🇫🇷 Same-country drive · France
Driving from Strasbourg to Toulouse
A comprehensive driving guide from Strasbourg to Toulouse, covering route highlights, road conditions, and practical travel advice for navigating the French interior.
- Drive time
- 10h 13m
- Distance
- 973 km
- Same day?
- Long day
- under 12 h
- Fuel cost
- ≈ €149
- petrol · diesel ≈ €125
- 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
+24m- Distance:
- 1,024 km (+52 km)
- Duration:
- 10h 38m
Via: A 9 · A 7 · A 36 · A 61
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 13m
973 km · €149 fuel
See details ↓
Not realistic
973 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.
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 depart Strasbourg on the M35, quickly transitioning to the A35 as you head south through the heart of Alsace, keeping the Vosges mountains to your right. This stretch demands focus as you navigate the busy corridor toward Mulhouse before picking up the A36. The transition from the dense, institutional character of Strasbourg to the rolling industrial and agricultural landscapes of eastern France is marked by a noticeable thinning of traffic once you clear the urban outskirts. Prepare for the distance-based toll system that defines major French motorway travel, as these costs accrue steadily once you merge onto the A6.
As you traverse the central regions via the N70 and N79, the road profile shifts from straight motorway sections to more winding, scenic stretches through the Burgundy area. These routes are vital for avoiding the major traffic arteries near the larger hubs, but they require a shift in driving style compared to the flat-out pace of the A6. Keep an eye on the speedometer during rain, as the French legal limit drops automatically from 130 km/h to 110 km/h on motorways, a rule strictly monitored by automated cameras. The road surface changes significantly as you descend toward the Garonne basin, where the landscape opens up into the warmer, flatter plains of Occitanie.
Approaching Toulouse, the final leg brings you into a distinct climatic shift, with the air growing noticeably warmer and the horizon dominated by the distant silhouette of the Pyrenees. Navigation into the centre of Toulouse requires awareness of local low-emission zone requirements, which are increasingly common in major French urban areas. Ensure your vehicle has the appropriate Crit'Air sticker displayed if you intend to drive directly into the historic city heart, as fines for non-compliance are enforced. Fuel up at supermarket-affiliated petrol stations away from the motorway service areas to significantly lower your travel costs, as the motorway prices reflect the convenience of the autoroute locations.
Route highlights
- The transition from the Rhine valley in Alsace to the rolling hills of Burgundy.
- Avoiding the major motorway congestion by utilizing the N70 and N79 links.
- The first clear view of the Pyrenees as you approach the Garonne valley.
- Efficient fueling stops at large out-of-town supermarkets rather than motorway service stations.
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: Saint-Rémy (fr).
- Distance:
- 973 km
- Duration:
- 10h 13m (free-flow, no traffic)
Where to stop
Places along the route that make natural breaks for coffee, lunch, or a night.
-
Thann 🇫🇷 fr
≈139 km≈ 15.5 km detour from the main route
-
Dole 🇫🇷 fr
≈278 km≈ 12.9 km detour from the main route
-
Montceau-les-Mines 🇫🇷 fr
≈417 km≈ 4.4 km detour from the main route
-
Gannat 🇫🇷 fr
≈556 km≈ 24.6 km detour from the main route
-
Égletons 🇫🇷 fr
≈695 km≈ 14.7 km detour from the main route
-
Gourdon 🇫🇷 fr
≈834 km≈ 22.3 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 N 70
Plan for about 44 km of two-lane country roads. Slower than motorway, but often the pretty part — fewer overtakes after dark.
Long rural stretch on Route Centre-Europe Atlantique
Plan for about 26 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 20 L'Occitane174 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 62 Autoroute des Deux Mers38 km
-
A 6 Autoroute du Soleil31 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.
Motorway drive — fast, predictable, uneventful.
- Motorway
- 90%
- Secondary
- 6%
- Other / rural
- 4%
Drive difficulty
At-a-glance feel: how demanding is this drive for one driver?
Overall
Challenging
Long day with at least one complicating factor. Split into two days or share the driving.
- Long drive: 10h 13m behind the wheel at free-flow speeds.
Fuel & tolls
Rough cost expectation for a typical EU passenger car. Treat as an estimate — pump prices change weekly.
Petrol (RON 95)
≈ €149
73 L × €2.04 / L · 7.5 L/100 km
Diesel
≈ €125
58.4 L × €2.14 / L · 6 L/100 km
Electric (DC fast)
≈ €96
170 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 (≈ 870 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
🇫🇷 Toulouse
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
10°
3°
|
12°
4°
|
15°
6°
|
18°
8°
|
21°
11°
|
27°
17°
|
28°
18°
|
30°
18°
|
24°
14°
|
22°
12°
|
15°
7°
|
11°
5°
|
| 72mm | 46mm | 72mm | 74mm | 110mm | 90mm | 54mm | 64mm | 52mm | 67mm | 93mm | 69mm |
hot mild cold
Next 5 days at Toulouse
Live forecast — refreshes every few hours.
-
Tue 12
⛅
13° / 13°
—
-
Wed 13
🌧️
17° / 11°
11.1mm
-
Thu 14
🌧️
15° / 10°
46.6mm
-
Fri 15
🌧️
12° / 9°
32.8mm
-
Sat 16
🌧️
15° / 8°
1.7mm
Forecast: MET Norway
Directions
Turn-by-turn summary of the main manoeuvres, generated by OSRM.
Show all 34 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) 40 km
- (A 20) 0.2 km
- (A 20) 117 km
- L'Occitane (A 20) 10 km
- L'Occitane (A 20) 7 km
- — 0.7 km
- — 0.9 km
- Autoroute des Deux Mers (A 62) 33 km
- Périphérique Intérieur - Autoroute des Deux Mers (A 62) 5 km
- Route d'Agde (M 112)
- Route d'Agde (M 112)
- Avenue Yves Brunaud
- Rue Lapeyrouse 0.1 km
- Rue du Poids de l'Huile
Frequently asked
Are there any vignettes required for this drive?
No, France does not use a vignette system. Instead, you will encounter distance-based tolls on the motorway sections, which can be paid by card or cash at the toll plazas.
How does the weather affect the speed limit?
French law mandates a reduction in speed limits during rain or wet weather. On motorways, the standard 130 km/h limit drops to 110 km/h to ensure safety on slick surfaces.
Do I need any special permits for Toulouse?
Toulouse operates a low-emission zone. If you plan to drive into the city centre, your vehicle must display a valid Crit'Air sticker, which corresponds to your car's emissions standard.
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.