The trouble with travel on July 14 weekend

Motorists planning a daytrip or long weekend away should prepare for heavy traffic, roads watchdog Bison Futé has warned.

Travel on Thursday was particularly difficult, as thousands of people escaped the cities for a break. But the roads are expected to remain busy throughout the holiday weekend.

Bison Futé has classed the roads out of Paris as 'red' on its colour scale on Friday, July 14 - its second-highest alert level. Main routes across the whole of the country are rated 'orange', just a level lower, indicating that travel is likely to be difficult and subject to delays everywhere. It said roads around major cities and to popular holiday destinations would be especially busy.

Those setting off on holiday will add to traffic levels on Saturday, it said, particularly in the morning and early afternoon. Motorists in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes are warned to expect additional delays on the A6, A7, A43, A41 and A40. The A8, A9 and A61, near the Mediterranean coast are also expected to be congested.

Bison Futé has already classified a number of upcoming days, including July 29 - the first 'crossover' of the summer holidays, when early holidaymakers head home and later vacationers head out - as 'black', its most severe level.

• We will examine the laws of driving on France's autoroutes in the August 2017 edition of Connexion.