🇫🇷 Same-country drive · France
Driving from Dijon to Montpellier
- Drive time
- 5h 17m
- Distance
- 491 km
- Same day?
- Yes, doable
- under 8 h
- Fuel cost
- ≈ €81
- petrol · diesel ≈ €69
- Tolls
- ≈ €49
- per-km
- EV charging
- Plenty fast
- 48 of 126 ≥50 kW
On this page
Route map
Route options
Other paths OSRM found between the two cities — handy when traffic, tolls, or scenery matter more than raw speed.
Avoids motorways
+3h 46m- Distance:
- 550 km (+59 km)
- Duration:
- 9h 4m
Via: N 88 · D 906 · N 70 · D 974
How else can you make this trip?
Driving is the focus of this guide; here's how cycling, coach, and (soon) train and plane stack up for the same pair.
5h 17m
491 km · €81 fuel
See details ↓
Not realistic
491 km is far beyond a typical multi-day cycle tour. Try a shorter pair like a day or weekend stage.
6h 45m
FlixBus-eu
See details ↓
4h 33m
SNCF VOYAGEURS · RENFE OPERADORA
See details ↓
Trip plan
How to think about the drive: one day, split, or overnight.
Long day — start early
Doable in one day but it is a full day behind the wheel. Start before 9am, plan one proper lunch stop, keep the driver rested.
- Distance:
- 491 km
- Duration:
- 5h 17m (free-flow, no traffic)
Where to stop
Places along the route that make natural breaks for coffee, lunch, or a night.
-
Charnay-lès-Mâcon 🇫🇷 fr
≈123 km≈ 1 km detour from the main route
-
Roussillon 🇫🇷 fr
≈246 km≈ 8.3 km detour from the main route
-
Bollène 🇫🇷 fr
≈368 km≈ 3 km detour from the main route
Key moves
Things to know before you set off — borders, sides of the road, tolls.
Tolls on motorways in FR
Budget for motorway tolls — France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal charge per-km, Croatia and Greece by section. Contactless cards work almost everywhere; have one loaded.
Must-know before you go
The things a driver from another country wouldn't think to ask about — fines, stickers, payment cards, opening hours.
City access & emission zones
Order your Crit'Air sticker before the trip
Must knowParis, Lyon, Strasbourg, Marseille, Toulouse and a growing list of cities require a Crit'Air air-quality sticker visible on your windscreen — even for a single drive-through. It's €4.51 from the official site and ships by post (allow 2–6 weeks abroad). Without it, expect on-the-spot fines from €68. Your registration document tells the issuer your emission class.
Tolls, vignettes & road payment
Contactless works at every autoroute booth
UsefulFrench autoroutes use a ticket system: take a card on entry, pay on exit. Every barrier accepts contactless tap-to-pay — pull into the "CB / bank card" lane (orange "t" logo means Liber-T transponder only, avoid those). For frequent EU travellers a Bip&Go transponder pays itself off in two trips by skipping the queue.
What your car must carry
Hi-vis vest in the cabin, triangle in the boot
Must knowA reflective vest must be reachable without leaving the vehicle (in the door pocket or under your seat — boot is too late). One warning triangle is also mandatory. The 2012 breathalyzer rule was scrapped in 2020 but is still nice to keep. No spare-bulb requirement.
Driving rules & habits
Priorité à droite still applies in towns
UsefulOn urban streets without signs, traffic from your right has priority — even from a side street that looks subordinate. Outside cities the rule is mostly retired, but in residential French villages it survives. Slow at every right-hand junction unless a yellow diamond on your road tells you you're on the priority road.
Fuel stations
Contactless cards work at virtually every motorway pump
TipMajor brand stations (Shell, Total, BP, Repsol, Cepsa, OMV, Eni, Esso) take Visa and Mastercard contactless without an issue. American Express and Diners are spotty south of the Alps. A €100 pre-authorisation hold is normal — it releases within 5 days. Carry €50 cash for the rare independent station.
Smaller stations close on Sundays
TipMotorway service areas (aires) run 24/7 with a fuel-price premium of about €0.15/L. Off-motorway stations in towns under 20k people often close Sunday afternoons and overnight Mon–Sat. If you're fuelling on a Sunday route, plan around motorway stops — supermarket pumps (Carrefour, E.Leclerc) are your cheapest option but typically 9:00–12:30 / 14:30–19:00 on a Sunday, where open at all.
Money & connectivity
EU roaming covers calls, texts and data at no extra cost
TipYour home EU SIM works at home rates across every EU member, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The "fair use" cap on data only applies if you're abroad more than four months. For a 2-week road trip, just use your phone normally — but switch off "data roaming" if you're leaving the EU into UK / CH for any segment.
Emergency & breakdown
112 works everywhere in the EU and continental neighbours
TipSingle number for police, ambulance, fire — works from any phone, any network, any country. On motorways, the orange SOS pillars every 2km connect direct to the regional traffic control centre and pinpoint your location. Use them over your phone if you can — it speeds the response.
Rules, fees, and thresholds change. Always verify against the official source the day before you drive — this page is a checklist, not a legal reference.
Main roads
The highways this route spends the most kilometres on.
-
A 6 Autoroute du Soleil348 km
-
A 9 La Languedocienne86 km
-
A 311 —31 km
-
A 709 —14 km
Route character
How much of the drive is motorway vs. secondary vs. rural.
Motorway drive — fast, predictable, uneventful.
- Motorway
- 99%
- Secondary
- 0%
- Other / rural
- 1%
Drive difficulty
At-a-glance feel: how demanding is this drive for one driver?
Overall
Easy
Straightforward drive. One driver, one day, little to worry about beyond fuel and a toilet stop.
- No major complicating factors — motorway-heavy, single country, comfortable length.
Elevation profile
Highs, lows, and the total climb / descent along the route.
- Lowest point
- 27 m
- Highest point
- 256 m
- Total ascent
- ↑ 402 m
- Total descent
- ↓ 588 m
Fuel & tolls
Rough cost expectation for a typical EU passenger car. Treat as an estimate — pump prices change weekly.
Petrol (RON 95)
≈ €81
36.8 L × €2.21 / L · 7.5 L/100 km
Diesel
≈ €69
29.5 L × €2.33 / L · 6 L/100 km
Electric (DC fast)
≈ €47
86 kWh × €0.55 / kWh · 17.5 kWh/100 km
Public DC fast charging — slower AC charging at home or hotels typically costs about half.
Motorway tolls & vignettes
≈ €49
- FR — €0.10/km on the motorway network (≈ 491 km in-country ≈ €49)
Prices last refreshed 2026-10-12.
Fuel and EV charging along the route
Stations within a few kilometres of the road, sampled at evenly-spaced waypoints.
EV charging
48 at 50 kW or above (fast / ultra-fast).
Fastest first
- Atlante - Chalon-sur-Saône - KFC — Chalon-sur-Saône 600 kW
- Electra - Marsannay-la-Côte - E.Leclerc — Marsannay-la-Côte 400 kW
- BP Pulse - Centre Commercial Chalon Sud 2 — Chalon-sur-Saône 400 kW
- Ionity Taponas — Taponas 350 kW
- Allego - Chenôve — Chenôve 300 kW
- Engie-Vianeo - B&B Hôtel Dijon Marsannay — Marsannay-la-Côte 300 kW
- Carrefour Energies - Chalon Sud — Chalon-sur-Saône 300 kW
- Fastned - Aire de Saint-Ambreuil — Saint-Ambreuil 300 kW
- Fastned - Aire de Dracé — Dracé 300 kW
- Carrefour Energies - Givors — Givors 300 kW
- Electra - A7 - Aire Latitude 45 (direction Lyon) — Pont-de-l'Isère 300 kW
- Electra - Bourg-lès-Valence - Sure Hotel by Best Western — Bourg-lès-Valence 300 kW
Weather by month
Average daytime high / overnight low and typical monthly rainfall, over the past five years.
🇫🇷 Dijon
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6°
1°
|
9°
2°
|
12°
4°
|
15°
6°
|
19°
10°
|
25°
15°
|
25°
15°
|
26°
16°
|
21°
12°
|
17°
9°
|
10°
4°
|
7°
2°
|
| 64mm | 46mm | 80mm | 72mm | 68mm | 70mm | 61mm | 66mm | 73mm | 132mm | 82mm | 61mm |
hot mild cold
🇫🇷 Montpellier
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
12°
4°
|
14°
4°
|
16°
7°
|
19°
10°
|
23°
13°
|
29°
18°
|
31°
20°
|
32°
20°
|
26°
15°
|
22°
13°
|
16°
8°
|
13°
5°
|
| 75mm | 67mm | 95mm | 68mm | 94mm | 56mm | 25mm | 25mm | 90mm | 100mm | 77mm | 108mm |
hot mild cold
Next 5 days at Montpellier
Live forecast — refreshes every few hours.
-
Mon 26
⛅
19° / 9°
—
-
Tue 27
⛅
19° / 11°
—
-
Wed 28
☀️
21° / 13°
—
-
Thu 29
⛅
18° / 9°
—
-
Fri 30
☀️
19° / 9°
—
Forecast: MET Norway
Directions
Turn-by-turn summary of the main manoeuvres, generated by OSRM.
Show all 13 manoeuvres
- Avenue Gustave Eiffel (M 108G)
- Boulevard des Diables Bleus (M 123)
- Boulevard Bernard Palissy (M 123)
- (M 122A) 0.1 km
- — 0.4 km
- (A 311) 31 km
- Autoroute du Soleil (A 6) 128 km
- Autoroute du Soleil (A 6) 221 km
- La Languedocienne (A 9) 86 km
- (A 709) 14 km
- (M 986)
- Rue de l'Abrivado 0.1 km
- Rue Foch
By coach from Dijon to Montpellier
Indicative duration of the fastest direct long-distance coach found in the FlixBus and BlaBlaCar Bus EU schedules.
- Travel time
- 6h 45m
- Direct
- Operator
- FlixBus-eu
- Departures / day
- ~1
- Approximate based on the published schedule.
Show coach corridor on map
Schedules sourced from the FlixBus and BlaBlaCar Bus GTFS feeds via transport.data.gouv.fr. Times are indicative; verify on the operator's site before booking.
Booking link coming soon.
By train from Dijon to Montpellier
Fastest cross-border rail itinerary from the public Transitous planner. Times reflect a typical Monday-morning departure on the next available service-day.
- Fastest journey
- 4h 33m
- 3 changes
- Lead operator
- SNCF VOYAGEURS
- + 2 more
- Alternatives
- 5
- Itineraries returned by the planner.
Trains on the fastest itinerary
- TGV INOUI 12179
- OUIGO 7875
All operators across alternatives
- SNCF VOYAGEURS
- RENFE OPERADORA
- ZOU ! TER
Includes a high-speed rail leg (TGV, ICE, AVE, Frecciarossa-class).
Show route on map
Routing via the public Transitous OTP planner (community-run MOTIS instance). Cached 24 hours; verify on the operator's site before booking.
How this page is built
Compiled by COD Solutions Oy from open European data — OSRM over OpenStreetMap for the route geometry, Open-Meteo for monthly climate normals, OpenTopoData SRTM 30m for elevation, and Open Charge Map for EV charging stations. See our methodology for refresh cadence and limitations.