The east coast of France seems to be a great way to head down towards Spain.
Testing this route at Easter while we stay in France we got passed Paris going via Charles de Gaulle airport road and then curving around below Paris and across to the South West to the Limousin where we were to stay.
This has lead us into looking at trying this route in the summer when we make our journey to Spain. We have to calculate the timing a bit more as we have to get to Barcelona in time for the ferry but it does seem a much easier and stress free route.