point 2 was reasonable ie to suggest that a driver has a EUR 300 cash fines fund and that for foreign vehicles getting stopped in France appears to be a relatively standard 'road tax'

 

This is not objective. I lived in France for a number of years and saw no such discrimination. If you speed when going past a patrol, you'll get stopped no matter where your car comes from.

Locals know this and will tend to know where the gendarmes are positioned. Out of towners won't, so will get disproportionately stopped. Maybe this is where your opinion originates.

In fact, it's much much easier for a gendarme to deal with a French plated car. The paperwork check and the discussion with the driver are all straightforward. They are not multilinguists and have little idea what UK insurance, V5 and MoT should look like. When I drove a French plated car in France I got stopped more often than when driving a UK registered car.

In summary, if you are speeding you will get stopped no matter where you are from. If they are doing one of their uninsured / unlicensed / drunk driver swoops (usually on weekend evenings in towns near popular exit/entry roundabouts) you are considerably less likely to be stopped.

 

Just back from a similar trip.

I was stopped on the way down (standard route via Reims). All very civilised, Gendarmes were as polite as you would hope for. EUR 90 fine for 168kmh. Was on my way within 20 minutes. They had zero interest in whether I had fluorescent vests, as are required by law.

You'll risk your car if you are very silly with speed. Check out the law online before you leave.

Oh, and all the cars pulled into the speed trap were non-French.

Enjoy the drive, and do get into Italy if you can......Ferrari's are very appreciated in their home country.

 

Havent been pulled over in France for a while... but when i was i deserved it. I drove RN couple of times on the way to Monaco... it was fun but lots of work ...

Bocuse is good, a bit touristy... I know JP Bocuse.. but he is still a MOF... and that is still a big deal in France.

 

Thanks for advice.

I might actually drive to Alassio. You know any nice driving road leading there from Cap-Ferrat?

If you drove one of the cars from your profile, I can imagine it was a bit of a workout. I'm taking FF there, so it is going to be a lot easier. Not as exciting though

Concerning Bocuse, I now what to expect in terms of cuisine and atmosphere. It is just that I'm very much into fine dinning and cook myself quite a bit, so it is an absolute must for me to go there at least once.

Roman

 

Sorry to press the point again, but this is because the French know what they are doing and the tourists don't. I've seen it happen many times and discussed with locals many times.

 

Did this route last year (July) and traffic was OK. Overtaking needs bravery at some stretches but I would say that its not (generally) a great road for high speed. There are parts of course, but also some stunning views and worth just drinking in the experience.

We did route Napoleon, cut off and went to Monaco, then into Switzerland on the san bernardino pass, black forest run and on to the nurbergring before heading home. A nice 5 day jaunt.

Like all things, you take your chance, we were overtaken at warp speed by a 599, but caught up soon enough when he got stuck behind a van 

Take your time, call in at the “ring” for your fix of speed, many advantages not least of which is that everyone’s going in the same direction.

Just my thoughts!

 

One other point to rephrase an edited area is that in French law being caught for more than 30 kph over the limit changes the legal status of the offence from infraction to more serious and from on the spot fine to court - good background here Les Flics et Les PHeurs - PistonHeads

 

Anything between 30 and 50kph over the limit is a bit of a grey area. You can be fined on the spot as well as you can have your licence seized and taken to the court depending on circumstances. Over 50kph considered to be very serious offence and problems are guaranteed. But given we are discussing quite busy mountain road passing through towns, I guess pushing that hard is not just beyond the law but is actually beyond common sense. A lot of tourists, cyclists etc. who either can be unpredictable themselves or simply not expecting you to move that fast.

Generally, I believe that while driving a nice GT car on unfamiliar mountain road, the main thing is to find a nice flowing rhythm which can be well below the limit of the car and not far from actual speed limit. So I would leave >30kph for either area specialists who know very well what they are doing or plain idiots

Roman

 

Good point, well stated. You'd be a twit to behave any differently. Unfortunately there are a lot of twits about, especially with new metal.