Le chassé-croisé des juillettistes et des aoûtiens’ describes the traffic chaos on the roads of France late July/early August as the whole world and his wife heads off to or home from their hols, and the end of both months when the hols are over.

A chassé-croisé is actually a dance step where dancers criss cross and change partners.

‘Juillettistes’ describes holiday makers heading off or home in July and ‘aoûtiens’ are August travellers.

This crossover of the “juilletistes and aoutiens”  sees millions of people moving across the country and traffic monitor Bison Futé issues one of its rare ‘black alerts’  forecasting more than 600km of jams.

Motorways along the Mediterranean coast, and main routes from north to south and vice versa are expected to be very busy at these times. Check out BISON FUTE, government funded advice agency which monitors traffic and gives useful tips and advice for avoiding the hotspots, with a ‘realtime’ map and info constantly updated.

Leave a Comment