Route du Soleil

I spent two and a half weeks summer holiday in Spain. The itinerary was Barcelona – Empuriabrava – Girona. Why Barcelona again while I was also went there last year? It is because my mother. She is visiting me from Indonesia. In order to support her and to make her grief bearable my husband and I asked her where she wanted to spend her holiday in Europe. She chose to visit Barcelona.

My mother wanted to see more. So we went by car on a semi roadtrip instead of flying. We drove on the Route du Soleil all the way from our house to Barcelona. Believing the journey is also a part of travelling I share the story of driving on the busy Route du Soleil.

Route du Soleil
Or officially called l’autoroute du soleil (a route to the sun) is a route in France consisting of A6 (Paris – Beaune – Lyon) and A7 (Lyon – Orange – Marseille).

Many holiday goers use this route going south to French Riviera, Italy, Spain even Morocco! Those who drive to Swiss, Austria, German & other destinations on the right on the map (East) take this route too, mostly the A6 where they turn left at the busy junction in Lyon to Grenoble or Genève, Swiss.

First day
Departing at 4.30 am from The Netherlands we drove through Liège, Belgium and Luxembourg to enter France via Metz and Nancy (Lorraine region :-)). In Beaune we joined the real route du soleil on A6 to Lyon. It took us 7,5 hours to reach Lyon where we slept for a night.

This is a pic I took en route somewhere in Luxembourg. It was early in the morning around 7 am. Clear blue sky, beautiful scenery, fresh air and the wind in my hair. The summer holiday started.

Second day
We carried on driving on A7; from Orange the route split to the left through Nîmes (remember the history of Denim?) – Montpellier – Beziers – Narbonne – Perpignan. From Perpignan it was only 45 minutes ride to the French – Spanish border.

Breakfasting Chez Paul in a rest area in Ardèche, Champagne at Rhône-Alpes region. Yes, there is a Paul branch in a rest area, it is not as fancy as its branches in Singapore and Jakarta.

My mother and I at the rest area in Aude, 2 hours before the border.

The landscape gets drier the more we drove south.

2 hours before the border

And finally Bienvenidos en España. From this point it is 1 hour ride to Barcelona via AP7, La Jonquera.

Tips

Make sure your brake works well. Route du Soleil has some long climbs. They are not steep though but long. And the descending ways that follow are long as well.

The allowed speed is mostly 120 km/hour. However when we drove from Girona to Dijon yesterday, it was raining so hard, we needed to adjust our speed to 80 – 100 km/hour.

In France and Spain there is toll to pay. You can pay in cash, with card or télépéage. We paid by télépéage. It is a chip you put on the car front window. Everytime the car passes a toll gate, it is scanned. At the end of the month, the amount will be withdrawn from my bank account. I registered and activated this télépéage in advance in The Netherlands.

Bored of the never ending highway? If you have time and are not in a hurry take an N route through the idyllic French villages. My husband and I did this often when G was a little girl. We picknicked on the grass where we could park our car. Or we visited vineyards for a dégustation (wine tasting). You are in France anyway, the land of the wines. Make the most out of it.

When stopping by at the rest areas, make sure you lock your car well and hide your valuables from sight. French and Spanish police warn traveller to beware of (car) thieves.

Sunray above the Mediterranean sea in Perpignan yesterday morning on my way home.



I am writing this in my hotel room in Dijon, France. By the time this thread is posted, I am on my way home. Stay tuned for more holiday in Spain stories.