Euro road trip

[smilerftm]

Anyone on here done one? Starting to plan ahead for next year and was thinking of going down the eastern side of France from Calais through Champagne country then on to Monaco/Nice taking in some of the Monte Carlo rally stages, from there over to Maranello and then up to the Stelvio Pass, after that across Switzerland doing a few more mountain passes (no idea which ones yet) then up through the German Black Forest and onto the finale at The Ring before home.

Gong to take two weeks off around this time next year, any earlier and there is a good chance the mountain passes will still be closed, while any later and the Stelvio Pass starts getting bonkers busy during the day.

If anyone had done this sort of thing I would love to hear about it and also if there are any roads I should definitely do and any I should be missing out.

 

[homeforsummer]

I've not done a Euro road trip as such but I've driven in Europe quite a bit so may be able to offer a few bits of advice.

You seem to have picked a good route. Head towards Reims from Calais, as you can visit - and drive, ish - the old Grand Prix circuit there at Reims-Gueux. It's on the West side of Reims itself, and takes in the D27 (the old main straight), heads north on the D26, and then south-east on the N31. The view when heading down the D27 is surreal - you can see for miles and the old pit and grandstand buildings line the road.

Also try and check out the centre of Reims, it's a beautiful city. Champagne country is just south of Reims, centred at Epernay, so visit there too if you're hanging around in the area for any length of time. Reims will probably be a good first stop for you since you're presumably coming down from Hartlepool - it'll already have been a good 8 hours of driving by that point, maybe a little more.

If you're interested in visiting a more current track on your way down the country, take the E17 south to Dijon, where you'll find the Dijon-Prenois circuit.

Keep going south and once you're reaching Grenoble, you're basically in the Alps and the roads start getting pretty damn spectacular, the best of which is the Route Napoleon, running through Grenoble, Gap, Sisteron, Digne, Grasse down to Cannes - the N85.

After that it's on to Italy and the rest of what you're planning sounds good. If you go through Switzerland try and avoid motorways entirely, as otherwise you'll have to buy a 30 swiss-franc Vignette at the border. It's their equivalent of road tax but applies to everyone who uses their motorways, regardless of their country of origin.

 

[smilerftm]

I'll definitely be taking in the Reims-Gueux ruins thanks, not sure about Gijon. I was thinking of heading more east from there over to Mulhouse, from there down through Switzerland and briefly into Italy over the Great St Bernard Pass, then back into Italy over the Petit St Bernard Pass which isn't too far from Grenoble and the Route Napoleon down to Nice and Monaco, from there I can head up and do the Col De Turini before heading into Italy once again. It's then I'm not sure where to go It's either head across and down a bit to Maranello and up to Como or alternatively head straight up and across to Como and maybe take in Monza just below. From there I have a quality little route (seems so to me anyway) which will head up to Bormio and then do the Stelvio Pass, then into Switzerland to do the Fluela Pass, Oberalp Pass, through Andermatt and over the Furka Pass, Grimsel Pass and the Susten Pass. After that head north to Zurich and on into Germany through the Black Forest and to Stuttgart (time permitting) to have a look at the Porsche and Merc musuems, once again heading north to The Ring (again if time permits I'll head to Hockenheim on my way to The Ring either after the Black Forest or after Stuttgart.

I've gathered these route recommendations from a few different forums and thanks for your input, I hadn't thought of the old Reims-Gueux circuit and while I'd thought about Route Napoleon I hadn't realised just how easily it fits in with where I'm planning on going.