🇫🇷 Same-country drive · France
Driving from Strasbourg to Bordeaux
Essential driving guide for the 968 km route from Strasbourg to Bordeaux across France.
- Drive time
- 10h 7m
- Distance
- 968 km
- Same day?
- Long day
- under 12 h
- Fuel cost
- ≈ €148
- petrol · diesel ≈ €124
- Tolls
- ≈ €129
- mixed
- EV charging
- Unknown
- not yet surveyed
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.
Alternative
+34m- Distance:
- 1,036 km (+68 km)
- Duration:
- 10h 42m
Via: A 10 · A 5 · A 19 · A 31
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.
10h 7m
968 km · €148 fuel
See details ↓
Not realistic
968 km is far beyond a typical multi-day cycle tour. Try a shorter pair like a day or weekend stage.
No direct service
Our coach data (FlixBus + BlaBlaCar) doesn't list a direct service for this pair. National operators (e.g., National Express in the UK, Eurolines feeders) may still cover it — check their site directly.
2h 23m
from €40
See details ↓
5h 32m
Trains Express Régionaux · SNCF VOYAGEURS
See details ↓
What the drive is like
Drafted from the route's computed data on April 25, 2026 and reviewed against the route summary card. Read our methodology.
You pick up the M35 leaving Strasbourg and quickly transition to the A35, heading south through the flat, productive landscape of Alsace toward Mulhouse. The drive shifts character once you join the A36, where the traffic thins and the horizon opens up as you move westward through the Franche-Comté. This is a long-haul cross-country slog that relies heavily on the major arterial autoroutes, so be prepared for a steady rhythm of toll booths that require either a credit card or a tele-toll badge to keep things moving. Keep a close eye on the speedometer, especially as you transition between the A6 and the regional N70 and N79 connectors, as French speed cameras are strictly enforced and often lack advanced warning signs. Midway through the trip, the terrain undulates as you skirt the edges of the central French massifs, replacing the straight industrial corridors with tighter, more winding sections on the N-routes. The transition from the high-speed autoroute mentality to these national roads demands more focus; they often pass directly through smaller villages where the speed limit drops abruptly to 50 km/h. Watch for the weather as you traverse the middle of the country, as sudden rain bands can sweep across these open plains, forcing the national speed limit down from 130 km/h to 110 km/h on the motorways. If you are traveling between autumn and spring, be mindful of the increased risk of fog in the low-lying river valleys. Approaching Bordeaux, the landscape flattens into the iconic vineyards of the Gironde, and the traffic density will spike significantly as you hit the city's orbital ring road. The final hour of the drive is a test of patience, as the congestion around the Garonne river bridges is notorious during weekday commuter peaks. Ensure your fuel levels are managed before hitting the final stretch, as prices at motorway service stations are noticeably higher than in the supermarket-affiliated stations you pass in the smaller towns along the N79. Once you reach the city center, remember that Bordeaux operates low-emission zones, so ensure your vehicle displays the appropriate Crit'Air sticker before navigating into the historic districts.
Route highlights
- The transition through the Franche-Comté region
- The shift from high-speed A-roads to winding N-routes near the Massif Central
- The vineyard landscapes of the Gironde approach
- Navigating the dense orbital ring road around Bordeaux
Trip plan
How to think about the drive: one day, split, or overnight.
Overnight recommended
Too long for a single-driver day. Plan on 1 overnight stop(s) to do this trip right.
A natural overnight stop near the halfway point: Châtenoy-le-Royal (fr).
- Distance:
- 968 km
- Duration:
- 10h 7m (free-flow, no traffic)
Where to stop
Places along the route that make natural breaks for coffee, lunch, or a night.
-
Thann 🇫🇷 fr
≈138 km≈ 14.7 km detour from the main route
-
Dole 🇫🇷 fr
≈277 km≈ 14.7 km detour from the main route
-
Montceau-les-Mines 🇫🇷 fr
≈415 km≈ 2.8 km detour from the main route
-
Gannat 🇫🇷 fr
≈553 km≈ 27.8 km detour from the main route
-
Ussel 🇫🇷 fr
≈691 km≈ 14.3 km detour from the main route
-
Trélissac 🇫🇷 fr
≈830 km≈ 6.2 km detour from the main route
Key moves
Things to know before you set off — borders, sides of the road, tolls.
Cross-border drive · FR → FR
You'll leave one country and enter another on this trip. Keep your ID close, even inside Schengen, and check current border-control status before you go.
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.
Vignette required in CH
Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Romania require a sticker or e-vignette for motorway use. Buy at the border — missing one is a heavy on-the-spot fine.
Long rural stretch on La Transeuropéenne
Plan for about 168 km of two-lane country roads. Slower than motorway, but often the pretty part — fewer overtakes after dark.
Long rural stretch on N 70
Plan for about 44 km of two-lane country roads. Slower than motorway, but often the pretty part — fewer overtakes after dark.
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.
Borders & documents
You're leaving the EU customs zone
Must knowSwitzerland is in Schengen but NOT in the EU customs union. Random customs stops happen at every border. Personal allowance: €300 in goods (CHF cash equivalent), 5L wine, 1L spirits. Above that you declare and pay duty. If you've loaded the boot with cured meat or cheese in Italy, declare it — confiscation is routine.
Tolls, vignettes & road payment
Mont Blanc, Grand St Bernard, San Bernardino tunnels charge extra
Must knowThe vignette covers most motorways but NOT the major Alpine road tunnels. Mont Blanc tunnel (FR-IT) is roughly €54 one-way for a passenger car, Grand St Bernard about €33, San Bernardino is included in the vignette but Gotthard road tunnel is a vignette-only route in summer (the queue can be 2 hours; the rail-shuttle alternative through the Lötschberg is faster).
Vignette is annual only — CHF 40
Must knowSwitzerland sells one vignette: an annual sticker (or e-vignette) for CHF 40 / about €42. There's no 10-day option. Buy at any border post or online before you leave. The sticker must be physically affixed to the windscreen — keeping it loose in the glovebox earns the same CHF 200 fine as not having one.
You'll hit three different toll systems on this trip
Must knowThis route crosses countries with mismatched toll mechanics — France's ticket-and-pay, vignette stickers, electronic-only stretches. There's no single transponder that works everywhere, but a Telepass EU device covers FR/IT/ES/PT and a Bip&Go covers the same plus a few more. For a one-off trip, contactless cards plus a Swiss vignette and Austrian e-vignette is the simplest mix.
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.
Plan your stops, not just your finish time
UsefulOSRM gives you free-flow drive time. Realistic add: 10% on motorway-heavy routes, 25% if you're crossing two cities. Eat at off-peak hours (11:30 lunch, 18:00 dinner) — service-area queues at noon kill 20 minutes. EU fatigue research is consistent: 15-minute break every 2 hours, full 45-minute break before 6 hours. The drive between hours 7 and 9 is where avoidable accidents cluster.
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
CHF dominant, EUR widely accepted with a markup
UsefulSwiss francs are the only legal tender, but most petrol stations, motorway services and tourist hotels accept EUR — at a deliberately bad rate (you'll lose 5–10%). For a transit drive, use a contactless card and ignore EUR; for an overnight, withdraw a small amount of CHF for parking meters and small shops.
EU roaming agreement does NOT cover Switzerland
TipFree EU roaming stops at the Swiss border. Some operators include Switzerland in "Europe Zone 2" plans (typically €5–10/day surcharge); many silently bill data at €4–10/MB. Check your operator before crossing or set the phone to flight mode and use Wi-Fi at hotels — €100 surprise bills are common otherwise.
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 36 La Comtoise227 km
-
A 89 La Transeuropéenne160 km
-
A 79 La Bourbonnaise91 km
-
A 35 Autoroute des Cigognes90 km
-
A 71 L'Arverne46 km
-
N 70 —44 km
-
A 6 Autoroute du Soleil31 km
-
N 89 —18 km
-
A 20 L'Occitane16 km
-
M 35 —14 km
-
N 79 Route Centre-Europe Atlantique10 km
-
A 31 Autoroute de Lorraine-Bourgogne4 km
Route character
How much of the drive is motorway vs. secondary vs. rural.
Mixed motorway + secondary — varied pace, some scenic stretches.
- Motorway
- 70%
- Secondary
- 8%
- Other / rural
- 22%
Drive difficulty
At-a-glance feel: how demanding is this drive for one driver?
Overall
Demanding
Tough drive — multiple complicating factors compound fatigue. Strongly recommend splitting across days.
- Long drive: 10h 7m behind the wheel at free-flow speeds.
- About 266 km on non-motorway roads where speeds and conditions vary.
Fuel & tolls
Rough cost expectation for a typical EU passenger car. Treat as an estimate — pump prices change weekly.
Petrol (RON 95)
≈ €148
72.6 L × €2.04 / L · 7.5 L/100 km
Diesel
≈ €124
58.1 L × €2.14 / L · 6 L/100 km
Electric (DC fast)
≈ €95
169 kWh × €0.56 / kWh · 17.5 kWh/100 km
Public DC fast charging — slower AC charging at home or hotels typically costs about half.
Motorway tolls & vignettes
≈ €129
- FR — €0.10/km on the motorway network (≈ 866 km in-country ≈ €87)
- CH — Vignette (motorway sticker / e-vignette) — €42.00 for 365 days
Prices last refreshed 2026-05-04.
Weather by month
Average daytime high / overnight low and typical monthly rainfall, over the past five years.
🇫🇷 Strasbourg
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
6°
1°
|
9°
2°
|
13°
4°
|
16°
6°
|
20°
11°
|
26°
15°
|
26°
16°
|
26°
16°
|
22°
13°
|
17°
9°
|
9°
4°
|
6°
2°
|
| 82mm | 53mm | 83mm | 88mm | 99mm | 84mm | 136mm | 82mm | 99mm | 115mm | 110mm | 81mm |
hot mild cold
🇫🇷 Bordeaux
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
11°
4°
|
13°
4°
|
15°
7°
|
18°
9°
|
21°
12°
|
26°
16°
|
27°
17°
|
28°
17°
|
23°
14°
|
21°
12°
|
15°
8°
|
11°
5°
|
| 97mm | 81mm | 108mm | 79mm | 91mm | 119mm | 36mm | 52mm | 83mm | 117mm | 132mm | 79mm |
hot mild cold
Next 5 days at Bordeaux
Live forecast — refreshes every few hours.
-
Tue 12
⛅
12° / 12°
—
-
Wed 13
☀️
18° / 12°
14.4mm
-
Thu 14
🌧️
15° / 10°
68.2mm
-
Fri 15
🌧️
14° / 9°
10.7mm
-
Sat 16
⛅
14° / 8°
0.3mm
Forecast: MET Norway
Directions
Turn-by-turn summary of the main manoeuvres, generated by OSRM.
Show all 28 manoeuvres
- Rue du Fossé des Tanneurs 0.1 km
- — 0.2 km
- — 0.4 km
- (M 35) 14 km
- Autoroute des Cigognes (A 35) 90 km
- La Comtoise (A 36) 227 km
- Autoroute de Lorraine-Bourgogne (A 31) 4 km
- Autoroute du Soleil (A 6) 31 km
- —
- (N 80) 0.1 km
- Route Centre-Europe Atlantique
- Route Centre-Europe Atlantique 26 km
- (N 70) 0.2 km
- (N 70) 44 km
- Route Centre-Europe Atlantique (N 79) 10 km
- La Bourbonnaise (A 79) 91 km
- Route Centre Europe Atlantique 0.7 km
- L'Arverne (A 71) 46 km
- La Transeuropéenne (A 89) 160 km
- (A 89) 1.0 km
- L'Occitane (A 20) 16 km
- La Transeuropéenne 168 km
- (N 89) 18 km
- Rocade Extérieure (N 230) 1 km
- Rocade Extérieure (N 230) 4 km
- — 0.7 km
- Cours Georges Clemenceau
- Place Gambetta
By plane from Strasbourg to Bordeaux
Indicative travel time on a non-stop flight, based on great-circle distance, average commercial cruise speed (850 km/h), and a 90-minute allowance for taxi, security, and boarding.
- Total time
- 2h 23m
- Door-to-door from :from airport.
- In the air
- 54 min
- At ~850 km/h cruise speed.
- On the ground
- 90 min
- Taxi + security + boarding (typical short-haul).
- Route
- SXB → BOD
- 758 km great-circle.
Indicative fare: from €40 — fares vary by season, day of week, and how far ahead you book. Always check the airline or a meta-search before planning around this number.
Show flight path on map
Estimate-only. We don't pull live schedules or fares for flights — see the methodology page for how this number is computed.
Air travel emits roughly 5–10× the CO₂ per passenger-km of rail for the same distance.
By train from Strasbourg to Bordeaux
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
- 5h 32m
- 3 changes
- Lead operator
- Trains Express Régionaux
- + 1 more
- Alternatives
- 5
- Itineraries returned by the planner.
Trains on the fastest itinerary
- Paris - Bas-Rhin TGV
- 421C
All operators across alternatives
- Trains Express Régionaux
- SNCF VOYAGEURS
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.
Frequently asked
Are there tolls on the route from Strasbourg to Bordeaux?
Yes, this route relies on major French autoroutes which are distance-based toll roads. You will encounter several toll stations where you can pay by card or cash.
Is the speed limit the same throughout the journey?
No, the limit is 130 km/h on motorways, dropping to 110 km/h in wet weather. On national roads like the N79, limits are lower and fluctuate frequently when passing through village zones.
Do I need any specific emissions documentation?
Yes, you should have a Crit'Air sticker displayed on your windshield if you plan to drive into city centers, including Bordeaux, which has active low-emission zone regulations.
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, and Google Gemini drafts the narrative and FAQ from the computed route data. See our methodology for refresh cadence and limitations.