Re Briancon, there is a problem atm with the obvious route there from Grenoble along the Romanche valley. There was a landslip near the Les Deux Alpes turn last summer and when I was out there a month ago the road still hadn't been completely repaired. The detour is via Gap - a somewhat protracted journey. I heard conflicting reports about whether the road was still completely shut or whether the bulldozed dirt track around the slip was open to suitable traffic (4x4 ok but not trucks for example).
Other than that the world is your lobster, as they say  I've travelled the route from Calais literally hundreds of times and as long as you avoid Paris (imho) you can't really go wrong. Mileages vary from about 630 (draw a straight line on a map and find the nearest roads to it) to about 900 (our return route last month through Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg etc).
The autoroutes are quick (one day if you push on) but pricey and you don't really see much of France. Real back road meandering has taken me three days to do the same trip and the overnighing costs would have covered the autoroute tolls. I've tended to either camp or stay in cheap chain hotels (Ibis etc) so the odd b'n'b I've used have been found on the basis of just driving past them when I felt like I'd had enough.
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