A6 autoroute

The A6, also known as the Autoroute du Soleil, Motorway of the Sun, (along with the A7), is an Autoroute in France, linking Paris to Lyon. The motorway starts at Paris's Porte d'Orléans and Porte d'Italie with two branches, numbered A6a and A6b respectively, that join south of Paris.

A6a and A6b at Paris

A6 autoroute
Route information
Part of E 5 / E 15 / E 21 / E 50 / E 60
Maintained by DIR Centre-Est between Lyon and Limonest; APRR between Limonest and Cély; DIR île-De-France between Cély and Paris
Length	445.6 km (276.9 mi)
Existed	1960–present
Major junctions
West end	Paris (Porte d' Italie & Porte de Gentilly)
Highway system
Autoroutes of France

The motorway is favoured by holidaymakers[1] as it is the main link to the South of France and the French Riviera. At 455km long it is France's third longest autoroute after the A10 autoroute and the A4 autoroute.

The A6 motorway used to be prone to severe traffic jams around Fourvière Tunnel near Lyon [2] prior to the opening in 1992 of A46 autoroute and in 2011 of the A432 autoroute which is also called the "Contournement de Lyon" and known as the "Lyon Rocade Est".

A 200-kilometre (120-mile) stretch of the A6 motorway around Mâcon, Chalon-sur-Saône and Montceau-les-Mines, France, is known for the A6 disappearances, a number of mysterious disappearances or other crimes involving women and girls, occurring in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.