Black days for national travel
Worst weekend of the year on roads as 15 million head back home or leave for holidays
THE WORST weekend for French travel is underway.
The crossover of the juilletistes and aoûtiens (July and August holiday makers) will see 15 million people moving across the country over the weekend.
Airports and stations will be busy and many of the nation's key roads will be gridlocked.
Traffic monitor Bison Futé has classed Saturday and Sunday at the highest 'black' level for travel.
Trouble areas will include:
A10 south of Paris
A6 north of Lyon
A7 along the Rhône
A71-A20 and A71-A75 in the Massif Central
Motorways along the Mediterranean
Main routes in Normandy and Brittany
For those drivers not caught in traffic, motorway signs will be encouraging safe driving in a number of different languages.
30% of drivers stopped for speeding last summer were not from France.
This year the number of people killed on the roads in June was 33% up on June 2008.
Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, in charge of transport, said there would be an enormous police presence on the roads.
The SNCF is expecting at least 1.5 million travellers on 3,300 trains this weekend.
Paris' Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports are preparing for almost a million people to pass through in the next two days.
