When to avoid travelling on France’s main routes during the summer holidays, public transport works in the Paris area, strikes and what the weather might do.
Roads
Summer is high season on France’s roads, with travel trouble expected weekly as families set off on their well-earned summer vacations, and then head back again a couple of weeks later.
You’re advised to keep an eye on the French traffic forecaster Bison Futé for the detailed traffic predictions – we help out there with regular updates through the summer – but key travel weekends are the weekend of July 3rd/4th, as the schools break up, July 10th and 11th, and July 31st / August 1st, known as the chassé-croisé, or crossover weekend, on which July holidaymakers return and the August ones set out.
The weekend of August 15th – the Christian festival of Assumption – is also set to be particularly difficult on the roads.
Paris public transport
Every year the Paris public transport operators have a schedule of repairs and maintenance for the summer which involves line closures and disruption.
The logic behind this is that public transport is a lot quieter in the summer as so many Parisians are away – this year there is a particularly extensive schedule of closures on the Metro, tram and RER lines. Detailed information is available on the RATP website here.
Strikes
The busy summer holiday period is normally peak strike season for France’s railway and airport workers. At the time of writing no industrial action has been announced on the trains or the planes, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any as the weeks pass.
You can keep up with the latest in our strike section.
From August, Paris Orly airport will be cancelling or rerouting thousands of flights due to runway repair work.
The weather
France is currently sizzling under it second heatwave of the summer so far, which is causing disruption on the railways and some city public transport.
While longer-range forecasts are usually a fool’s errand, general trends allow Météo France to fairly confidently expect this summer to be warmer than average.
READ ALSO How hot will summer 2026 be in France?
So, if you are travelling in France this summer, make sure you take note of any weather warnings and ensure that you have plenty of water.
