The motorway also includes rest areas. These fall into two categories: rest areas, located every 15 km, with picnic tables, restrooms, and access to water; and service areas, located every 30-40 km, which also include a petrol station and shops. Across France, there are 364 service areas and 637 rest areas.
Excerpts from the article “How to reinvent the A7 motorway in the era of ecological transition?”, by Étienne Faugier, Senior Lecturer in History, Lumière University Lyon 2, published in The Conversation, July 2025.
The Montélimar service area (Drôme), the largest in Europe (52 hectares), can now accommodate up to 60,000 people and 40,000 vehicles, and employs between 180 and 400 people! (…)
Since 1961, highways managed by private companies (Vinci, Eiffage, etc.) have been toll roads for their users – they became entirely privatized in 2002 in exchange for the modernization and maintenance of the highway network. These concessions will expire in the 2030s, which raises the question of whether the highway network will return to state ownership.
Photographs 2026
