Amsterdam to Montpellier,
two days to the Midi.
The Meuse, Luxembourg, Burgundy, Lyon, and then the Rhône corridor running south until the light changes near Orange. This is a proper journey rather than a transfer, and we would rather plan it honestly than pretend it fits in a day.
When the cargo and the passenger cannot be separated.
From the Amsterdam ring the road goes down past Eindhoven and Maastricht, through Liège, along the Moselle into Luxembourg and Metz, across Burgundy to Lyon, and then into the Rhône valley, where the Autoroute du Soleil hands over to the A9 near Orange. The last stretch past Nîmes is flat, bright and quick, and the temperature has usually risen by ten degrees before anyone notices.
Air travel wins on speed here and loses on everything else. What brings people to this booking is the load: a one-way move south, a studio changing address, a season being opened at a house near the lagoons, or a traveller for whom two terminals are the hardest part of the day. Whatever goes into the boot in Amsterdam comes out at an address in Montpellier.
Maastricht, Luxembourg, Metz and Beaune as far as Lyon, then straight down the Rhône and west at Orange for the Languedoc.
Some 710 minutes of actual driving. That is more than anyone should sit through between one breakfast and one dinner, so we halve it.
Chauffeur, fuel, motorway charges and taxes in one amount, agreed before the car leaves Amsterdam.
What the chauffeur spends on his own night away is carried by us, not added to your bill. For a return leg, extra pick-ups or a week with the car staying in the south, send the dates to dispatch on WhatsApp.
How we shape the itinerary.
Twelve hours at the wheel is legal for nobody and pleasant for no one. Split at the halfway mark, the same distance becomes two comfortable stints.
Away from your address early, down the A2 past Eindhoven and Maastricht, and through Liège before the Ardennes climb into Luxembourg.
Metz, Nancy and the long quiet run across Burgundy — the emptiest motorway hours of the whole journey and the best ones for working.
A stop for the night around Beaune, Mâcon or Lyon. You book the hotel that suits you; the chauffeur sorts out his own bed.
Three hours down the Rhône with the hills closing in at Valence and opening again past Orange, into Montpellier in time for lunch.
Priced per car for both days together.
The class decides the space, not the standard of the drive. Pick by how many are travelling and how much is coming along.
A relocation almost always calls for Van Class, where seven bags and seven seats still leave room to stand up. Couples on two long days usually choose First Class instead and sleep through Burgundy.
Work at the hospitals and research campuses, or simply a decision to live where the winters are shorter. The car carries the first load of a new life and comes home empty.
Palavas-les-Flots, Carnon and the stepped pyramids of La Grande-Motte are twenty minutes from the centre, with Sète and the oyster beds of the Étang de Thau to the west. Arriving for a summer means more luggage than a cabin bag allows.
The congress centre sits at the head of the Esplanade, and most of the Écusson behind it is closed to traffic. Knowing which edge of the old town a car may actually stop on saves the walk in August heat.
Aigues-Mortes and its walls, the salt pans of the Camargue, the arena at Nîmes and the vineyards under the Pic Saint-Loup all sit within an hour of the city.
The first day of this journey, booked as a route in its own right.
The same road as far as Orange, then east instead of west.
The long-distance side of the service, country by country.
All our point-to-point drives, each on one price fixed in advance.
The route covers 1180 kilometres and about 710 minutes of driving, which is roughly 11h50 before any stops at all. With meals, fuel and a night on the way, plan on arriving around the middle of the second day.
Because the arrival would be worth nothing. A chauffeur who has been at the wheel since dawn is in no state to unload a car at midnight, and neither are you. Every quote for this route therefore has a night in Burgundy or at Lyon built into it.
Usually around Beaune, Mâcon or the Lyon ring, which is a little past the halfway point and leaves a short second morning. If you would rather break the journey somewhere else entirely, tell us when you book and we will build the day around it.
No. The quote is for the car and the journey, so a full boot costs exactly what a single suitcase costs. What matters is choosing a class with enough room: seven bags belong in a Van Class, not in a saloon.
Yes. Dispatch follows the inbound flight, your chauffeur meets you in the Schiphol arrivals hall holding a name sign, and an hour of waiting after touchdown is never charged for. The car simply turns south from the terminal instead.
Yes — one car and one chauffeur from the first kilometre to the last, so nothing is handed over at a service area. Once the driver is assigned you also have a direct line to him, alongside the line to dispatch.