My wife Monique, the light of my life, pasted away on the 23rd December 2023 at 17:00.
Now living alone, it should be easier to plan travel back and forth between homes. But constraints always appear, mostly around medical appointments (doctors, dentists, ophthalmologist, scans, tests, etc.). And when I’m not sitting in waiting rooms, I have some vacation packages, with fixed dates.
The result was that I ended up with a narrow time-window to make the trip north for the Summer 2025.
Route planning
I picked this hotel for the following reason.
Since I planned to make only two overnight stops, I decided to leave early in the morning, which meant making stopovers in places I hadn’t visited before.
It’s true that I could have continued a bit more and stopped in …
La Galiana Golf Resort, Valencia
Balneario Las Arenas, València
Frontier Spain-France on the AP-7
The drive north through Spain on Saturday 31 May 2025, was unremarkable. The route through Spain was on the Autopista AP-7 which runs from Guadiaro to Málaga and again from Vera through to the Spain-France border at Els Límits (in La Jonquera municipality). Between Málaga and Vera there is the Autovía A-7. The autopista is toll-road (or controlled-access highway), and the autovía is a toll-free limited-access highway.
Unfortunately the drive out of Spain and into France turned out to be anything but calm. I had not factored in that the French love traffic jams. On Sunday 1st June, there was a constant dense stop-start flow before the Spanish border and through to Nîmes.
I had vaguely thought about the problems travelling on weekends, but I knew that the Spanish and French school holidays had not started yet. I had not thought about the fact that Thursday, 29 May 2025, was Ascension Day, a public holiday in France, and that many people would take a “pont” (bridge) and enjoy a 4-day weekend.
Also the 2025 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and concluded early afternoon (race start: 15:00 local time).
For whatever reason, I lost an additional 2 hours in the traffic jams.
Attempted theft on the AP-7
My habit is now to stop every 2 hours and “stretch my legs”, etc.
I decided to stop at the penultimate service area in Spain, the Àrea de servei de l’Empordà sentit Nord.
In fact the same people tried twice to rob me, or more specially to rob my stuff in the car.
Technique One
I had parked near the entrance to service station, with a parking space free on the passenger side (the driver side was free with a space reserved for handicapped drivers). I was standing next to my car when an old grey Renault pulled up in the free space. I immediately noted that they had pulled up quite close to passenger side of my car. The back windows on my car are darkened, so I could not see the full length of the Renault. But I did notice the driver, and a passenger sleeping.
Quite quickly the Renault then reversed, and left the parking space. I had been a little suspicious about the Renault, but now I could go to the restroom. I locked the car, but something was wrong. I have the audio-signal set on my car when I lock it, and in addition the wing mirrors fold when the car is locked. But now, no audio-signal, and the wing mirrors did not fold!
I walked around my car, and saw that the far side back-passenger door was slightly open. Clearly the plan was to hope that I would walk away thinking that I had locked the car. Whilst I was in the restroom, they would have free access to the contents of my car. I always carry a small backpack with my documents, keys, computer, etc., but they could easily have taken suitcases, etc.
I closed the door, locked the car. and went to the restroom. But I stop just inside the building, and through the glass door I could seen the same Renault drive past my car, slow down, and then drive off.
After going to the restroom, I returned to my car, and continued to “stretch-my-legs”.
Technique Two
I got in my car, and as usual, immediately locked the doors. Suddenly there was a tap on the window, and a young man stepped back to my driver-side rear-wheel indicating something. Naturally, suspicious, I started to get out of my car. But I also saw again the grey Renault. I knew immediately what was planned. I said no, got back in my car, and locked the doors. He immediately disappeared, and the Renault drove off.
This is an old trick. Attract the attention of the driver (and passenger) to one side of the car. And whilst they are worried-suspicious (whatever), the others quietly open the passenger-side doors and take what they can.
Naturally this technique does not always work, but often tourists on the main motorway Spain-France will be carrying lots of stuff, e.g. documents, credit cards, cash, etc.
I mentioned this to the people in the service station, and one man went out to look for the thieves. It was clear that they knew who they were, but could just watch them and wave them away. They said that once they had “stolen” something they would drive away, and go to a different service station.
This version was by far the simplest and least aggressive. Sometimes they can deflate, or even puncture the tyre. Then they try to “help”, always attracting the driver and passenger(s) away from the far side of the car. Sometimes the other thieves are hiding in nearby bushes, etc. The main aim is that the people you see don’t steal, and don’t have anything on them. So any accusation falls flat.
Some thieves will deflate or harm a tyre, they then follow the car until the drive has to pull-in or stop on the side of the road. They then become “good samaritans”, and try to “help”. The more the driver and car are isolated, the better.
The technique is as much “social-engineering” as someone stealing a computer password. The drive and passenger(s) have to be a little suspicious (but not too much). They want you to watch them. The more you watch them, the more you forget to look elsewhere. The key is to get the boot open, so the doors can’t be locked.
I picked this stopover for the simple reason that it was more of less halfway between Xàtiva and my final destination, Luxembourg.
The hotel “Le Mas de Gleyzes“, or more precisely, a “chambres d’hôtes“, was situated, about a 15-20 km drive from Nîmes. An excellent choice, and I left fresh the next day for my drive home.
My report is Hotel – Le Mas de Gleyzes, Lédenon.
Going through Lyon on the A7
Traditionally I have almost always used the toll-free Contournement Est de Lyon, comprising the A46 Sud, N346 (Rocade Est), and A46 Nord, to circumvent Lyon, or more precisely to avoid Perrache and the Fourvière Tunnel.
The reality was that the Fourvière hill had long been a barrier to east-west and north-south circulation in Lyon. Initially the plan was for autoroutes to pass through Lyon rather than bypass it. Two parallel tubes (one for each direction), around 2 km long, were opened in 1971.
Originally seen as a technical marvel, it became quickly overloaded, especially with vacation traffic. Later the A46 (eastern bypass) and A432, were built to redirect transit traffic away from Lyon. The idea is that today, the tunnel should just serve local and regional vehicles but no longer be the main route for national transit.
The Tunnel de Perrache, just before the Fourvière Tunnel travelling North, is sometime presented as a 600-metre local underpass. Finished in 1981 it was designed to relieve local road traffic under the Perrache railway station.
This time TomTom directed me to leave the A7 northbound, onto the A46 Sud at Nœud de Ternay. But rather than continue on the A46, it then directly me onto the D307, heading north. From there it was onto the D301, which connected directly back to the A7 at junction 16 (Feyzin).
My understanding is that I avoided the Givors bottleneck and some heavy Lyon-bound congestion, especially common in the morning (circa 09:15).
Back on the A7 there was still substantial traffic but it was moving, albeit slowly. I still had to go through the interchange at Pierre-Bénite (crossing the Rhône), and go through Lyon’s Fourvière Tunnel. Traffic was dense, but it was moving.
My guess is that TomTom has live traffic updates and will prioritise overall trip time. So this time it decided that going through the centre of Lyon was faster than taking the longer A46 (which also can be jammed at that time in the morning).
I probably lost 30-40 minutes going through Lyon.
