Calais to vendee - tips please!

[lilypink1977]

Hiya,we're getting bit jittery about driving through france from Calais to vendee staying at RCN la ferme du latois. We're wondering if anyone can recommend any good places to stop en route and maybe the best route too?! Got all our fingers crossed that our passports all arrive in time though!!!!! The final countdown is on! Thanks everyone for your help x

Avoid rouens would be my advice! Mont st Michel and st Malo were lovely though...as is bayeux and if you have a family interested in WWII stop in Caen for the beaches etc...

Yes, we've just come back from the Vendee and the tunnel at Rouen was closed on both journeys. It added at least an hour of our time on the way down as the SatNav sent us through town at lunchtime.

On the way back up the Deviation sends you on the A151 motorway for Dieppe which connects to the A29 and then back on to the A28. Interestingly the SatNav showed this only made a few miles difference to the journey so its probably worth trying this on the way down too.

All in all from Bristol to St Hilaire de Riez (via the tunnel) was 12 hours on the way down and 11 hours on the way back up - this included a couple of quick pit stops (my DS's have inherited their father's amazingly large bladder it seems).

One tip: get a copy of the Michelin Atlas - I think it's about £10, really great if you don't go on the Autoroute or if you need to divert from it.

Have a great holiday - there's loads on in the Vendee (the local Tourist board's website only gives you the details if you go on the French version ) but there are some handy magazines you can pick up which tell you when the Fetes and Markets are on.

Thank you so much for your fab replies! Super helpful! This is our 1 st time to France and neither of us speak French and with 2 young kids we're feeling rather nervous!!!

Loads of change for the endless bridges around Caen and le Havre.

Fantastic place the Vendee. It will take you about 7.5 hours from Calais including short stops. I second the avoid Rouen tips and if you can stop there is a great set of services just after Rennes with a large picnic area with plots at the back of it. We always break our journey there.
Nantes ring road can be hell at the wrong time of day. If you can try to not follow the road to La Rochelle but come off at the St Naizaire route and then drop down. It's saves us loads of time. Watch for the speed cameras at Rennes and Nantes ring road. They are new ones and less obvious than before. The speed is usually 90km but the locals will slow down when required.

The 'aires' are fab on that route...where are you eventually heading? Get a good road map and the bigger "aires' with restaurants/play areas etc are in darker bold. We normally stop near Poitiers on way down.

Totally agree about avoiding Rouen. WE've been known to go down the east side and cut across under Paris just to avoid it!

just having a quick skim through the replies and I'll second Slalomsuki comments regarding speeding.

We hadn't been to France for some time and so it was quite a shock to see how many speed cameras there are on the autoroute and they are often well hidden.

Chap on a motorbike was flashed just after we left Calais so hubby stuck on the cruise control at the speed limit.

We did the same route last year and did the journey in one go both ways.
We stopped at a service station on the way down for breakfast and on the way back for the loo and a sandwich.

Ferme de Latois is a great place, we loved it and going rock pooling at sion sur ocean was one of our daughter's highlights of the holiday.

Thanks so much for your fab replies! So very helpful to us novices. MrsPnut yey glad you enjoyed Ferem de Latois we're soooo looking forward to a relaxing holiday! Just not looking forward to the long journey to get there! Thanks everyone! xx