I'm looking for some advice, we going over to DLP first week in August and will be driving for the first time.
I was looking on a website and noticed that Saturday 6 August is classed as a black day in France and this is the day we return home. Can anyone explain what a black day in France means.
Imagine it is this...
Black Saturday refers, in France, to the day of the year when road traffic is most dense due to the many departures on holiday. (Traffic problems are exacerbated by France's extreme centralisation, with Paris being the hub of the entire national highway network.) This Saturday is usually at the end of July, though in 2007 both the last Saturday of July and the first Saturday of August are designated as Black Saturdays.
Steph is spot on - at the start of the holiday the traffic jams are mostly from North to South, as at the end of the holiday that is the other way around. So it kind of depends on which way your home is :)
Ok thanks, I was planning on leaving DPL around 12 ish to head back to calais for the ferry. From memory our ferry is at 4:30pm.
It means it'll be completely insane on the road and you really need to take it in considaration.
Definitely especially when trying to depart. We always leave 4-4 1/2hrs before our train (Eurotunnel) is due to depart just incase the traffic is bad & that's when it's not a black day.
This is from a dutch site and gives all the busy days in france for the year. It is partly in dutch and france.
http://www.anwb.nl/bestanden/content/assets/anwb/pdf/verkeer/verkeersdruktekalenders/zomer-2016/met-cross-sell/verkeersdruktekalender-frankrijk-zomer-2016-met__ww__europa-en-tolbadge.pdf