[F] La Nationale 7 dans l'Esterel (D6007/DN 7)

Driving on the trace of the old Nationale 7 road (today D6007 and DN 7) through the Esterel mountains along Départements des Alpes-Maritimes and Var in Southeastern France.

[@laissythierry7830]

Magnifique route des vacances ☺😊😀

[@Isochest]

I drove along this road two weeks ago. Pleasant to drive here unlike the sections between Nice-Cagnes-Antibes-Cannes where madness prevails

[@IndigoJo]

Re: 2:41 - Most of the old N7 has numbers which obviously indicate that it's the old N7, much as with the old N6. The number D6007 is consistent with how old national roads are numbered, usually with a large number with the old number at the end. The old N6 has numbers like 106, 306, 606, 906 and 1006; it's a lot more meaningful than the autoroutes that replace some of them (the A75 doesn't indicate any connection to the N9, for example -- and there's no consistency, with some numbers reflecting the old RN number, like A20/N20, and not others).

[@EuropeanRoads]

there's surprising little traffic there.

[@RoadsofEuropeverreme]

Yes. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon so most roads had little traffic; however, this section is always like that. It's not surprising since there's not much along the way and the motorway is three to four times faster.

[@rafdriver7858]

Interesting route! :)

[@Orvieta]

Have done this road a few times, for the video, this section of road might have benefited from less acceleration cause of all the twisty bits.

[@RoadsofEuropeverreme]

I know, but that would make the video very long :) Sometimes it's hard to find the balance.

[@IndigoJo]

Also, I wonder why the French did not change their numbering system when they decentralised much of the RN system; in the UK all roads are numbered centrally, and are numbered A or B depending on quality or importance, while trunk roads (the equivalent of their RNs) are not even signposted -- so for example, the A17 from Newark to King's Lynn stayed the A17 when it was de-trunked and became a county road. It would have made no sense for it to change numbers twice as it passed through Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Yet, most of France's main roads are D-roads now, and that doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Why isn't there some intermediate class so that main roads don't change numbers as they pass over department boundaries?
(Though, some might argue that having A-roads ranging from single-track roads in Wales and Scotland to motorways in all but name like the A3 in Surrey doesn't make much sense either.)

[@RoadsofEuropeverreme]

Hi, the French just want to divert all traffic to the motorways so their road numbering system deliberately deprives roads parallel to motorways from any sense. Other measures, such as the upcoming 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit on all single-carriageway road, have the same goal.

[@Chepa_Faux]

It is also because Departments wants to remember that they maintain these roads, and neither Departments (except two of them) or State wants to change road numbering logic, partly coming from early 19th century. Meaning that still classed national roads are prevented from having any clear numbering logic
As an example, the main french roads crossing Pyrenees borders are, from West to East :
- D 810 ex-N 10, become past the border a random route into Gipuzkoa (GI-636, past N-I) and former E 5/E 70/E 80
- D 4 merging past the border into N-121B
- D 933 (former N 133, downgraded in 1973 despite not being followed by a motorway ), became N-135 in other side of border).
- N 1134, E 7 (Somport Tunnel Route merging into N-330, the pass route remain as N134, ending into the N-330a and N-330b), not even signposted as E 7
- D 934 (former N 134 bis, merging into A-136, itself past-time C-136 route)
- D 173 (Bielsa-Aragounet Tunnel, linking past-time N 129 [nowadays D 929] which runs into a dead-end road and A-138 to Bielsa and Huesca)
- D 618a (Former N 618, which was the parallel road to the present-day spanish N-260), running into the short N-141 which merges into N-230.
- N 125 (Former N 125c, became in 1933 N 618c, and in 1973 N 125), become past the border N-230.
- N 22 (Former N 20b, became N 22 when the original N22 route was renumbered in 1973)
- N 20, E 9 (Former N 20b too, then D 68, became N 20 as a easy way to bypass Bourg-Madame between the border and the roundabout with D 68 & N 116), is the road linking Spain with the Llivia enclave (numbered in the spanish side as N-154).
- Communal street, Bourg-Madame (former N20, N-152 into Puigcerdà)
- D 115 (Former N 115 until 1973, become past the border C-38, itself old comarcal C-151)
- D 900 (Former N 9 until 2006, become past the border N-II) and former E-15.
- D 914 (Former N 114 until 2006, become past the border N-260)
And it does not make any sense nowadays for probably anyone, but it would be too costly to rename roads...

[@carolinaromani3966]

bien mais il me semble rouler vite