Driving Through France

[vetran]

Rouen is quite pretty.

[MicrosoftBob]

Canoeing can be quite pleasant in the Loire valley, unless you expect it to be dangerous

Plenty of places to hire them, if you want a day trip on the way back

[Lockhouse]

I'm touring the French West Coast next week. Going over via Portsmouth\Caen. Day 1 is Caen to La Rochelle via Le Mans.

[Eirikur]

Can you get to that one on the way back to the UK? I thought it's only on your way out of the tunnel into France.

I'll be going that way in about a month. I'm dreading what Calais might be like on the way back.

You can get there in and outgoing from the UK, personally find it a bit more complicated finding it arriving from the UK than going back to the UK

[darmstadt]

Just driven back from the South Coast, roads were full as **** due to all the French being on holiday and the Brits and Belgians all going home, mind you, I had a lovely time

[kaiser78]

Thanks for responses all.

I'll be going that way in about a month. I'm dreading what Calais might be like on the way back.

VMan - we have changed our booking to get the ferry back from Dunkirk instead of Calais, as is only another 1/2hr on the journey to get there.

[VectraMan]

VMan - we have changed our booking to get the ferry back from Dunkirk instead of Calais, as is only another 1/2hr on the journey to get there.

2 hours+ on the ferry though. Much slower than Le Tunnel sous la Manche. And if you don't take a different route you're going to be driving past the tunnel terminal on the motorway where all the immigrants are.

I'm tempted to go Portsmouth - Le Harve, but that does take forever.

[Eirikur]

I'm tempted to go Portsmouth - Le Harve, but that does take forever.

Isn't there a a fast ferry that takes 3.5 hours or so on that route?

[stek]

My hometown, Bolton, is twinned with Le Mans, indeed we have Le Mans Crescent, previously The Crescent, behind the town hall.

Also Bolton used to have a 24hr Pedal Car Race similar to Le Mans 24hr Race, i.e. not with reals cars. Wonder if they still have it. Was on Leverhulme Park ISTR.

[d000hg]

I'm dreading what Calais might be like on the way back.

According to the BBC, Calais is awful. Everybody there wants to leave.