Agh57 Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 Hi I'm planning to go to Ypres on Saturday just for the night. According to the Ariane there is a bit of snow about, assuming I can get to Dover (which is looking a bit iffy at this point) can any pal advise what the conditions in and on the way to Ypres are like. I assume (maybe incorrectly) that the French motorway from Calais will be okay, but I was wondering about the road just after the Steenvorde turn off. Any help will be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willy Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 Hi I'm planning to go to Ypres on Saturday just for the night. According to the Ariane there is a bit of snow about, assuming I can get to Dover (which is looking a bit iffy at this point) can any pal advise what the conditions in and on the way to Ypres are like. I assume (maybe incorrectly) that the French motorway from Calais will be okay, but I was wondering about the road just after the Steenvorde turn off. Any help will be appreciated! You should not have any real problems in France, or Belgium, but with operation stack in place, your real problems will most likely be in UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelab Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 I too was thinking that yor worst problems might be on those bleak and exposed roads to Dover or Folkestone. But I Just heard on PM the Belgians complaining that their country always grinds to a halt at the first flake of snow. So it may be a good idea to defer the trip till the weather improves. Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agh57 Posted 2 December , 2010 Author Share Posted 2 December , 2010 I too was thinking that yor worst problems might be on those bleak and exposed roads to Dover or Folkestone. But I Just heard on PM the Belgians complaining that their country always grinds to a halt at the first flake of snow. So it may be a good idea to defer the trip till the weather improves. Angela I'm seriously thinking about it, but we wanted to go ice skating in front of the Cloth Hall! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabine72 Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 you will be fine, yes there is snow at the moment, and yes belgians do complain, but honestly I drove 300 km today in these conditions, It wasn't always easy in these small country lanes but if you drive easy you 'll be fine.the national routes are open I drove 90 km an hour today on the way Ieper veurne (N8)there was no snow left on that road. hope you have fun this saterday kind regards sabine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 Having been snowed in in France twice in December, including 2009, and been there every December for several years, I would say that there is no certainty that motorways there are any better after initial snowfalls than ours are. In Alsace it is absolutely obligatory that the autoroutes are prioritised for clearing and salting of autoroutes has to be done by a certain time in the morning (about 3 am) so that the salt has become effective by the time traffic builds up; I had the impression that this applies to other parts of France too. But this doesn't take account of new snowfalls. It has seemed to me that the snowploughs work in pairs and if you can get behind one the road is (obviously) clearer. When the massive snowfalls happened just before Christmas last year - the year trains broke down in the Tunnel - even autoroutes in the area near Calais were snowed up for a while. I saw it for myself on the Sunday, taking advantage of a small window of opportunity between snowfalls to get from Alsace to Calais and the cleared lanes were fine. But where snow was falling rapidly on the autoroute it was very scary indeed; the A4 near Verdun and A26 near Laon were just white sheets of snow. Although we as individuals may be perfectly sensible drivers in snow, the behaviour of other motorists is unpredictable. People rushing through snow to the Channel, people going Christmas shopping in cities like Strasbourg or Reims... It can be petrifying. However prudently one drives, at times the overwhelming risk is that someone is going to overtake too fast, lose control and the whole motorway is going to slide into each other. I remember the time it took two hours to travel ten miles on a snow-bound autoroute. Four pile ups in that time. None major, but still. It was terrifying watching cars ahead gliding strangely gracefully around at speed and spinning into the safety fences, in a weird choreography, even 4WDs tipping into the ditch, unable to reverse out. By then the motorway was stationary, with emergency vehicles helplessly trying to get through to major incidents and of course the snow ploughs couldn't pass to clear the roads. That time we inched off the autoroute and found an hotel. Even the motorway roundabout at the top of the exit was littered with crashed cars. Continental Europe can be gorgeous in December, especially in areas which mark Christmas in special ways. But it's an illusion to think that all will be fine on the other side of the Channel. It might well not be. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabine72 Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 I know there are idiots on the roads, all year round, but believe me at the moment ypres area is not loaded with snow, I was on the motorway A18 today, it was open, the N8 safe. the road to eggewaartskapelle not nice same at alveringem (a small road in the middle of nowhere)only able to drive 30km an hour , but then you guys don't need these roads to go to Ieper.And to be honest the belgians can complain and have no idea how to deal with snow around the big city's like gent, brussels, antwerpen.5 cm and they go crazy I don't like snow, because I'm on the road all day for work, but then fog is even wurse. with more then 60.000km a year, nearly 20 years on the road , I can say I know what I'm talking about at the moment there are wurse places then ieper, what the conditions are in dover or calais no Idea so it is up to you to decide if it's wurth a try. kind regards sabine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regulus 1 Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 As Sabine said already, main roads are open, and even here at Jabbeke (near Bruges), where we have about 15 cm and more of snow, there's no trouble on the raods, the dangerous moments are late in the evening, at night and early in the morning. I guess like everywhere else in this kind of weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agh57 Posted 2 December , 2010 Author Share Posted 2 December , 2010 Thanks all. I've just seen the weather and after tonight it looks like it might improve slightly. I'll decide sometime tomorrow. I'm more worried about the UK side of things based on what posters have said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithfazzani Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 It is very snowy down here in Kent and I understand that the M20 has been a problem all day. Here are the latest details Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john kemp Posted 2 December , 2010 Share Posted 2 December , 2010 As per my thread in Battlefield touring I was due to travel tomorrow and I have put it off until the 17th as the M20 has been shut at times with operation stack and with the big freeze expected overnight and very icy conditions expected I think were in for a copy of rather bad days in Blighty and the driving conditons are always worse when the snow starts to go and the roads are think with ice. Best of luck if you do decide to go, worth a chance if you are unable to change to another date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 3 December , 2010 Share Posted 3 December , 2010 We find wifi and laptop invaluable for making travel decisions abroad in winter. Météo France is good and motorway webcams enable us to see what roads are really like. I wouldn't presume to say what road conditions are like in Belgium at the moment. I'm just making a comment based on real experience of travel across France to Alsace and Germany in many Decembers. Once the team has cleared the autoroutes, they're good and well managed. Given fresh snow and over-confident or urgent drivers they can be lethal, as anywhere else. Gwyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agh57 Posted 3 December , 2010 Author Share Posted 3 December , 2010 Thanks for all the advice, having looked at the forecast i've decided to postpone to the end of February. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 3 December , 2010 Share Posted 3 December , 2010 Good move! Er... would you like me to post my pictures of white-out on the Somme in the last week of February 1996? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen White Posted 4 December , 2010 Share Posted 4 December , 2010 I'd like to see them Gwyn. Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 4 December , 2010 Share Posted 4 December , 2010 I was only teasing, really. But I've just popped them on flickr rather than taking up this thread. They're here. Please bear in mind that these are eight year old scans from prints made in 1996. I could probably scan them better with the equipment we have now. (That was another year that the trains couldn't run for a day or so because of snow in the Tunnel. The triangle in mid-pic is actually a full-height road sign, and that deep road down from Thiepval village was literally full to the top with snow.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 4 December , 2010 Admin Share Posted 4 December , 2010 Waynes cousin got over from near Peterborough yesterday, just had a text from him at Zonnebeke.................... Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agh57 Posted 5 December , 2010 Author Share Posted 5 December , 2010 In hindsight I think it would have been okay. I had to make a decision on Friday though as I would have incurred costs in respect of the ferry. On the positive front, I now get 2 days in Ypres af the end of the Feb as opposed to one in December. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 5 December , 2010 Admin Share Posted 5 December , 2010 Always a silver lining! Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazshrops Posted 5 December , 2010 Share Posted 5 December , 2010 Always a silver lining! was over there for armastice day, the cloth hall and menin gate were intresting,but it poured down all the time i was there Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Lees Posted 5 December , 2010 Share Posted 5 December , 2010 I'm off to the Somme on Wednesday. Fingers crossed that the weather doesn't get any worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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