For VFR I was taught draw a straight line and I pretty much always get to fly that straight line with the odd change of altitude or slight detour, as you were advised. Been doing it that way for 25 years, I don’t remember ever having a problem. You do have to work the frequencies though, which is why I prefer flying IFR these days.
As I’ve written before, I think that works a lot better in French 
A foreigner just gets “military active” on one side (limitary active = no go and we aren’t even going to ask them) and “Paris TMA” on the other. Or “ask the next unit”. No go.
It does actually work in provincial France – most of France away from Paris and Nice – so long as you carefully avoid military airspace.
I did the flight in English and did get some inactive military space. To the west of NIce you have R138, le camp de Canjuers, the French tank and artillery training ground, which is infinity-ground, contournement obligatoire, and afaik never inactive. Just south of that you have R95 if usually active and was active when I was there. So you have to thread your way through a narrow corridor between the two. No big deal though it would be nice if there were a couple of official waypoints to help, as there are for example to thread your way around Cazaux.
To the north of Nice/Cannes there is a bunch of stuff which I think you can generally fly through, but there also serious mountains up to 10,000 feet. Best avoided in an SEP in my opinion, unless you really need to go there.
Some hints about the place…
Actually the R138 got inactive sometimes, usually on the Sunday and you may see interesting stuff, if you go down to 500agl ;D , but yes, it’s closed most of times because they are firing very serious weapons in there.
At the west, you have R54 (le Luc) where you are always welcome once you ask for, just keep SDVFR or the VAC chart of LFMC opened, because they will PROB50 ask you to transit by VFR reporting points which names are close to small villages you don’t know: BJ for Barjols, SA for Saint Anastasie, but if they give you “NW”, don’t look for a village, just look for this point at the NorthWest of that zone. The best wayto cross it is to get over FL65 and you stay with Nice Info until Marseille TMAs, where you are invited to put 7000 in the box and contact the friendly Marseille Info as you have done in your trip. Usually they are nice and friendly but English speaking is usually not part of their contort zone.
It’s better to monitor it if you can’t speak french, unless you have something to ask. They are also very relaxed and you can hear very funny discussion on this frequency.
My advice here if you have a big direct to ask, is to ask it to Nice-Info, they are really nice and can negotiate some routes for you, that nobody else will give you, especially not the busy TMA controllers of Marseille and Camargues.
E.g. I got a direct from Cannes to Montpellier VFR at 7000ft, overhead Provence airport in a almost straight line. Just have a look at this busy stacked zone, you’ll see that even with a FPL you will be asked to circum navigate it.
Just a fair warning: when mistral is in force, wind grows fast from west to north-west when you approach Marseille/Aix, and you can get nasty turbulences until 7000ft around the Sainte Victoire. At this altitude, the wind is smoother but stronger against you.
North of Nice/Cannes, you have mountains but you can stay around 7000ft if you go north west toward MTL just behind the R138, which a better route to the north when clear of clouds.
You can’t really go more to the east unless you file a FPL because you are going into Italian airspaces, but this is still possible and a nice trip to Torino/Milano (1 to 1.5 hour). Going VFR this way, you have 2 solutions:
-6000 ft over NIZ direct ALB but you will be forced to go over the sea after Albenga, because you have Italian MILs after.
-500 to 1000 ft crossing LFMN CTR and TMA under the departures until Italian airspace that will give you higher altitudes (don’t expect too much though).
If you are not afraid of crossing the sea, Take a ride to Corsica, this is a must-fly. Calvi is still hard to land there for administrative reason, but Ajaccio, Bastia, Figari and Propriano the GA diamond, are worth going.
@greg_np – Thanks!!! I think the take-away from your post and all the other advice I’ve had from French pilots is that you need to know how to work the system. In a country which runs by “systeme D” that isn’t really a surprise. [system D[emerdeur] – how to get things done when there isn’t really an official way to do it, or at least not one that works].
John
Thanks John, informative and well written. “Montélimar is famous for two things” made me laugh If you’re ok with grass it’s worth a visit: air museum on the airfield, nougat in the town, and for visiting the wider Ardèche.
Time for an update to this post. It has taken me a while to gather the strength to write it.
On 18th May my best flying friend for the last 20 years was destroyed in a landing accident at Barcelonnette (LFMR). She had been in France for less than a year. Luckily neither I nor my pilot-passenger was badly hurt. But I no longer have a plane, and as you may well imagine I’m not too proud of my flying skills either.
I’ve updated the blog, scroll down to the final section if you’re interested: https://n5296s.blogspot.com/2021/09/moving-my-plane-and-its-pilot-to-france.html
The BEA report is here: https://bea.aero/les-enquetes/evenements-notifies/detail/accident-du-cessna-182-immatricule-n5296s-survenu-le-18-05-2022-a-barcelonnette-04/
:-(
@johnh sad but your good friend looked after you, nobly absorbing the impact. The 182RG is a super versatile type, sorry it ended this way but glad you and your passenger are safe!
She had been in France for less than a year. Luckily neither I nor my pilot-passenger was badly hurt
Sorry to hear for the aircraft and glad you & pax are safe !
So sorry to hear this johnh
Glad you both walked away afterwards – everything else is replaceable
