Traffic will be very difficult this Sunday with the passage of hundreds of thousands of motorists on the roads of France.
This year, the sequence of two public holidays in the middle of the week, May 8 (Armistice 1945) and May 9 (Ascension), combined with the closing of schools on the 10th, allowed millions of French people to benefit from a break of five days, from Wednesday to Sunday inclusive. A godsend for all those who wanted a change of scenery, especially as the sun was shining across almost the entire country with summer temperatures. If hoteliers and restaurateurs were delighted with this very long weekend, motorway companies will also have benefited from this period which will have seen millions of vehicles pass through the country’s main roads.
Sunday May 12 will also be one of the rare days of the year classified as black by Bison Futé. This concerns the entire northern and north-western part, or roughly a quarter of France. As always in such cases, Île-de-France will be particularly affected. Unsurprisingly, the A13 motorway will be stormed by all the “Parisians”, returning after leaving to clear their minds in Normandy, particularly on the beaches of the Côte Fleurie (Deauville, Trouville, Honfleur… ). In their misfortune, they will still be able to “appreciate” the fact that the Normandy motorway will have reopened its final portion in the province-Paris direction two days earlier…
But the A13 linking Paris and Caen will not be the only major axis subject to extremely dense traffic this May 12. Less known for these traffic jams, another highway should be avoided as much as possible to avoid experiencing a Sunday in hell. This is the A81, a 93 kilometer long motorway between Le Mans, in Sarthe, and the La Gravelle toll located at the gates of Brittany. It is an extension of the A11 leaving from Paris and then allows you, via the national 157, to reach Rennes. In the return direction, the A81 like the N157 will be close to saturation on Sunday, particularly between 2 and 7 p.m.
To reach Le Mans from Rennes, over a distance of around 150 kilometers, the journey time, estimated at 1h35 in normal times, could go from simple to double. And except for the people of Sarthois, this Le Mans stage will not mark the end of the ordeal. Many will be those who, leaving Brittany in the morning, will continue their journey to Paris via the A11 motorway. For another 200 miles or so.