Biking in France

Posted by The Madbiker on Mon, Sep 30, 2019

The speed limits in France are 50 km/h (50 mph) in built up areas, 90 km/h (56 mph) outside built up areas, and 130 km/h (86 mph) on motorways but the 130 kph limit on the motorways is reduced to 110 kph when it is raining.

The motorways are the A roads, the main non-motorway roads are the N roads, and the smaller main roads are the C roads.

The C roads sometimes change their numbers without warning, so for example lets say that you are on the C413, without warning it suddenly becomes say the the C116 (not a real example) I do not know the reason for this however it is worthwhile keeping an eye on this when using these roads to avoid getting lost or confused.

The motorways are all of a high standard but they are all toll roads, therefore travelling on these roads will cost you money.

The motorways signs are in Blue, the N road signs are in Red, and signs for the smaller roads are white.

France is a huge country and most of the other roads are well maintained, my personal favourites are the N roads, the old main National routes before the motorways were built and if I can, I use these in preference to the motorways.

Petrol is usually about 20 cents per litre more expensive on the motorways than on the other roads and at the time of writing it was about 1.70 Euros per litre.

France has lots of speed cameras but a lot of them face forward and photograph the vehicle as it is approaching the camera, as bikes have no front number plates, any transgressors may not be identified. However, there are some that photograph vehicles from the rear so be warned.

There are many great biking roads in France but one of my favourite roads is the N85, the “Route Napoleon” that runs between Grenoble and Cannes.

I did not buy a SIM card for a mobile phone whilst I was in France so I have no information about how to do this.