the nicknames of French motorways

As well as the standard Axyz numbering of French motorways - the A standing for auto route, French motorways often have a semi-official, or not so official, name/nickname.

Here is a list of these names that abelard.org has discovered so far:

A1	Autoroute du Nord
A4	Autoroute de l’Est
A5	L’Orientale possibly because this motorway runs on a route parallel to that of the Orient Express train.
A6	Autoroute du Soleil
A7	Autoroute du Soleil : of the Sun
A8	La Provençale
A9	La Languedocienne - La Catalane
A10	L’Aquitaine
A11	L’Océane
A13	Autoroute de Normandie
A14	“la nouvelle autoroute de l’ouest”: the new motorway of the West
A16	L’Européenne
A20	L’Occitane
A21	La Rocade Minière
A25	Autoroute des Ornières: ornieres means ‘ruts’. The road surface is not good and the A25 has a 110 kmh maximum speed limit as a result.
A26	Autoroute des Anglais: of the English, from the many UK cars to be seen coming from the Calais ferry port.
A30	Autoroute de la Vallée de la Fensch
A31	Lorraine-Bourgogne This motorway also has two joke nicknames: of the Carambolages- the pile-ups, and des caravane belges - Belgian caravans. You are warned.
A35	Voie Rapide du Piémont des Vosges (VRPV): Piémont des Vosges rapid road. The A35 is also known as the Autoroute des Cigognes - the storks. This area is known for its many stork colonies
A36	La Comtoise: going through the Comté-Franc region of north-east France
A39	Autoroute Verte: green motorway
A40	Autoroute Blanche / Autoroute des Titans: White motorway; this motorway runs to the titanic, white alps
A41	L’Alpine
A43	Autoroute de la Maurienne
A51	Autoroute du Val de Durance / des Alpes
A55	Autoroute du littoral: the coast motorway
A61	Autoroute des Deux Mers: of the two seas - the Atlantic and the Mediterranean
A62	Autoroute des Deux Mers
A63	Autoroute de la Côte Basque: of the Basque coast
A64	La Pyrénéenne
A65	Autoroute de Gascogne
A66	L’Ariègeoise
A68	La Tarnaise
A71	L’Arverne: the region north of the Auvergne region
A75	La Méridienne
A77	Autoroute de l'Arbre: of the tree
A79	La Cévenole
A81	L’Armoricaine
A82	La Bretonne
A86	Périphérique d'Île de France: Ile de France ring road (circling Paris)
A89	-La Transeuropéenne, Autoroute des Présidents: Transeuropean, or the Presidents’ motorway;Also known s the empty autoroute because it passes no other major cities between Bordeaux and Clermont-Ferrand
A104	La Francilienne
A400	Autoroute du Chablais
A837	Autoroute des Oiseaux: of the birds
A16, A28, A13, A84, RN137, A83, A84 A10, A63	Autoroute des Estuaires, of the estuaries, once finished, will be a series of motorways linking Dunkerque with Bayonne [and also Belgium with Spain], without passing through Paris. The estuaries are those of the Somme, the Seine, the Loire and the Gironde. The RN137 will be upgraded to an extension of the A84.

end notes

1. rocade

   A ring road, generally around a major town.

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