Calais-Chamonix Feb 12th - how long?

Ferry gets to calais at 7:00am on the Saturday morning (12th Feb). Route
planners say 7:25hrs to 9:00hrs for the drive. Assuming fair weather, is
this reasonable for what is probably one of the busiest weekends of the
year? Or should I trade for an even EARLIER ferry? :-(

"John Ricketts" wrote in message ...
Ferry gets to calais at 7:00am on the Saturday morning (12th Feb). Route
planners say 7:25hrs to 9:00hrs for the drive. Assuming fair weather, is
this reasonable for what is probably one of the busiest weekends of the
year? Or should I trade for an even EARLIER ferry? :-(

Good thing about Chamonix is that it's dual carriage-way all the way
into the town so you don't have that really slow crawl up a mountain
road you get with other resorts. We did Chamonix - Calais in 8 and a
quarter hours once which included getting really held up in heavy
traffic around Geneva. That said, we were in a Volvo 850 and did 115
MPH the whole way which is out of the question these days with the
French crack down on speed.

Allowing 9 hours for your trip should be fine - depends if this is a
school holiday. We drove down last year when it was French and British
holidays and it was murder. When you join the roads south of Paris it
gets really heavy.

If this is the weekend you're going the ONLY thing I'd recommend is
going the evening before and driving down over night - I REALLY wish
we'd done that. It will be tiring but not as frustrating as sitting in
traffic from hell and having to queue for 45 mins each petrol stop.

"John Ricketts" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Ferry gets to calais at 7:00am on the Saturday morning (12th Feb). Route
planners say 7:25hrs to 9:00hrs for the drive. Assuming fair weather, is
this reasonable for what is probably one of the busiest weekends of the
year? Or should I trade for an even EARLIER ferry? :-(
Hi John,

Last year I need 10 hours from Frankfurt to Chamonix. There are three passes
(big and small) with a lot of serpentines. Here you have to spent most of
the time. In addition there is a speed limit in Switzerland (100 km/h) and
the police will charge you till 200 Euro if you are faster. There are always
looking for foreign cars. And last but not least every Saturday is day of
arrival in the whole Alps, which cause a lot traffic on the small pass
streets and also the serpentines.

One alternative is to use the french motorway via Grenoble (bypassing
Switzerland). Then you have to go via Belgium. But in Belgium and France you
have to pay the road toll. Germany is free and in Switzerland the road toll
is 18 Euro per year (multiple usage).

Hope that helps. Take care and best regards, Matthias

OK, I guess the question then is "Is this the French holiday week (Paris)?"
(12th to 19th Feb 2005)?

"Roger" wrote in message
...
"John Ricketts" wrote in message
...
Ferry gets to calais at 7:00am on the Saturday morning (12th Feb). Route
planners say 7:25hrs to 9:00hrs for the drive. Assuming fair weather, is
this reasonable for what is probably one of the busiest weekends of the
year? Or should I trade for an even EARLIER ferry? :-(

Good thing about Chamonix is that it's dual carriage-way all the way
into the town so you don't have that really slow crawl up a mountain
road you get with other resorts. We did Chamonix - Calais in 8 and a
quarter hours once which included getting really held up in heavy
traffic around Geneva. That said, we were in a Volvo 850 and did 115
MPH the whole way which is out of the question these days with the
French crack down on speed.

Allowing 9 hours for your trip should be fine - depends if this is a
school holiday. We drove down last year when it was French and British
holidays and it was murder. When you join the roads south of Paris it
gets really heavy.

If this is the weekend you're going the ONLY thing I'd recommend is
going the evening before and driving down over night - I REALLY wish
we'd done that. It will be tiring but not as frustrating as sitting in
traffic from hell and having to queue for 45 mins each petrol stop.

Just found this link to french holiday dates

http://www.skiserreche.com/anglais/R...hool_hols.html

Looks like the 12th to 19th Feb is overlap of Zone A and Zone B. Paris is in
Zone C which starts on 19th. Guess that's good news?


"John Ricketts" wrote in message
...
OK, I guess the question then is "Is this the French holiday week
(Paris)?" (12th to 19th Feb 2005)?

"Roger" wrote in message
...
"John Ricketts" wrote in message
...
Ferry gets to calais at 7:00am on the Saturday morning (12th Feb). Route
planners say 7:25hrs to 9:00hrs for the drive. Assuming fair weather, is
this reasonable for what is probably one of the busiest weekends of the
year? Or should I trade for an even EARLIER ferry? :-(

Good thing about Chamonix is that it's dual carriage-way all the way
into the town so you don't have that really slow crawl up a mountain
road you get with other resorts. We did Chamonix - Calais in 8 and a
quarter hours once which included getting really held up in heavy
traffic around Geneva. That said, we were in a Volvo 850 and did 115
MPH the whole way which is out of the question these days with the
French crack down on speed.

Allowing 9 hours for your trip should be fine - depends if this is a
school holiday. We drove down last year when it was French and British
holidays and it was murder. When you join the roads south of Paris it
gets really heavy.

If this is the weekend you're going the ONLY thing I'd recommend is
going the evening before and driving down over night - I REALLY wish
we'd done that. It will be tiring but not as frustrating as sitting in
traffic from hell and having to queue for 45 mins each petrol stop.

John Ricketts wrote:
Just found this link to french holiday dates

http://www.skiserreche.com/anglais/R...hool_hols.html

Looks like the 12th to 19th Feb is overlap of Zone A and Zone B. Paris is in
Zone C which starts on 19th. Guess that's good news?

Paris isn't really your problem as you will come via Dijon which the
Parisians haven't really discovered as a route to the Alps. My
experience is that the Lyon holiday zone is as significant at Paris in
the Rhone-Alpes area. The motorway from Bourg en Bresse to Geneva will
be very slow on Saturday afternoon and it may be worth you taking the RN
for some distance before you hit the Bourg en Bresse motorway.

Don't worry about speed cameras, they do not pursue drivers outside
France. Do worry about driving excessively fast on busy motorway roads
in winter.

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 16:45:33 +0200, "Matthias van Leeuwen" wrote:

In addition there is a speed limit in Switzerland (100 km/h) and
the police will charge you till 200 Euro if you are faster.

The limit is 120 on the motorway, and basically it is 1 franc per km/h
higher. For more than 30 higher, you are in serious trouble with the
risk of gettting arrested.
--

Ciao,
Holger (GUS-KOTAL, GUS#1100)

90-92 Honda CB400 10 Mm | 93-95 Yamaha TDM 850 26 Mm
95-97 KTM 620 LC4 13 Mm | seit 97 BMW R1100GS 50 Mm (Die Renndrecksau!)

cu @ http://www.issle.de

"Holger Issle" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 16:45:33 +0200, "Matthias van Leeuwen" wrote:

In addition there is a speed limit in Switzerland (100 km/h) and
the police will charge you till 200 Euro if you are faster.

The limit is 120 on the motorway, and basically it is 1 franc per km/h
higher. For more than 30 higher, you are in serious trouble with the
risk of gettting arrested.
--

Ciao,
Holger

120 is correct, but there are a lot of areas with 100 in the meantime that
you can also speak about a speed limit in the way I mentioned.

Also the 1 franc per km/h is correct in theory. Reality is that the police
has a special way to count. :-)))
You have the option to attend to police office signing a protocol or to pay
and drive away. A protocol precedure costs you a lot of time, under
circumstances several hours.

All these knaveries (trickies) are based on experiences independently if
legal or not.

Regards, Matthias

John Ricketts wrote:
Ferry gets to calais at 7:00am on the Saturday morning (12th Feb). Route
planners say 7:25hrs to 9:00hrs for the drive. Assuming fair weather, is
this reasonable for what is probably one of the busiest weekends of the
year? Or should I trade for an even EARLIER ferry? :-(


I would get an earlier ferry - say 23:00 the night before and drive
overnight. The French motorways are very quiet overnight, particularly
via Dijon and you will get to the resort in time for a good days skiing.
You will probably missed a nights sleep anyway trying to get to Dover
for, what, 05:00 anyway so you will be IMHO no more tired than the
original plan. As for the journey time it really depends on getting past
Geneva, which when we went in April last year took over one hour.

John

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 17:52:48 +0200, David Off
wrote:

Don't worry about speed cameras, they do not pursue drivers outside
France.

However, bear in mind that human speed checkers will confiscate your
licence on the spot and also relieve you of a large sum of money - as
a friend found out the other summer.

ernest