Moving to France

A Long Drive?

john_and_lynne — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 04:38:00 GMT

How far can you drive in one trip? What is a same distance of time to have behind the wheel? I guess everyone is different. Friends of mine have had enough after a few hours. Others consider a trip across a continent as fair play.

What is the limit - so many miles? hours? does the terrain matter? I just want to get on a motorway. No navigating little lanes appreciating the bird song. Get on with it. Get there. Stop on the way? Why? Is your bladder full? or is the tank empty? Are there other reasons?

Last week I was in the Charente region in France. I needed to go home and get the rest of my belongings. Long story but they were in a warehouse in Gloucester. Not the place I wanted them to be - better off in my new home here in France.

There was some discussion, routes and timetables considered. No going back via Caen - not at almost £500, as for Le Shuttle at Calais I had hated the awful drive from Calais south just a month or two ago. Down the A16, slowly, slowly getting nowhere. So it had to be Dieppe - and it was cheaper than Le Shuttle - just over £140. Go out Monday, return Thursday. Yep, that would be good. Now book it. Heck, Monday's full! No way was I travelling at the weekend that lots of schools break up. So To the UK on Thursday, come back Monday. Good.

The yellow van was prepared, tyres checked, water bottle filled. The dipstick searched for. With some trepidation I set forth - last time the van's turbo wouldn't spin, that's another story! Ropes stored.

The ferry was at 5pm, Dieppe to Newhaven. Four hour crossing. Left in good time. 130 kph on the French AutoRoute and the distance was eaten up - Poitiers, Tours, Le Mans and then Rouen. Not far now to Dieppe.

Damn and blast. Lost in Rouen AGAIN. Well, not in Rouen but just outside. The atlas said E28 into city, E28 out of it. BUT they are not the same road! The A13 actually skirts south of the city. No E28 but get across the city and out on the A150. French road numbering is incredible! Many junctions don't use the numbers, may have a choice of numbers, seldom use the same twice. Grrh! Found myself heading to Paris!

Dieppe in good time and sitting in the long slow queue for checking in and then the long slow wait to board the boat. Must get my timings right - not too early, not too late - don't rush but get to the ferry about 30 minutes before sailing.

The ferry, Seven Sisters, was fine and they did good fish and chips. And if this is anything to go by, French coffee is probably the worst - simple test - if vending machine coffee tastes good what you had before must have been muck! Sadly, nowhere to relax and sleep. A couple of shops, a bar, some airline type seating facing a screen. Some tables and chairs scattered about. So I stayed in the Cafe. Amazing – kids don’t tire, they just get loud. 425 miles. Left home 10.30 am, arrived 10.30pm. Spent 2 hours in a queue and 4 hours on a ferry. Driving time 6 hours. OK.

Stopped overnight in London, saw family and spent the day not driving. Saturday off to Gloucester - 130 miles collect furniture and stuff and back to London, so 260 mile plus a couple of hours loading. M4 out of London looked bad but that was deceptive - starting early missed the rush and back in London for a Pizza and an early night.

Well, Monday was too far ahead - the ferry company were great - for a tenner they put me on an earlier ferry, for another £25 they gave me a room to myself. Great value - same price for four people. Own loo, shower and comfy bed gave me some shut eye for the overnight drive heading my way. Off the ferry at Dieppe around 11 pm. Plans for hotel en route faded as it hardly seemed sensible - and the weather for the next day was not food. Not if you are driving. 36 degrees, heading south into the sun. No thank you!

Overnight all the way, thank you! Rouen - got lost again - long drag to Le Mans, soon at Tours, then Poitier. No sooner past Poitier and the tiredness could be felt. But got to Niort - off the motorway and down the Route National and home at 5AM. Mission accomplished!

Sunday night on the motorway - quiet - yes but also no. The traffic heading into Rouen at midnight was a continuous line. South of Tours the lorries going to Paris could not be counted. A constant line of Dutch and German cars passing my van during the night. Probably been on the road all day and night heading towards Spain.

Well, 1200 miles in four days. Not that great but a good one for me.

Channel Ports - Which is best?

john_and_lynne — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 03:44:00 GMT

I’m going to be clever this time. The blog is not going to catch me out and delete my story as it has done twice before. The first time it disappeared I was editing my existing blog but the save was not saved. The second time I thought I had saved a new story by hitting the save button but as I rushed away I failed to see ‘could not save, no location specified’ and when I came back the hour had passed and everything had gone. This won’t happen again! I’m writing this in Microsoft Word and then I’ll cut and paste! Gottcha!

As I said in my first blog, for over thirty years I have been crossing the English Channel with my car or as a foot passenger. I want to put down some memories for posterity and maybe give others something that lets them make a more informed (?) decision on travelling from the UK.

English Ports

I won’t linger too much on UK ports, suffice to say – don’t bother lingering around. Most are seedy, dilapidated towns that have seen better days. Portsmouth is the exception with a fine naval dockyards, activities and night life. Also Newhaven is sufficiently close to Brighton but on no circumstances waste a second in this rather sad dump. Go to Brighton.

Approaching Newhaven there is a road sign in English and French directing drivers to the Town Centre/Centre Ville of Newhaven. It is a great place to go if you wish to pawn a wedding ring or bet on the horses. You could get drunk – plenty of cheap booze at the cut-price shops. It is not attractive and gives a really bad impression of Britain – as does Dover – a larger and seedier town than Newhaven. Shame really, both ports have had a fine history and good attractions nearby – Newhaven’s Fort documents the history of Concrete (yes, it is fascinating), there is the nearby Cuckmere Valley is a nature park and, of course, Dover has the White Cliffs – that bulwark against the continent and its foibles. Sadly the good times are past.

I said in my last blog Poole was a disappointment – but this was due to its awful location and poor road communications. Oddly it is in a place with some of the highest house prices in the UK. Expect the port to close sometime soon and a gentrified marina rise in its place.

The Continental Ports

From East to West: Ostend, Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne (sadly no longer a ferry port), Dieppe, Caen (actually Ouistreham) and Cherbourg. I haven’t been to Roscoff or Le Havre.

For each of these ports there are two aspects I want to focus upon. Firstly their qualities as a destination in their own right and secondly, on their usefulness as a port of entry to Europe for onward travel.

Ostend –

What can I say? – ‘Frites’. The best anywhere. I have spent many a lazy hour awaiting a ferry strolling around the port savouring frites from the take-away vans. Actually Ostend is a lively seaside town loved by Belgians as much as Blackpool is loved by the people of Lancashire. There are great similarities – the neon lights, the music and a certain brashness that either jars or you go with. Sadly I associate Ostend with an awful night. We had arrived in the town late, having missed our ferry, with nowhere to stay. It was a summer public holiday and all of Belgium was there. Definitely no room in any inn. So the three of us in a small car tried to sleep in a public car park. Funny goings on meant that sleep was haphazard. Youths kept coming up to cars and they seemed to have quick conversations, things were exchanged and then they were gone.

This happened on a trip back from Romania. Ostend is a great port for hitting the European motorway system and getting somewhere fast. Good roads to the East and South mean fast journeys to Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. Also great for such more local treats as Brussels, Bruges and Ghent.

Dunkirk –

The British Army and soldiers from France, Belgium and Holland couldn’t wait to get out of this town in the summer of 1940. Not much has changed since. No one wants to stay a minute longer than necessary in this commercial port. Fortunately it has good links with roads that will send you south very quickly. In fact the extra 30 minute ferry time compared with going to Calais is well worth it – more time to rest and a better place to start your onward journey.

Calais –

The last part of France to be given up by the English. Of all the places in France to keep, this must be one of the least wanted. Get off the ferry, leave La Shuttle and GO. Calais is trying to vie with Dover to be the most depressing port on the Channel. There was a time when cars and vans came from Britain on day-trips to load up with booze and fags to flog in run-down housing estates. Probably today they are loading up with illegal immigrants instead. I’m sure beyond the razor wire fences the town has some soul but I have never found any.

Boulogne –

Just a few miles from Calais but in a different world. When this was a thriving port (i.e. before the Channel Tunnel) with visitors arriving on Ferries and by Hovercraft the town exuded charm. I visited the town many times and always enjoyed being there. I remember going with a school party at the end of the school year. There must have been a hundred or more teenagers and half a dozen teachers. One of the teachers had too much to drink so much several of the strongest boys had to carry him onto the hovercraft. Others scoffed their cheap baguettes and cheese before they got home. The town was great for a dirty or even a romantic weekend with plenty of hotels and restaurants. Sadly no ferries or hovercraft go to this lovely town but it may be worth a visit if you are too early for your transport back to the UK from Calais.

Dieppe –

A wonderful town. Well worth a weekend stay with great activities for couples and families. As the ferry enters the sea-wall to the right is a long beach with cliffs beyond and gardens inland. The marina is full of small boats and the dock-side has cafes, bars and restaurants offering sea-food and good beer. Beyond the quayside are typical French shops. There are hotels galore.

It was not long ago that the ferry stopped alongside the quay, disgorging passengers directly onto the trains that came straight alongside. The rail tracks are still there but now the ferry docks a few hundred yards to the north in a purpose built quay that allows drivers to leave without ever seeing the town. Which is a real shame.

Dieppe cannot be mentioned without thinking of the heroic Canadians who raided the town in 1942. The attack was a disaster. The troops were trapped on the sloping beach and the tanks they had could not climb on the pebbles. From their many vantage points the Germans could pick off the attackers with relative ease. From its failure the Allies learnt many lessons that were useful a couple of years later – but at great cost. The attack was not just a frontal invasion and there are many books that allow the interested observer to follow in the Canadians’ footsteps. There are defences built into the neighbouring cliffs still with the remains of their guns partially intact. A fascinating trip for modern historians. My son and I spent several days retracing the battle prior to my son’s history exam.

Dieppe is a good location. The long drag from Calais along the A16 is so utterly without commendation, a slow progress that never seems to get anywhere – and so easily avoided by using Dieppe.

Getting to Paris or Rouen is easy from the port. In fact an interesting way of getting to Paris without a car is to use the ferry and then take a short walk to the railway station for direct trains to Paris, much more exciting than a Eurostar or a plane but somewhat slower!

If you don’t get lost in Rouen (I defy you! Worse signage, ever, anywhere) you are onward to the south really quickly but a stay in the old part of the city is supposed to be great and there are plenty of night clubs. I must stop by sometime. Normandy and southwest France are easily reached on the excellent motorways.

Caen-

It’s a bit of a long drag from the UK and the ferry prices are quite steep. But if Dieppe was a worthy destination in its own right that Caen is even more worthy. Actually the ferries come into Ouistreham, just north of Caen. For many the peripheral route around the town allows a quick onward journey. The city itself was rebuilt after the devastation of June 1944 creating a rather characterless city centre but there are tourist attractions like the old castle and many small shops (although many have seen better days).

The area around is dominated by the events of 1944. The D-day beaches, the many little museums and of course the cemeteries to the fallen soldiers of both sides are really essential visits for anyone interested in modern history. Probably the most moving visit is to Pointe du’hoc where brave US Rangers scaled steep cliffs under fire to capture an important German gun emplacement. The rows of crosses at the cemeteries tell a tale of foreshortened lives and great sacrifice, many in a noble cause.

Not just modern historians will find the region interesting. The museum at Bayeux charts the story of the Norman invasion of England a thousand years ago.

As an entry point to Europe Caen is well placed for Spain and Southern France saving a great deal of driving but at some cost.

Cherbourg -

I have only used this port once. Put off by the long drive down the Carentan peninsular, I have preferred the port at Caen. However, the drive is quite short and the journey crossing is a little shorter than to Caen, so not too disagreeable. The port is quite large ad there is plenty to keep you occupied if you arrive early for the ferry.

Crossing the Channel

john_and_lynne — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 21:18:00 GMT

I've been crossing the English Channel/La Manche since I was 20 years old back in the 1970's. The crossing hasn't changed very much except for the introduction of the Chunnel under the Straits of Dover back in the 90's. Odd to think this great engineering feat created by a Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher linked us permanenetly with Europe and now another Conservative governments is doing its best or worst to undo our European dreams.

The experience seems hardly to have changed in over 40 years - arriving at the terminal, waiting, boarding, grabbing fish and chips, waiting, unloading. The ferries seem the same - though they have grown up - in size and facilities - almost invisibly over that time.

I don't think there is a route I haven't done. Dover to Calais, Dover to Bolougne, Dover to Dunkirk, Dover to Ostend, Folkstown to Bolougne, Newhaven to Dieppe, Portsmouth to Caen, Poole to Cherbourg, the tunnel itself - and once long ago, a route that only lasted a couple of seasons and for foot passengers only, Brighton to Facamp. Oh! I haven't done routes from Harwich and Plymouth.

So what can I add to the sum of human knowledge that might just be a little bit helpful to fellow travellers. Well, to start with my experience hs been almost always taking a car. However one great trip was to Paris with my son without a car. I'll write that up shortly.

When choosing a departure port you have to think where your journey begins. When we lived in the west of England Portsmouth and Poole seemed very convenient. I didn't think there would be much to choose - until I used Poole. Never again. The roads to Poole are country lanes, crowded with milk trucks, tractors and lorries going God-knows-where. Seriously slow roads even in the early morning. Going to Portsmouth looks longer but so much quicker. However these western channel routes are long and expensive. In summer it's a seven hour crossing and costs over £450 for a car and passenger on a return trip.

The Eastern channel provides many quick crossings but really, the tunnel is so convenient and flexible. If you can stand the piped music (why is it some people like lots of crap noise around them? Does it save them having to fill their heads with thought instead?) you will have your own space on the car train - in your car rather than putting up with other people's children enjoying themselves - yes, 'happy' thoughts of on-board kareoke, charades, balloon twisting fun - save me! So called entertainment in the lounge - do check before you grab a table that you are well away from a stage or anything similar.