| Published in Tourist Info / Highways |
A26 autoroute, Autoroute des Anglais, France
Map of French A26 motorway. 
The A26 is a French motorway connecting Calais and Troyes. It is also known as the Autoroute des Anglais (Motorway of the English) as its length forms the first part of the main route from the Dover-Calais ferries and the Channel Tunnel towards Southern and Eastern France and the Cote d'Azur.
The motorway is used by a high proportion of British cars, particularly during the summer holiday season. The A26 between Calais and Arras (in conjunction with the A1 autoroute) is one of the two main routes between London and Paris, the other being the A16.
The road forms part of European route E-15 and E-17. South of its junction with the A29 autoroute the A26 is part of the Grand contournement de Paris.
The northern end of the motorway starts just to the southeast of Calais, at a junction with the A16 (5km east of the Eurotunnel exit) and A216/N216 (which links to the Port of Calais and the car ferries). From there it runs southeast past Saint-Omer, Béthune, Lens and Arras. Near Arras is a major intersection with the A1, which runs south to Paris.
The A26 continues southeast, passing near Cambrai, Saint-Quentin and Laon before meeting the A4 at Reims. The two motorways merge (multiplex) for 36 km (22 mi), although for the merged section the route is marked A4, before splitting up again near Châlons en Champagne (formerly Châlons-sur-Marne).
The A4 then continues eastwards to Metz, Nancy and Strasbourg and the A26 branches to the south toward Troyes and Lyon. The current southern terminus of the A26 is just to the southeast of Troyes where the motorway meets the A5, which provides a direct motorway connection to Dijon, Lyon, southern and eastern France as well as Milan and The Alps.
Regions traversed: Hauts-de-France, Grand Est.
Departements traversed: Pas-de-Calais (62), Nord (59), Aisne (02), Somme (80), Marne (51), Aube (10).
Characteristics:
The A26 is 2x2 lanes throughout and passes close to some of the most well known world war one battle sites as well as through the vineyards of the Champagne-Ardennes area (which is now part of the Grand-Est region). It is built on mainly relatively flat, agricultural land and has many long, fairly straight sections and few steep gradients as a result.
It crosses over, as well as through the valleys of the river Aa, Lys, the river Somme and river Marne as well as le Méridienne verte, a millennium project to plant a line of trees the length of France along the Paris Meridian.
The northern section of the motorway can be prone to strong crosswinds and heavy downpours and there are large wind turbines and windsocks visible throughout the whole length of the road.
The motorway is characterised by European signage in brown pointing out sites of historical and cultural interest along its route. It is usually not one of the more congested routes on the French autoroute network. Like many autoroutes of France the A26 is completely unlit, relying on heavily fluorescent road markings to guide drivers at night.
The road is well surfaced and maintained in comparison to most other countries' motorways. Signage is typical of the French system where destination is given strong prominence over road designation and signs are completely capitalised. After each junction there are two marker boards at the side of the road: Firstly, a white sign with information about the next exit with distance to it and the destinations it serves and secondly, a blue sign with distances to the motorway's main destinations.
Overhead gantries display destinations before the larger junctions and digital overhead gantries provide live information on anything from traffic, accidents and breakdowns to the weather. As with other autoroutes in France, along the central reservation every one hundred metres is a small sign showing the distance from the start of the motorway, starting with 0.1km at Calais and ending with 394.0km at Troyes.
Along the 36km stretch merged with the A4 these signs are not present as the distance markers for the A4 itself are given priority. They resume once the motorways split with the 36km difference in distance taken into account.
In order to continue along the A26 northbound or southbound after the 36km stretch merged with the A4 autoroute, drivers must take the exit slips from the A4 at Reims (northbound) or Chalons-en-Champagne (southbound).
Since the mid 2000s the final 2 aires on the northbound side (Villefleur and Nortkerque) have been permanently closed due to their use by migrants as a boarding point onto freight vehicles heading for the UK and stopped at the aires.
Length: 62.2 km (38.6 mi)
Speed limit: France has the following speed limits for limited access roads classified as motorways:
• Under normal conditions - 130 km/h (80 mph)
• In rain or wet road conditions - 110 km/h (70 mph)
• In heavy fog or snowy/icy conditions - 50 km/h (30 mph)
Limited access roads classified as express roads have lower speed limit (90 or 110 km/h, 55 or 70 mph).
In normal conditions, there is a minimum speed of 80 km/h (50 mph) in the lane most left (no minimum speed on the others' right lanes, but speed should be adapted for each situation: not too slow).
Junctions
— 1 Junction with A16 (Paris to Dunkerque, A216 spur to RN216 and the Calais Ferry Port, and the A26.
— Rest Area: Nortkerque (Northbound), Zutkerque (Southbound)
— 2 Nordausques: Ardres
— 3 Saint-Omer Centre – Boulogne: Saint Omer and Boulogne-sur-Mer
— Péage Setques
— 4 Saint-Omer Centre, Thérouanne: Saint-Omer
— Rest Area: Grand Riez (Southbound) Villefleur (Northbound)
— Service Area: Rely (Southbound) St-Hilaire-Cottes (Northbound)
— 5 Lillers: Lillers and Saint Pol-sur-Ternoise
— Rest Area: Le Réveillon (Southbound) La Grande Bucaille (Northbound)
— 6 Béthune: Béthune
— 6.1 Noeux-les-Mines
— 6.2 Bruay-la-Buissiere, Bethune Aix-Noulette A21 to A26: Lens
— Service Area: Souchez (Southbound) Angres (Northbound)
— 7 Arras nord: Arras and Vimy
— Rest Area: Les Trois Crêtes (Southbound) La Cressonière (Northbound)
— A1 Lille to Paris with A26
— Rest Area: Bonnettes (southbound) Bois-Dhuez (Northbound)
— Service Area: Rumaucourt (Northbound) Baralle (Southbound)
— 8 Marquion: Cambrai
— A2 (Paris to Brussels) with A26
— Rest Area: Plateau (Northbound) Vacquerie (Southbound)
— 9 Masnières: Fins, Bantouzelle
— Rest Area: La Haute Bruyère (Northbound) L'Omignon (Southbound)
— 10 Saint Quentin Ouest: Saint Quentin
— A29 (Rouen) with A26
— 11 Saint Quentin Sud: Saint Quentin, Tergnier and Chauny
— Service Area: Urvillers (both directions)
— 12 Courbes: La Fere
— Rest Area: St Brice (Southbound) Broyon (Northbound)
— 13 Laon: Laon
— Rest Area: la Croisette (Southbound) Les Pélerins (Northbound)
— Service Area: Mont-de-Nizy (Southbound) Champ-Roland (Northbound)
— 14 Berry-au-Bac: Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne and Soissons
— Rest area: Cauroy (Southbound) Loivre (Northbound)
— Péage Courcy
— 15 Reims - La Neuvillette: Reims, Reims-Champagne Airport
— 16 Reims - Colbert: Reims
— 16.1 A4 (Paris to Strasbourg) with A26 Reims Centre, Tinqueux A344
— Péage d'Ormes
— A4 (Paris to Strasbourg) with A26
— Rest Area:Les Grands Traquiers (Southbound)
— 17 St-Gibrien: Châlons-en-Champagne
— Rest Area: La Garenne (Northbound)
— 18 Mont Choisy: Châlons-en-Champagne and Fère-Champenoise
— Rest Area: La Bardolle (Northbound)
— 19 Europort Vatry: Europort Business park
— 20 Sommesous: Fère-Champenoise and Vitry-le-François (RN4)
— Service Area: Sommesous (both directions)
— Rest Area: Le Champ du Carreau (Southbound) Champ-L'Épée (Northbound)
— 21 Arcis-sur-Aube: Arcis-sur-Aube and Brienne-le-Château
— Service Area: Charmont (automatic unmanned, both directions)
— 22 Charmont: Troyes
— Rest Area: Villechétif (Southbound) Les Crocs de la Terre (Northbound)
— 23 Thennelières: Troyes, Vendeuvre-sur-Barse and Parc Naturel Regional De La Forêt D'Orient
— A5 (Paris to Langres) with A26
Tolls
The A26 is a toll (peage) motorway for all but the very northern part north of Saint-Omer and a very short section circling western Reims. The vast majority is maintained by SANEF except the very southern end south of junction 21 which is operated by APRR. There are 3 major (closed system) peage stations at Setques (St. Omer), Courcy (Reims Nord) and Ormes (Reims Sud).
Source
• www.wikipedia.org
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