UK to South of France - travel options/suggestions?

sunshinetours

Acquitaine is more West/ South West rather than South.
Depending on where you are in UK I would say you can easily drive there with one stopover from Calais area. We use Hotel B&B chain for family rooms. About £50 a night for 4 bedded room.

Have been to Cognac area a few time and driven from SE UK using Tunnel in one day with two young children. Be about 8 hours from Calais I reckon to where you are going so depedning on how your kids travel could be done without stopover

The autoroute network is great and for large parts of your journey you can cruise at 81mph (130kph limit). Diesel car and cruise control are fantastic options for French distance travelling

Use viamichelin site for routing as gives tolls and suggested fuel costs

Ferry options into St Malo would reduce French driving but not cheap and IMO not worth it unless you are coming from say west country. You would still have approx 5 hours or so
Forget Santander for that area as you would still have a 5 hour drive back up through Spain/France

martindow

Puynormand is not that far south - it is just east of Bordeaux.

http://www.viamichelin.fr/

gives a driving time of a bit over 9 hours and about 50 Euros in tolls.

JimmyTheWig

There are three options with the long ferry crossings...

1. Go in the day time. This is fine, but means it is late when you get there and so still need an overnight stop.
2. Go overnight and get a cabin. These tend to cost a small fortune.
3. Go overnight and use the "aeroplane seats". Not very comfortable. Not likely to get much sleep with the children potentially unable to sleep.

So I'd say drive!

trailingspouse

If you fancy going for the 'real' France, try staying bed and breakfast. Unlike B&B in the UK, you eat with the family and have a chance to practice your French on real French people. We travelled down to Aix en Provence, staying in two places on the way south and another two on the way north. My daughter, who was 7 at the time, learnt such useful French phrases as 'Do you have a Barbie doll?' and 'Let's play outside'. And don't worry if your French is a little lacking - most French people are very accommodating and helpful if you are prepared to make a bit of an effort and 'have a go'.

macwah97

For the past five years we have travelled from Northern Ireland to just outside Toulouse in approx 24 hours.

Up until last year we travelled from Calais to just outside of Toulouse in 9-10 hours. I drove the entire way but we stopped often. We used a mixture of tolls and non toll routes. As already suggested we have used French B&B and always use viamichelin to route plan. Recently we have used a TomTom with the 'lane change' facility excellent for the motorways. Even managed to navigate around Paris!!!

To be honest you could probably do the drive from Calais in 7 to 8 hours.

Lots of things to do. Handy access to drinks and nibbles. A couple of pillows for dozing and maybe a fleece blanket.

If you want to really save on food etc we bring a little gas cooker like Halfords one about briefcase size, a saucepan, and a frying pan. Soup, toast done on frying pan or even baked beans and toast. Just something to keep you topped up as a 'meal' when driving an add to the tiredness. Its not the first time we have taken an early morning ferry to Calais and parked up with cereal and fruit juice. Adds to the holiday experience.

Doing it 'your way' adds to the holiday experience. Also remember a spare pair of driving glasses if one of you uses them for driving or reading. Also a bag with change of clothes and underwear for kiddies as if they are like our ones - somebody will need a wee when you are halfway down a long stretch of motorway!!!! Just do lots of reading. Diesel is cheaper.

Sorry about the lengthy post. The trick is to make it an adventure.

frogeye

Hi,

Is there an easy route around Paris (from Calais to Toulouse area), as my (Garmin) satnav always tries to suck me in to the centre of Paris. Whilst it was exciting for the kids to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up, I would have benefited from not having lost a hour of travel time!

Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks,

mcfisco

Look on a map, but I always turn just by CDG airport onto the A/N104 and bypass it that way

EDIT: you'd then take the A10 > A71 > A20

JimmyTheWig

frogeye wrote: »

Is there an easy route around Paris ... my satnav ...

Just a word of warning. There are lots of tunnels on the Paris ringroad. Satnavs don't always cope with it very well.

If you're looking for a road number, they work the same (from my experience) as London. E.g. the motorway number 1 (A1 in France) heads north from the capital and the [first digit of the] numbers go round in a clockwise direction. E.g. head clockwise around London from the M1 and you will pass the M2 before you pass the M3; head clockwise around Paris from the A1 and you will pass the A2 before you pass the A3.

Bob_the_Saver

Watch out there are some BIG potholes on some these routes, on slip roads and inside lane especially.

frogeye

Hi,

Thanks for the the suggestions.

mcfisco - I've used the viamichelin site and added 'Brie Comte Robert' as a via point and this takes me clockwise around the N104 to join the A10 - I'm guessing this is the route you were suggesting.

My wife's never to keen to get involved with map reading and with four kids in the back my satnav is the sometimes the only calm voice I can tune in to!