The long drive south …

The third leg of the journey has been the longest. Including several breaks, it took us about 8 hours to cover 675 km (or 420 miles) from Calais to Limoges.

We opted for the A16, which initially runs roughly parallel to the Opal Coast past Boulogne sur Mer, before picking up the N184, A115, A15, A86 and N118 to skirt around the western side of Paris. It’s amazing how much easier the constant changes of road are with today’s satellite navigation!

I’m not really a fan of the A86 Duplex tunnel - the longest road tunnel entirely in France with 10km of two 2.55m high (or should that be low) tunnels stacked vertically, passing underneath south west Paris, not far from Versailles. The tunnels are limited to vehicles with a max height of 2.0m (ie cars only). The southbound traffic runs under the northbound traffic in a single bore tunnel. As you can see from the photo, it’s not for the faint-hearted!

We eventually left the busy autoroutes of Paris and began to follow the A10 to Orleans, the A71 to Vierzon and lastly the A20 towards Toulouse. As we entered the old former province of Limousin, the endless mix of forests and fields of central France finally gave way to rolling hills and pretty countryside which surround Limoges.

We’re staying tonight in our favourite chain of budget hotels, B&B Hotels. As is often the case, there are 3 separate branches in Limoges on the same street. Two are almost next door to one another and no. 3 is about 100m away! There’s also a fourth branch elsewhere in the city.

We enjoyed a tasty meal with a friendly Hippopotamus, who was nestled between Limoges B&B Hotels No. 1 and No. 2. If you’ve not tried Hippopotamus, it’s a little like a French version of the UK’s Harvester chain.Read more