Driving to Alicante via France in motorhome -advice sought

We have always travelled to our place in Benimar in our car via Eurotunnel, but in August we are bringing our motorhome.

Any advice or recommendations on routes (avoiding Paris!!) and suggestions for overnight stops. Must be dog friendly!

Much appreciated

Ken

If your Motorhome has all facilities, i.e. toilet, washroom , use the aires du camping in France & Spain. A list of all aires can be found in the excellent guides from Vicarious Books.
Most of the aires are free, or a small charge is made to top up your water tank. The cost of the guide books is easily recouped by not spending on campsite fees

Did it last year. Stay away from tolls if poss , if you are not in a hurry. Best Aires were the 3 star , about 12 euros and have
all facilities . Stay away from Motorway Aires , although free , they are very busy. As said there are various books and sites [camper connect ] is one. I freshwater fish and I can pick exactly what I want , even the species. Just make sure your GPS is set accordingly. There a three GPS settings ! . Have a look online ..... Aires in France.... I think there are nearly 7k sites. We also found the free sites , the ones with fewer pitches , water and brown water disposal was free. We enjoy it so much that we wanted to spend 3 months in France , wasn't to be. Good luck !!

Route

I don't drive a camper but have over 20 years driven most routes.

I use https://www.viamichelin.com to plan my route they have a route option for caravan they give you a good idea of the cost.

The most cost efficient routes are

Calais Rouen N154 to Chartres, then N10 to Bordeaux ( we pay Toll between Tours and Poiteirs lots of slow road), we then use the A63 and pay the tolls, to the Spanish border, from there we user the A15 and AP15 past Pamplona when we turn East towards Zaragosa we use the A68 (not the AP68 that runs parallel) once you turn south at Zaragosa A23 and A7 and AP7 all the way

Calais Rouen N154 to Chartres, then N10 towards Orleans you then have a choice to go via Toulouse or Millau (nice route takes you very high depends how you like your driving) towards Perpignan and the Spanish border, from there we the A7 and AP7 all the way.

All that said do not clash with the french Holidays and to do this consult https://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/index,langen.html, this site will tell you when there will be hold ups, (this year may be an exception)

Enjoy your trip

We have driven over several times in August. Found a web page About France very useful. It gives tips on driving in France and various legal requirements. It also gives route advice and various options. We have driven numerous routes but find the Rouen dreux then N10 to Tours then A10 until junction 30 back to N10 towards Angoleme the best. Then A63 to the border. There is a sister site called About Spain and that gives similar advice for in Spain. We do toll free in Spain via N121a to Pamplona then towards Zaragoza then A23 to Turuel. Then Down towards Valencia A7 onwards. Good luck.

We have driven over several times in August. Found a web page About France very useful. It gives tips on driving in France and various legal requirements. It also gives route advice and various options. We have driven numerous routes but find the Rouen dreux then N10 to Tours then A10 until junction 30 back to N10 towards Angoleme the best. Then A63 to the border. There is a sister site called About Spain and that gives similar advice for in Spain. We do toll free in Spain via N121a to Pamplona then towards Zaragoza then A23 to Turuel. Then Down towards Valencia A7 onwards. Good luck.

Thanks so much for this information. Much appreciated.

I have just read in the Informacion Spanish newspaper that France is monitoring the Covid outbreak in Catalunia & whilst it isn't yet serious it needs surveillance & they want to talk to Spain about possibly closing the border. Just something you may wish to keep an eye on.

Watch this space. There's talk France may close the border between Spain and France because of the our break in Catalonia.

thanks again