Driving in France & Spain 2019
Just back from a Winter break on the Costa del Azahar for which I used the ferry from Poole to Cherbourg and drove through France and I was travelling alone.
For a reminder the normal speed limit in France is now 80 km/h, not that everyone complies but there are numerous speed cameras by the side of French highways and detectors are illegal. I also discovered that there has been a significant increase in the number of lower speed restrictions being imposed in towns and villages, most now having a 30 km/h limit in their centre areas which is imposed by both signs and speed humps, the speed humps at the beginning are usually coloured red on their face and are steep enough to force a slow and careful passage unless you wish to cause damage to vehicles or throw caravan/motor-home contents around. The speed limit is also increased to 90 km/h for roads having a third alternate overtaking lane and dual carriage ways and motorways are unchanged. BUT - it now means that there is fair amount of driving work using brakes and gearbox on most French roads and you need to watch the road speed signs carefully. I also suggest that you plan your route in advance using town and village names as these are clearly signed whereas road numbers are normally only displayed above the finger signs by the actual junction, and where maintenance responsibility has been devolved from central to regional government are often changed!
Once past Bordeaux the old N10 was handed to private road contractors a couple of years ago and so is now a toll road with toll stations at varying intervals along the route. There is no close alternative unlike most Autoroutes so for most driving to the Biarritz area of France or Irun in Spain this road is the only option. I tried to follow an alternative route that I thought would be feasible but the lack of road signage forced me back onto the toll road after wasting an hour and equivalent fuel. There is one possible alternative which forms two sides of a triangle with the N10 and is described later.
I researched purchasing a transponder to allow easy passage through the toll stations but decided that the cost for a single return journey once a year could not be justified. As all toll stations are unattended and located for Continental, left hand drive, vehicles it makes payment a laborious task involving handbrake, seat-belt and clambering over to the nearside window; so I thought that my contactless Debit card would east things and so paid at each stage using the card, and indeed it was a lot easier than rooting for the amount in cash each time, BTW change is given but you then have the additional chore of recovering it from the tray which is lower down. Unfortunately, what I did not realise was that using my Debit card would incur a 'foreign currency purchase' charge each time I used it. So for each time I paid for the road toll I was charged an additional £1.25 by my bank!! I strongly advise anyone proposing to use their Debit card outside of UK checks to see if such a charge is applied by their card provider, note Credit cards apply a % handling fee anyway and most are not contactless anyway.
For the return journey I opted to use the A23 in Spain to Zaragoza as originally planned, but continued along it to Jaca and then followed the N330 to the Somport Tunnel. This section of road is in the process of being upgraded to motorway as an extension of the A23 and the existing road weaves through the ongoing works. There are also long gradients which are not especially steep but do continue for about 10km, and if towing this needs to be taken into consideration. Once through the tunnel, which is toll free, you are in France; but the RN134 is a normal road rather than dual or motorway and also continuously winds it way through varying bends down to Oloron -Ste Marie. From there ignore any satnav guidance and follow the signed lorry road to Pau. I then continued along the D934 to Aire-sur-l'Adour, Roquefort etc to Bordeaux.
In reverse direction it is possible to avoid the N10 by using the A62 towards Toulouse and leaving at junction 1.1 to join the D1113 (Langdon), D524 (Bazas, Roquefort), D932 (Mont-de-Marsan), then the D824 towards Dax.
Hope this information my be of some use.