We spent five days driving across France and back en route to and from Switzerland. Our daughter was doing an experiment in Switzerland and needed a van load of equipment driven from London to Zurich. So went along as roadies. Or, more accurately, the old man was a roadie. I was just along for the ride. Does that make me a groupie? Probably not with my own daughter…
Our itinerary doesn’t pick out France’s top destinations. It is ultimately a way to drive through France if you’re heading for Switzerland, with some interesting stops along the way.
France 5 Day Road Trip Itinerary
| Day 1 | London to Reims LeShuttle Drive to Reims Accommodation – Maison Mitoyenne Taissy Dinner in Reims |
| Day 2 | Reims to Obermumpf French Supermarket Drive to Obermumpf Picnic in Châlons-en-Champagne |
| Day 3 | Zurich to Besançon Drive to Besançon Accommodation – Comfort Aparthotel Besançon La City River Doubs Lunch at La Cornemuse Maison Victor Hugo |
| Day 4 | Besançon to Fontainebleau Drive to Fontainebleau Château de Fontainebleau Accommodation – Le Champ du Châtaignier |
| Day 5 | Fontainebleau to London Fontainebleau parkrun Drive to Calais |
France Day 1 – London to Reims
We start our journey in central London. The van is delivered – 35 minutes late. Daughter No 2 is very stressed. However, the equipment is packed and we are on our way in plenty of time for our train, which it turns out, is late anyway. The stress levels are not helped when we reach our first roundabout and the pumps topple over like a very expensive pack of dominoes. After a stop to re-secure the pumps, we set off once again for Folkestone and the Channel Tunnel.
LeShuttle
LeShuttle takes vehicles by train through the Channel Tunnel; a is 32 miles long tunnel which runs under the English Channel between England and France. The undersea section is 25 miles long, making it the longest undersea tunnel in the world.
Upon arrival, we check in and park up. When it is finally time to board, the old man has snuck off for a burger and has to be prised out of Burger King.
It’s my first time in the Eurotunnel, so I’m briefly excited until I realise that in reality, we are just sitting in a van staring at a wall for 35 minutes.
Drive to Reims
We arrive in Calais and set off down the motorway – not cheap in France – we’re going to notch up €120 in tolls. So it’s particularly annoying when we get caught in a traffic jam in a contraflow. This means we no longer have time to visit Reims. This is a disappointment as I had particularly wanted to visit Notre Dame Cathedral with its Chagall stained glass windows. Instead, we head straight for tonight’s accommodation.
Accommodation – Maison Mitoyenne Taissy
We are staying in a small apartment; Maison Mitoyenne in Taissy on the outskirts of Reims. It’s a self contained apartment with its own little garden area in the grounds of the owners’ home. You can even get your bearings from the map on the bedroom wall…
The apartment is very pleasant and it’s an additional bonus to have some outside space to sit and relax after a long day of travelling.
Once checked in, we head to the supermarket. We are in the Champagne region. In my head, dinner consists of fresh baguette, French cheeses and pâté, all washed down with a nice, cold glass of fizz.
Dinner in Reims
As we walk towards the supermarket doors, the shutters come down. It’s Whit Monday (apparently a public holiday – who knew? Obviously not us!) and France is shut. We drive around for a while, trying a few more places. But the only thing open is McDonalds. So we spend our evening in Champagne eating chips and drinking fizzy water. Not quite the fizz I had in mind…
France Day 2 – Reims to Obermumpf
French Supermarket
Today is a normal working day, so we start with a second attempt at visiting a French Supermarket. This time we don’t try to enter the car park. The van is allegedly 1.85m and the height limit allegedly 2.10m. One of these allegations is false as we discovered yesterday when we went clattering into the barrier. This time, the supermarket is open and we can stock up on the essentials of French bread, cheese and wine.
Drive to Obermumpf
Now we can set off for Switzerland accompanied by Six the Musical. Most of the day is spent driving; a total of five hours.
Picnic in Châlons-en-Champagne
We take a stop for a picnic brunch stop at a service station in Châlons-en-Champagne where we enjoy eating aforementioned French bread and cheese.
We arrive in Switzerland by mid afternoon. To read more about the next part of our journey, check out my blog on our 1 week Swiss Road Trip here.
France Day 3 – Zurich to Besançon
It’s time to start the drive back from Switzerland to London via France. That’s a distance of over 600 miles, so we’ve divided it into three chunks. Our first overnight stop is in France at Besançon.
Drive to Besançon
We set off from Zurich with musical accompaniment for four hours of driving/culture. By the time we reach our hotel, we have covered Tudor history (Six), Greek mythology (Hadestown) and American history (Hamilton).
Accommodation – Comfort Aparthotel Besançon La City
Tonight hotel is the Comfort Aparthotel Besançon La City. The hotel is difficult to spot, requiring three (increasingly irate) circuits of the one way system to locate it. I briefly hope our arrival will stop daughter No 2 from reciting the lyrics of every musical in the world, but we’re in the birthplace of Victor Hugo, so this is unlikely.
River Doubs
Once we are checked in, we set off to explore the city. Besançon is a fortified city in a U shaped bend of the River Doubs. We walk into town along the river, which is lined with historic buildings, in the direction of the house where Victor Hugo was born.
Lunch at La Cornemuse
But first, lunch. It is mid afternoon, so locating a restaurant that’s still open takes a while, but we find a nice crêperie; La Cornemuse. Daughter No 2 is in crêpe heaven. They also serve an awesome Roquefort pasta.
Maison Victor Hugo
The house in which Victor Hugo was born – Maison Victor Hugo is now a museum. He only lived here for six weeks and never returned. But that doesn’t prevent the locals from milking the connection for all it’s worth.
You can learn more about the famous writer’s life and works as you wander around the home of his birth. Daughter No 2 manages the entire visit without singing a single lyric to Les Misérables. But the strain is finally too much; laster, back at the hotel, we add the French Revolution to our day of musical culture.
The museum is open daily except Tuesday from 10.30 am until 6 pm. Entry usually costs €3.20, but it is free on Sundays and for people who meet a wide range of criteria – check the website for details.
Place Granvelle
We walk back to the hotel via Place Granvelle, a promenade once part of the grounds of the Palace Granvelle. Here, amidst the trees, you can find a monument to the city’s most famous resident.
France Day 4 – Besançon to Fontainebleau
Drive to Fontainebleau
Today’s 210 mile drive takes us as far as Fontainebleau. It’s a slight deviation from the optimum route, but Fontainebleau has a parkrun. Our route is predominantly motorway which is (a) expensive – it costs €60 to drive across France – and (b) dull. Thank goodness for musical theatre. Fitting with today’s location, we set off to soundtrack of Les Misérables.
We stop at a rest area to use the facilities. The toilet is so high tech it’s like wandering into the USS Enterprise. It’s a far cry from my childhood visits to France when peeing involved putting a foot either side of a stinking hole and hoping you missed your pants.
Château de Fontainebleau
We reach Fontainebleau in time for a picnic and a wander round the grounds of the spectacular Château de Fontainebleau. The huge 1900 room château, residence of many French monarchs, is probably best known as the palace of Napoléon; it is from here that he abdicated and departed into exile in 1814.
There are armed soldiers on the gates. They let others pass without acknowledgement. But say ‘Bonjour’ to us and when I look round, they’re following. I can’t decide if we’re a security threat or daughter No 2 has pulled!
We’re too late to visit the interior of the château, so have to make do with a visit to the gift shop for a Napoléon fridge magnet (I resist the temptation to buy a solar powered plastic Napoléon whose arm swings in and out of his jacket).
We spend the rest of the afternoon wandering round the beautifully landscaped gardens of the château. I’ve read mixed reviews of the grounds. They’re much less formal than many stately homes, but I love them.
The château is open daily except Tuesdays from 9.30 am until 5 pm (6 pm in summer). Entry to the interior costs €14. Entry to the grounds is free.
Accommodation – Le Champ du Châtaignier
The Château is surrounded by 280 square kilometres of forest. On the edge of the forest is the village of Bourron-Marlotte where we are staying tonight. It’s a lovely village – so lovely that our hosts are on tenterhooks; tonight they announce the result of France’s most beautiful village and Bourron-Marlotte is in the running. Our accommodation; Le Champ du Châtaignier is in the annex on the owners’ home. It’s very nice both inside and out.
We have supper in the garden and an early night ready for parkrun and the drive back to London in the morning.
France Day 5 – Fontainebleau to London
Fontainebleau Parkrun
It’s Saturday – AKA parkrun day and today we’re running Fontainebleau parkrun, which takes place in the grounds of Fontainebleau Château. To be more precise; two laps of an ornamental lake at the entrance to the château.
So, it’s an early start to ensure we have sufficient time to find somewhere to park and locate the start. In the end, there’s only 13 runners, it’s not like a British parkrun where you can can find the start by simply followed the hordes of other runners heading in that direction.
My fitness has declined due to injury, but I meet a lovely lady called Christine from Kingston and we pootle round the scenic route together. It takes a very slow 47 minutes, but we chat the whole way round, so the time flies by. We speed up towards the end when our respective families come and encourage us to run more and talk less. You can read more about our visit to Fontainebleau Parkrun here.
Note: Although parkrun is currently cancelled throughout France, this runs still takes place unofficially on Saturday morning.
Drive to Calais
Then it’s time to drive the 225 miles to Calais. It’s hot and first we have to circumnavigate Paris. Today’s soundtrack is Hadestown – appropriate for a Parisian motorway on a Saturday morning.
We reach the Tunnel and depart France at 3.50 pm, arriving in the UK at 3.25 pm. My brain doesn’t deal well with such concepts. We arrived before we left and not even in a DeLorean. We take a comfort break before setting off, and I am excited to find Colin Jackson on the toilet wall.
- Trip taken: June 2019
- Updated May 2025
I hope you found the above information useful. For guides to more destinations in the 50+ countries we have visited, check out my full list of Independent Travel Itineraries here.
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