Mrs The Spider and the Junior Spiders have decided that they would like to go to The Loire for a couple of weeks. Having had a quick look on Google Maps I see that it is 700 miles of driving if I cross Dover-Calais.
Never having driven in France before I’m not sure that I fancy 350 miles after having gone all the way down England. Is there a better way of doing it, alternative crossing, stop off somewhere?
Portsmouth Cherbourg ferry - the 7am fast catamaran only takes 3 hrs
Driving on both (the French versions of ) A roads and motorways s pretty nice by comparisons to UK roads. There's what? two and half times the land mass with the same (roughly) population, with service stations that serve proper food made well that is cheap, and rest stops with loos and picnic benches. Roll the drive into the holiday and use it as an excuse to do a bit of exploring.
Is there a better way of doing it, alternative crossing, stop off somewhere?
#ManchesterAirport!
And while you’re there don’t forget the French Tank Museum (Le Musée des Blindés de Saumur), tracked fun for all the family.
Driving in France is generally a pleasure vs the UK. The other option is the more expensive St Malo/Caen etc ferries with a shorter drive (Caen > Anger via Le Mans for example if you're into F1 etc) - last time I checked the longer ferry crossings (with a room for the night to sleep 4) was pretty much the same price for a return ticket than a full week's accommodation in France.
Just go via Portsmouth (4hrs 20 min driving from Manc, current traffic conditions google tells me).
The ferry to Caen or St Malo for less driving in France (just under 3 hours, again google says), or Cherbourg for less time on the ferry and 4 hrs 20 min drive.
It's a much much, more civilised crossing than Dover, Brittany Ferries all the way. I like the overnight to St Malo, but that's as a precursor to a full day's drive at the other end to the SW.
I've done the trip via Dover to Loir many times as we've friends in Deal nr Dover that's the only time we see, so I've mainly done it with a foul red wine hangover (and once having forgotten my passport. Long story but the authorities were so happy to see me leave the country we didn't even hold up the queue onto the ferry), but it's a long and busy drive along the top (which we've broken at Rouen a few times).
Driving down the Cherbourg peninsula or either side is much quieter and an unstressful drive.
Yep, Portsmouth-Caen, and you can do the ferry overnight too, so you can break the journey up. We're going that way to France in April from our side of Manc.
Driving in France is generally a pleasure vs the UK
Very much this. We drove down to the Eurostar terminal at Folkstone, getting there in the evening, got a Travel Lodge or somewhere cheap overnight, first Eurostar in the morning then the far more pleasant French leg of the drive next day. All very civilised
Thats the one. It was a very pleasant and painless journey
If you listen to DI Robbyns on Ellis and John on Five Live, you'll know that you have to drive to the Loire Valley in a Sierra Cosworth 😀
Newhaven - Dieppe is a 4 hour crossing so possible to get a bit of kip if you book a cabin and get on board early. Prices usually same as Dover-Calais once you've added the cabin.
In the summer there's an 11pm sailing from Newhaven which works well.
We often drive down to the Auvergne (which is about 3-4 hours further on) this way from East Lancs - it's a solid day of driving but not too bad in the summer if you can share driving duties. In Winter at night the headlight glare makes it much more tiring.
We went to the Loire valley about 5 years ago when my daughter was 3 and a half.
We worried about doing the journey in one go, so stayed overnight at the Premier Inn in Dover & did the crossing & drive on the French side, the next day.
That was coming from near Peterborough, so quite a bit further south than Manchester.
It was fine doing that, and we'd probably do it all in one go now or get the crossing & a bit of the journey in France done in one day & finish it off at the start of the next day.
We stayed here, which was lovely:
https://www.sandaya.co.uk/our-campsites/les-alicourts
It was lovely.
Just get on with it, Dover/Folkstone to Calais is sooo quick and driving in France is a peice of piss. I do Leeds to Alpes/Pyrenees/Spain twice a year, day time driving over there is just so easy, you'll be there before you know it. I usually end up woth about 8-10 hours driving in France to do in a day but it just flies by.
Hull - Rotterdam and do all your driving on the continent 🙂
unless the cost is really horrendous I'd also choose Portsmouth to Caen (overnight with a cabin), you cut a lot of france driving out (although the france bit isn't as bad, just avoid Paris routes) and Dover this summer could be a complete binfire with the lorries etc - although Binners' suggestion of the chunnel first thing in the morning after a travelodge is an option
Whichever you choose, come off the Autoroute at LeMans and drive south on the D338, you drive down the circuit with the armco barriers and that road is the Mulsanne straight 🙂
Chinon is great for Red wines and if you go to Chenonceau I can recommend Simoneau wines, St Georges Sur Cher
Just looking at prices.
Eurotunnel - £400
Portsmouth - Caen - £900
Portsmouth - Saint Malo - £1,100
Wouldn't need hotels for the ferry crossings, but it looks like Calais with a stop over either way.
We do Manchester -> Perpignan non stop.
Pre doggo we did Dover Calais, pay for the ferry lounge, snaffle all the cakes/munchies and have a quick snooze.
With doggo we do the tunnel.
Arrive in France, clear Paris then settle down and get the miles kilometres done.
As above - France is easy to do big distances, the speed limit is higher (130km/h), lane discipline is as it should be, and the Aires/services are good.
A Sanef/peage tag is useful as you don't need to stop and it allows your passengers to sleep (in a RHD vehicle).
If you're camping and you've not yet booked, look at Huttopia.
Also, you can pay for Eurotunnel with clubcard vouchers 2:1 if you is a Tesco shopper. But don't tell everyone, it'll get busier!
Portsmouth is an hour quicker from Manchester than Dover
the Saumur Huttopia site is excellent - a short easy ride into town
over this summer could be a complete binfire with the lorries etc – although Binners’ suggestion of the chunnel first thing in the morning after a travelodge is an option
it was last summer. We were there before the traffic was queueing out of the port, on a Thursday just before most schools had broken up. We were about three hours late getting on a ferry despite being a couple of hours early at Dover.
By the time you've factored in petrol, tolls, hotels, hours behind the wheel, driving in the UK vs France, and the killer: staying in the UK versus staying in France it's an obvious decision...
Uniess of course you're a fan of driving in SE England, staying in a Dover travelodge or whatever, hour after hour on the motorway (the in a car with kids part I've mercifully forgotten)... If you're heading for the alps I can more or less see the point of the tunnel. But I don't like that particularly either.
Its actually quite easy to do that trip by train.
Also looking at this. We had a vague plan of getting an overnight ferry to break the journey rather than hotel’ing on the other side.
Anyone any Eurocamp experiences they’d like to share?
Portsmouth - Caen overnight ferry is okay at breaking up the journey
You can get a good 5-6hrs sleep
EDIT: the camping Huttopia site at Bracieux just outside Blois is a cracker. It's great place to explore the Loire from and is very family and cycle friendly. Lots of local Chateaux etc.
£500 more though. Even booking a hotel in each direction to break the journey will be £300+ cheaper.
Cheapest crossing west of Calais is usually Newhaven - Dieppe especially if you don't need a cabin. 4 1/2 hours gives you time for food and a nap during the day crossing and I've had decent sleep in a cabin on the night crossings even if it's a bit choppy.
Samur - Dieppe would be a doddle, way easier than Manchester - London.
Been to the Loire many times and have done pretty much all the ferry crossings, including Portsmouth/St Malo overnighter and into Caen. The conclusion I have come to is that it's faster, cheaper and much less boring to do Dover/Calais and drive. As others have said, driving in France is generally very pleasant, simply because there's far fewer cars on the road. Long ferry journeys are tedious as hell, and expensive. The Loire is close enough to do it comfortably in a day, so there's no point shelling out on the overnight ferry IMO. You will be woken up at 4 in the morning and although the food on the Brittany Ferries is pretty good, it's nowhere near as good as a decent restaurant. Caen is also not worth the bother - less frequent sailings and you can drive down from Calais faster on a clear run.
Did anyone say it's quite nice driving in France yet?
Just looking at prices.
Eurotunnel – £400
Portsmouth – Caen – £900
Portsmouth – Saint Malo – £1,100
Look at Dover-Calais ferry prices, should be able to get £200 return.
Long distance driving in France is not always the dream it's made out to be on these threads. Peage is better on the most part, but it won't all be peage, there are tiring busy bits around/through cities just like the UK. You'll probably go through Rouen which will make you wonder that perhaps you made a mistake and missed a turning because it shouldn't be like this.
Still having said that I'd be tempted to do it on one, certainly if 2 drivers. If not basic hotel in near Calais/Dover, doesn't matter where, just somewhere not far off the autoroute/motorway.
For reference last summer did Bath to just south of Tours. Left at 2 am, early train, got there about 3pm. Stopped a couple of times on French side. One person driving.
Long distance driving in France is not always the dream it’s made out to be on these threads. Peage is better on the most part, but it won’t all be peage, there are tiring busy bits around/through cities just like the UK. You’ll probably go through Rouen which will make you wonder that perhaps you made a mistake and missed a turning because it shouldn’t be like this.
Calais to the Loire is just over 5 hours, hardly long distance. And it is a breeze via Rouen. Rouen does have a slightly weird ring road that's not really a ring road, but it's absolutely fine as long as you don't turn off it - there's not even any complicated junctions. IIRC you can pretty much drive the whole thing without changing lane.
If OP is used to the M60 in the pissing rain, it will be a dream.
😆😆😆
We did 2,000 miles of touring in France last summer in the MX5, and whilst some of it was a pleasure beyond belief a lot of it was just plain awful.
I’m not a fan of motorways at the best of times, but that dreadful bloody road from Le Mans up to Calais in the pissing rain was hell. Lorries, Lorries everywhere.
Bite the bullet, get a comfortable ferry to somewhere in Normandy and enjoy your holiday.
Getting from Calais to anywhere past Paris is a ballache. Once you're 2 hrs past Paris it's very straight forward.
Normandy ferry routes are just more practical to anywhere South or West of Paris... Plus you get a little rest.
We regularly drive down to the southwest through the area of the Loire and make an overnight stop near Beaugency. We used to take the P&O ferry Dover - Calais but stopped doing a that few years ago... now take the Le Tunnel. I much prefer it despite the higher cost. We go via Rouen - generally OK and easy enough to negotiate but occasionally a bit busy.
We've found a nice hotel with a great chef and restaurant which makes it a pleasure Cléry-Saint-André and if we arrive a bit early for book in we head to the river and kill a bit of time in Beaugency or Meung-sur-Loire. Both nice and very historic.
We just drove from just south of Perth to Bourg St Maurice and back.
Day 1 - Home to Calais, via ferry. F1 Hotel.
Day 2 - Calais to Bourg.
Return Day 1 - Bourg to Calais. F1 Hotel.
Day 2 - Calais, Ferry, Home.
Ferry is cheaper (£160 rtn) than Tunnel, and you get a proper break from driving. F1 hotel is cheap and basic, and crucially, I do not care what anyone else thinks. Tunnel runs much more frequently (every 20mins or so).
We chug along in the Doblo at 70-75mph. I overtook maybe 10 cars in 400miles of French motorways. Everyone else seems to be flying along.
IMO your route is 2 easy days. You wouldn't even need to leave early and coult havea leisurely lunch.
We did Calais to loire a few years back, decize iirc. It was a bit of a chore, that year was a heatwave and we were very glad to get to the river bank that night. We were doing a 12 day descent of the river in our kayak which I would recommend to anyone who likes watersports
We took A roads thinking it would be fun, it wasn't really and certainly not as easy as cruising the peage. The loire is fabulous though, and I'd like to return. Next time I'd be tempted to follow a different route to get there though
As mentioned by others above, driving in France is not the same as driving in the UK, if you have cruise control then you can do a steady 130kph on near empty roads almost with your eyes closed.
I prefer to only do 4 or 5 hours in a day if possible as we have young kids who go a bit mad after too long in the car but last time out did La Rochelle to Calais in one stint in 6 or or 7 hours with 2 drivers you could easily do 10 - 12 hours between you in a day. I can't remember the exact details but on that 7 hour mission to Calais, we set off at 7am and I think we saw maybe 4 cars in the first 200km
If I was doing Manchester to the loire valley I would head to folkestone eurotunnel or Dover, count the crossing as a nice break, then drive to Rouen and stop there overnight. I think that's maybe 2 hours ish from Calais and is a nice enough place.
This year's planned adventure is London to Tours, stop 1 night, Tours to just south of Bordeaux and stay at a Eurocamp for a week, then back north to La Rochelle for a week in our usual Eurocamp, then up to Brittany for another few days in a third Eurocamp, then the drive home from there I will break up with a stop somewhere near Caen.
Once we ended up doing the bulk of the driving on a Sunday and the roads were even more eerily empty than usual, chatting to someone over there they explained that there is an additional tax or toll for lorries if they drive on a Sunday so you won't see any of them.
The furthest we ever went was lake garda in one big hit with a short 6 hour sleep stop in Karlsruhe, in a 1.2l, manual Renault clio with no aircon and a big roofbox on, france, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Brenner pass, Italy and while that was an adventure with some amazing sights that would be too much for me now. I think I wrote about that on here at the time.
