On the road in France in 2025?
Summer traffic is expected to be heavy as usual this year, with several RED days (circulation très difficile) and 5 BLACK days. (Circulation extrêmement difficile).
Watch out too in May for the Bank holiday weekends.
These are certainly days to avoid travelling on motorways and major roads, but also many local areas get snagged up too, as visitors come on and off motorways, or head into small towns and seaside resorts, so good days to stay at home, get out the bikes, or walk.
DID YOU KNOW?
The national traffic website for Highways in France is called Bison Futé….meaning clever bison!
Check out these dates.
1 ile-de-France
2 Grand-Ouest et Nord
3 Bourgogne et Est
4 Auvergne – Rhône-Alpes
5 Sud-Ouest
6 Arc méditerranéen
(CLICK ON THE LINK FOR A CLEARER VERSION)
This crossover of the “juilletistes and aoutiens” (see below) sees millions of people moving across the country and traffic monitor Bison Fute issues just TWO of its rare ‘black alerts’ this year, forecasting nevertheless several hundred kilometres of potential jams.
Motorways along the Mediterranean coast, and main routes from north to south and vice versa are expected to be very busy at these times. Check out BISON FUTE, government funded advice agency which monitors traffic and gives useful tips and advice for avoiding the hotspots, with a ‘realtime’ map and info constantly updated.
Check out other periods and real time hotspots to avoid at bisonfute. or ring 0 800 100 200 for real time info. (0033 892 68 78 88 from abroad)
‘Le chassé-croisé des juillettistes et des aoûtiens’……..
… describes the traffic chaos on the roads of France late July/early August as the whole world and his wife heads off to or home from their hols, and the end of both months when the hols are over.
A chassé-croisé is actually a dance step where dancers criss cross and change partners.
‘Juillettistes’ describes holiday makers heading off or home in July and ‘aoûtiens’ are August travelers.
Still bewildered-for old crumbles like me a written list of dates would be fabulous
Just find the month at the top and follow it down, looking for black or red squares. The number next to them is the date. Drive safely.
What to the numbers refer to and ‘Depart’ from where?
Good question. 🙂 Numbers and corresponding regions now added below image.
chart too small to read
Hi Jocelyn
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, we’ve uplaoded a different image with higher resolution so when you zoom, the details should be clearer.