Record traffic jams for the first weekend of the summer holidays

Saturday was classified as red throughout the country because of the start of the summer holidays.

France’s roads were packed. As expected, motorists headed en masse for their holiday destinations on Saturday 6 July, marking the start of the first weekend of the summer school holidays. “The traffic jam peak was reached at around 11.35 am, with a total of 653 km of congested traffic at national level”, reports Bison Futé on its website.

“For the provinces, the maximum volume of traffic jams was reached at around 11.35am, with a total of 537 km”, the organisation adds. In Île-de-France, the maximum volume of traffic jams, reaching 116 km, was recorded at around midday. The main problems were on the A7 (104 km), A10 (56 km), A9 (41 km), A13 (18 km) and N814 (18 km).

Roads not recommended for Sunday

Sunday should be a calmer day, with an orange forecast for a large part of the country, including Hauts-de-France, Brittany, Normandy and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, according to Bison Futé. The organisation is forecasting “heavy traffic on most major routes heading north-west, south and from the Ile-de-France region”.

Motorists are advised to leave or cross the Île-de-France region before 6am, to avoid the A63 between Bordeaux and Bayonne from 12pm to 2pm, the A75 between Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier from 11am to 1pm, and the Mont-Blanc tunnel (N205) between France and Italy from 2pm to 5pm.

Traffic is also expected to slow down on the A10, near Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines from 8 am to 1 pm, near Orléans from 9 am to 3 pm, and between Poitiers and Bordeaux from 12 pm to 2 pm. Bison Futé recommends avoiding the A7 between Lyon and Orange from 5pm to 7pm, and between Salon-de-Provence and Marseille from 4pm to 8pm.