- This article is about the French motorway 'A1. For information about other roads of the same name, or other meanings, see A1 motorway.
The A1
Autoroute', also known as
l'autoroute du Nord (the Northern Motorway), is the busiest of
France's autoroutes. With a length of 211 km (131 miles), it connects
Paris with the northeastern city of
Lille. It is managed by the
Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France (SANEF).
The autoroute serves the northern suburbs of Paris, including the
Stade de France,
Le Bourget, Paris'
Roissy Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and
Parc Astérix. From there it crosses
Picardie, without directly passing through any of the major cities of the
région. Throughout Picardie, the A1 runs parallel to the
LGV Nord.
Around 120 km (75 miles) from Paris, between the towns of
Amiens and
Saint-Quentin and near the
aire de service d'Assevillers (the largest motorway plaza in Europe), the A1 crosses over the
A29. A few dozen kilometers further north it forms the southern terminus of the
A2, which branches off towards
Brussels. The A1 is also crossed by the
A26 and the
A21, and it makes up part of
European routes E15,
E17, and
E19. At its northern...
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