French west coast route to Spain - Nantes to Poitiers section anyone?

[Hagstrom]

All the Cap Finisterre dog friendly cabins for next October (2019) are now booked we are now looking at Portsmouth to Caen and on to Bordeaux via Rennes/Nantes. We are Class 3 (over 4m high and 5.5tonnes).

We can get south from Caen to Nantes on good quality dual carriageways but southwards, the A83 Autoroute to Niort (24euros) and then the A10 to Bordeaux (35euros) are expensive.

Any recommendations for non-toll routes that will get us from Nantes to Bordeaux on reasonably smooth roads? My route planner recommends Nantes - Cholet - Parthenay - Poitiers, and then the usual N10 to Angouleme etc but it may be infested with roundabouts and sleeping policemen!

Advice on a good route welcome.

 

[MisterB]

Nantes, Challans, la roche sur yon la rochelle might be an option. The route ia being upgraded ans un a year oe tqo will be all dual carriageway. At thw miment from nantes to la ro he sur yon is about 80% dual xarriageway toll free

 

[2657]

We have done this route many times from our static van near St Nazaire.

Nantes ring road D137, Chantonnay, St Hermine then D148, Fontenay le Comte, Niort.

May be worth taking the A83/A10 toll round Niort but not that difficult to negotiate.

D948, Melle and onto N10 south.

Not a lot of dual carriageway but a reasonably pleasant drive.

 

[tuscancouple]

N10 is dual carriageway most of the way from Poiters to Bordeaux, with new sections being built, though at your weight you'll be 80kph with no overtaking, Having used that route many times with our RV it's a bit of a procession but you get to Bordeaux eventually

Mick

 

[Hagstrom]

Yes, Mick, we've been using that N10 route for a long time now but am looking for a route which avoids the big loop eastwards to Poitiers by bridging from Nantes to Bordeaux.

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[Hagstrom]

Matamoros,

So you've not tried the D150 due south from Niort towards Saintes? (Which appears a possibility....)

 

[MisterB]

Nantes, Challans, la roche sur yon la rochelle might be an option. The route ia being upgraded ans un a year oe tqo will be all dual carriageway. At thw miment from nantes to la ro he sur yon is about 80% dual xarriageway toll free

sorry, was trying to type on a phone

should read Nantes - Challans - La Roche sur Yon - La Rochelle might be an option. The route is being upgraded and in a year or two will be all dual carriageway. At the moment from Nantes to La Roche sur Yon is about 80% dual carriageway and toll free !

 

[Hagstrom]

Bump. Anyone else got experience of the Rennes/Nantes/Bordeaux route?

Correction: Contrary to the first post our van is over 3m, not over 4m!

 

[Bolti]

sorry, was trying to type on a phone

should read Nantes - Challans - La Roche sur Yon - La Rochelle might be an option. The route is being upgraded and in a year or two will be all dual carriageway. At the moment from Nantes to La Roche sur Yon is about 80% dual carriageway and toll free !

Thanks for the explanation. I thought maybe gin sales had gone through the roof!

 

[Clive and Kerri]

Here you go

https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/c...uth-a-motorhome-route-through-france-to-spain

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[Hagstrom]

Thanks Clive. I can hardly believe that after 13 year of poring over everything "motorhomes" on the web, I hadn't come across that comprehensive resource about motorhoming to Spain in winter, before!

It's invaluable for beginners and most useful for evaluating alternative routes across France.

 

[Clive and Kerri]

Here’s another one I use
https://about-france.com/tourism/med-avoiding-tolls.htm

 

[bellabee]

We've just done the route over the past couple of days, and it has been really good. We disembarked at Caen at 3.30 on Friday and stopped at an aire at Grand-Fougeray, north of Nantes on Friday night. The Rennes ringroad was fairly busy, but not too bad. The drive to Grand-Fougeray from Caen took about 3.5 hours.
Yesterday we drove via Parthenay to the N10, staying at Roullet St Estephe aire (approx 4.5 hours of actual driving) but we made stops for lunch, shopping and coffee so arrived in Roullet at about 4.30pm, having set out at around 10.30 am. The road was mostly very good with lots of dual carriageway.
Even the N10 was OK on Saturday.
We drove for 3.5 hours today, and are at Urrugne tonight.
The weather has been great so that has made the driving easy.
However, we wouldn't particularly want to do the journey during the week, so taking the Friday morning ferry from Portsmouth works very well.
We are over 3500 kg and have (mostly) stuck to the speed limits.