I second BPSam's advice about avoiding Paris, but I think you'll need to start out on the autoroute in order to do so without ending up on roads that will considerably slow your progress south. A possible route would be Calais to Arras, then south to St-Quentin, Reims (stop to see cathedral?), Chalon-sur-Marne, and finally Troyes. At that point you could switch to the route nationale roads for a slower and more scenic trip.

Perhaps someone can suggest a route to avoid getting near Paris, which I would suggest at all costs. Not much to see and loads of potential traffic.

The smaller raods can be scenic and take you to interesting places. The trade-off is time. If the map shows the road going thru a town, you'll likely go right through the middle of town, and with towns every 20 km or so in some areas, the constant slowing down can get tiresome. Also, these roads are also used by large trucks and getting around them can take some time. I wouldn't change your plans, but I would recognize that you won't make the kind of distance per day that one would in, say, the USA.

Just about to go over to France for our first time, heading on the first day, as far down south as we can get. Can you suggest to me the best way thru (or around) Paris. We'll be setting off from Calais at about 9am. Based on the time we'll likely hit Paris, can you reccommend the simplest way to go thru or around it ?

P.S - I've planned my route to avoid tolls and Autoroute roads, and have used the yellow national roads instead, does that sound logical ?

Thanks for you time. --- Paul