A brief history of the French road network
The era of the autoroute

The post-war period saw the State take a renewed interest in road infrastructure. A policy of mass asplhalting the network was made a priority - the advent of the motor car meant people wanted to travel further, and faster.

The 1930s saw a vast swave of roads taken over by the State, doubling the Nationales network almost overnight. Some 80,000 kilometres of road was now under government control as part of the nouveau réseau (new network) of secondary Nationales launched in 1933.

 

When the network was expanded in the 1930s, there were no Route Nationales numbered between 213 and 299. Officials wanted to maintain a distinction between the original "main" and new "secondary" networks.

The aim would allow for roads to be upgraded to cater for increased traffic, particularly the quick movement of trade and the military, but also emerging tourist markets. If the new style of motor-only road seen in Italy and Germany wasn't going to be built, then a network of existing roads would need to be upgraded to suit. These Grands Itinéraires needed to be fast, avoid urban centres, with crossing traffic not permitted to impede that on the major road.

Yet, it turned out that new style of high-speed motor-only road was being looked at, to be called autoroute, and had been since as early as 1927. A dedicated motor road running from Paris westwards, approval was granted by the State in 1935, with a second route to the north of the capital being planned.

Following fact-finding visits to Italy and Germany, it was decreed that these autoroutes would be constructed with separate carriageways for either direction. All junctions would have to be positioned above or below the road, with link roads linking the two levels.

However, the outbreak of World War II put a stop to construction; six kilometres of road was missing - 4km was due to materials shortage, the remainder was in the process of being built through tunnels. However, the Nazi invaders insisted on the autoroute's opening, even if it meant traffic had to share one carriageway. The tunnel was instead used for missile storage - no wonder they wanted the wanted the rest of the road to be opened!

Even though much of the focus was being given to creating a larger national network, the little roads were not forgotten about. Just when the secondary network was about to disappear, a law of 1938 established a new route départementale network, that brought together all of the remaining départementales of the previous era, the chemins de grand communication and the chemins d'intérêt commun under one classification.

Responsibility for budgets and maintenance passed to the local councils, although this would be taken away due to the War - the State would assume reposonsibility through a team of prefects, something that would not be reversed until the 1980s.

 

Post-war France : motoways get going

The immediate post-war saw attention given to developing a motorway network to link the major cities of France. The Autoroute de l'Ouest was quickly completed, the final two kilometres opening in June 1946, albeit in a single bi-directional tunnel. The opening was marked by a one-off motor grand prix, the only time one has been held on a motorway!

Meanwhile, studies continued into the new motorway heading north of Paris. The architect Henri Prost designed "a new high-traffic route... a route to le Bourget and Nord Airports", which would form part of a bigger network of autoroutes within the Île-de-France region. The Nazis saw a bigger potential, with this north route extending all the way to Lille. Either way, both got their way in the end with the suburban motorway gaining approval in 1947.

 

The eastern entrance to the St Cloud Tunnel, taken in 1960

 

Whilst there was a drive to open more motorways, there was soon a realiation that there was insufficient public funds to do so. A new legislative framework was passed into law during 1955, which allowed for concessions to be established to build and manage the autoroutes, their costs being met by means of charging tolls. Such concessions were also granted for the construction of major tunnels and bridges.

Autoroutes Esterel-Côte d'Azur (ESCOTA) was to be the first of the new concession companies to be created, in 1956. They were to become responsible for the design and build of a new autoroute along the French Riviera and on to the Italian border. High traffic levels due to the large influxes of tourists meant that roads in the region were particularly congested, couple with the corridor being the main "low level" route between France and Italy.

1960 would see the publication of a "master plan for the development of the road network", in which the routes of over 3,500km  worth of autoroutes would be published - over half of which was to be built within 15 years.

Amongst others, this prioritised the construction of a route towards southern Belgium, and a suburban autoroute to the east of Paris. This would be coupled with huge swathes of Routes Nationales being upgraded, many of which would be to motorway standard.

Naturally, a number of additional concessions were established to construct these new autoroutes. These would be assisted by the establishment of Caisse Nationale des Autoroutes, a government body that would provide the financial resources needed to fund their construction.

 

The 1960s: Construction accelerates

The 1960s and 1970s saw a number of major milestones in the history of the autoroute. The first of these came in March 1961, with ESCOTA opening the country's first tolled motorway, a 26 km stretch of the new Autoroute d'Esterel-Côte d'Azur. This was further extended later in the year when a further 20 km was comissioned. It was envisaged that the tolls would be abolished once the costs of construction were repaid, but were instead retained in order to cover the costs of routine maintenance and future upgrades.

A second significant point came in 1966, when motorways were finally numbered. The network was growing rapidly, with well over 900 km of routes, so the decision was taken to identify autoroutes in the same manner as other classified roads. The core cross-country network of autoroutes were given numbers with an A-prefix, with their branches given a different letter.

Amongst others:
  - the country's first motorway, the Autoroute d'Esterel-Côte d'Azur, was numbered A13;
  - the Paris - Lille route, known as Autoroute du Nord, became the A1;
  - its branch towards southern Belgium becoming A2;
  - the new east Paris route numbered A3, with the branch to the du Nord called B3;
  - the new north-south Autoroute du Sud was called A6 north of Lyon, and A7 south of the city;
  - the new south coast toll route, Autoroute d'Esterel-Côte d'Azur, was named A8.

By 1967, 1,000 km of autoroutes had been completed. Construction was continuing in earnest, so that by 1974 it was possible to travel from Paris to Lille, Lyon, the south coast and Rouen without leaving an autoroute.

A6 under construction in northern Lyon, 1968

 

The 1970s : a State funding crisis looms

The start of a new decade saw a new approach to the concessions system. The State realised it had too many roads under its remit, and it needed to reduce its annual road bill.

The first change the State instigated was a reform of the motorway system, which would allow private companies to bid for concessions; the State would retain ownership of the roads, but private companies could bid to build and manage them on the their behalf - their costs being recouped from toll payments. With this, four new private concessionaires were established in 1970/71, typically owned by consortia of banks and construction companies.

Whilst further growth continued, it was hampered by global circumstances, in particular the Oil Crisis of 1973. Coupled with political wavering and a lack of public funding, there was a slowdown in many publically funded projects. This was especially the case with urban motorways, where legislation prohibited tolls on such roads; some such projects would therefore never come to fruition.

In spite of this, the construction of new inter-city motorways continued at pace, as concessionaires were able to fund new build projects utilising toll monies from their existing roads. Whilst this benefitted the motorist by speeding up journeys, it also gave the State an opportunity to reduce its roads budget.

 

Like the UK, French motorways originally had no upper speed limit. However, the Oil Crisis led to a blanket 110 km/h limit being imposed on most of the network in 1973. This was raised later in the year to 120 km/h. After a period of being raised to 140 km/h in 1974, it would eventually settle at 130 km/h, although the lower 110 km/h was retained for some stretches - especially semi-urban or hilly routes, or those upgraded from old routes nationales.

 

As many of the routes nationales were no longer seen as strategically important, the State decided to rid itself of 53,000 kilometres of road during 1972. Pretty much the entire secondary network, so seen as regionally but not nationally important, but including some roads bypassed by the new autoroutes, these roads would be downgraded to become Routes Départementales over the following five years. Surprising as the State still had responsibility for the existing départementales that they assumed during the War, and something they would not relinquish for another ten years!

Panneaux Michelins in Lederzeele, Nord - the D928 panels are overlays from when the N28 was downgraded post-1972 cuts, the red just about visible

 

A number of further tweaks were made in 1978 to essentially tidy up the network; short isolated sections of Nationales and random number changes were removed. It also allowed for the recycling of numbers for a growing need - modernisation seeing the addition of tunnels, ring roads and motorway link roads needing to be added to the trunk network.

 

1980s : renewed State involvement

By 1981, there were now 5,000 kilometres of autoroute, the network starting to take the familiar shape that we see in the present day. However, the growing network was very popular, and many autoroutes were often very busy, particularly during the main summer holiday period. This was particularly the case in 1982, when the worst road traffic accident in France's history occurred.

On 31 July 1982, 53 people died in a collision involving two cars and two coaches carrying children to a summer camp, which resulted in a fuel spillage igniting and causing a large fire. The incident occurred during the night, made worse by heavy rainfall.

Even though a defective coach was mainly to blame, the incident led to a number of immediate regulation changes - the maximum speed limit for buses and coaches would be reduced to 100 km/h, whilst a mandatory speed limit reduction of 20 km/h was introduced on all high-speed roads whenever rain occurs.

 

Sign showing the old B33 number alongside what is now A330, taken in 2014; the sign has since been replaced

 

1982 saw changes to how autoroutes were numbered, with all such roads required to be numbered with the "A" prefix. This led to the end of the wide assortment of prefixes used for motorway spurs, three digit "A" numbers being used in their place.

Continuing costruction led to the State establishing the organisation Autoroutes de France in 1983, to acquire stakes in concessions going forward. This would prove useful the following year when the concessionaire Autoroutes Rhône-Alpes faced bankruptcy with spiralling debts, the State taking on control of the franchise.

A drive to expand the autoroute network further led to the publication in 1988 of a new "master plan", outlining proposals for over 2,800 km of new motorways to be constructed over the following decade.

 

The 1990s : restructures and finances stretched

By 1991, the autoroute network reaches a total length of 8,500 kilometres. But such rapid growth meant that the privatised network was being operated by a huge myriad of different concessionaires. To simplify things, a second reform of the autoroute system was rolled out in 1994; the number of concessions was reduced by combining many of them into larger regional groups, which created bigger organisations such as Sanef/SAPN, ASF and APRR/Area.

However, the growing toll motorway network started to take its strain financially, with financial losses being experienced by some of the concessionaires. One notable effect of this was SAPN backing out of a contract they were awarded in 1995, to build and operate the final section of A28 between Rouen and Alençon. It would subsequently be granted to the Alis consortium, which ironically SANEF would later acquire a stake in.

 

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 Picture credits
 St Cloud Tunnel eastern portal is taken from an original and used under an Open License, courtesy of Hauts-de-Seine archives
 A6 under construction is taken from an original by Georges Vermand and used under this Creative Commons license courtesy of Lyon Library archives
 B33 sign photograph is © 2025 Google.