Traffic was very dense on the main roads of the country on the occasion of the returns from the Pont de l'Ascension on Sunday, a day classified as black at the national level, with a peak of 934 km of traffic jams reached.
Read alsoAscension Weekend: here is where the French are leaving
"
We are seeing a different situation from the returns from the ascent of previous years, with two peaks of traffic jams of fairly equivalent levels: one at 12.35 p.m. with 877 km of traffic jams, the other at 5.50 p.m. with 934 km of traffic jams
", said indicated Bison Fûté in its last press release.
"
This situation may imply that many users have anticipated their returns, which has triggered a traffic peak greater than expected at midday
," he explained.
The main difficulties were mainly concentrated in the south, particularly on the A7 where there were still more than 90 km of accordion traffic at the end of the day.
At the height of the disturbances, the travel time between Orange and the south of Lyon had been 04:00 instead of 01:40 on the Autoroute du Soleil, according to its operator Vinci Autoroutes.
Slowdown in the West
At the same time On the A8, it took no less than 03:10 instead of 02:20 to reach Orange from Nice and 02:30 instead of 01:40 on the A9 from Narbonne.
On this last highway, holidaymakers coming from the Spanish border had to spend almost 1:30 more to reach the sub-prefecture of Aude, like those who were leaving to reach Toulouse by the A61.
Other slowdowns had also been recorded by Vinci in the west of the country going up to the capital.
Thus on the A63, the journey time was at midday 02:50 instead of 02:00 from the Spanish border to Bordeaux, while motorists had to be more patient going up the A10 with 03:30 instead of 02:10 between the Gironde capital and Poitiers and 3.50 a.m. instead of 2.30 a.m. between Poitiers and Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, just before Paris.
At the start of the evening, other traffic difficulties were notable on the A10, A11 (West) and A61 motorways “
with 60-65 km of traffic jams
”, as well as the A9 and the A89 “
with 45-50 km of traffic jams.
“, according to Bison Fûté.
Sunday, the day was classified green for departures.