Newbie needs advice: London - France

[trulytruly66]

Hi,
My girlfriend and I have just passed our DAS a couple of months ago, and would like to plan our first ever trip. A weekend break in France.
We plan to leave in the early hours of Saturday morning. We live in London, and are looking for any advice on who to use to get across to France and where to go and stay for one night when we get there!

[Warthog]

Channel tunnel is quick but expensive and lands you in a not so nice part of France. Althernative is leave the night before, from Portsmouth to either St Malo or Cherbourg, in Brittany/ Normandie area on the overnight ferry. Far prettier and really "French", plus you arrive with the whole day ahead of you. "Pas de Calais" is more like French-Lite and not very pleasant from my experience. HUBB member Alexlebrit might be of more help as he lives in Brittany IIRR.

I can say that Dinan is a very pretty town as is Vannes.

I like that neck of the woods: enjoy!

[TonyTea]

if you head for Normandy/Brittany then check out Mont St Michel - always a good place, but don't aim to overnight there - tourist prices!

Then sometime check out St Michael's in Cornwall & see the reason they have the same name!

After Mont St Michel you could go on to Carnac if stones are your thing, spectacular neolithic stone rows for kilometres. Heading for Paris is a bit miserable these days - and if you want to see 'la France Profond' rather than toll booths & concrete service stations then stay off the autoroutes - get a recent map, work out a few places to visit and then follow the small roads - compared to Britain the traffic is really low because much lower population density, and off the main roads it's very relaxed.

Tony

[Alexlebrit]

Yeah I'd definately do an overnight boat crossing, why waste time during your day travelling when you can travel over night. I would look at Portsmouth - Le Havre or Newhaven - Dieppe personally as you avoid the Brittany Ferries monopoly on the western end of the Channel and will save yourself huge amounts of money. From either of those Channel ports you could head south to Rouen, which is picturesque and as long as you stay off the autoroutes the roads are good too - buy a Michelin map for the area you're looking at or use viamichelin.com and look for the green endged roads which are the picturesque routes.

If you fancy romance you could easily get to Paris by mid-late afternoon, check into a small hotel somewhere in St Germain, and then have the evening to walk along the Seine, eat at some small bistrot and ride down to the Eiffel tower - don't walk it's bloody miles, and really riding in Paris isn't that bad.

Or if you'd rather stay out of the capital you could look to somewhere like Reims and the champagne area, check out some of the chateau and sample a glass or two.

Really there's so much you can see all along the Channel, what kind of thing are you into? I really would look at crossing on the Firday evening though if you can, you'll get more riding in and there's no reason why you couldn't go across on one route and back on the other.

[Tourider]

Dover - Boulogne on Speedferries this year cost £15 each way (bike and two people) for a 50 minute crossing. From Boulogne head south down the coast to Normandy for a good weekend destination.