French update Two

Hi again from Loudeac. Anyone thinking of heading south from the ports of Caen, Cherbourg or St Malo might like to know that in spite of the european-wide recession that roadbuilding in France goes on apace with benefits for us roamers and tuggers. For instance the route to Poitiers from Nantes via Cholet has been dualled for much greater lengths in the past couple of years  and it is toll-free as is the autoroute from Rennes to Nantes and from Caen to Rennes via Avrances/Mont St Michel.   This means you can now get down to the Limousin much quicker and cheaper and you only start paying from Brive.

Another route we tried last year was from Rennes to Angers for Tours and we were pleasantly surprised to find how much of this is now dualled, giving a faster. cheap route to Chateauroux for Clermont Ferrand and the free autoroute to the Med via the (tolled) Millau Bridge.  On that last point, the Millau Bridge is exhilarating to say the least. I discovered I have a latent vertigo, made worse by the hypnotic effect of the closed-in sides and the suspension wires so won't be volunteering to go that way again. Am I the only one to suffer this?   More on route improvements later. Cheers!