can you sail from anywhere on s coast of england to somewhere on the west coast of france?

[HappypillsGalore]

all i can see are sailings either to the north or right down to bilbao/santander...

your help appreciated.

bump in case any evening people know

You can sail from Poole to Cherbourg. There are also sailings to St Malo and Roscoff, but I can't remember from where in England

You mean by ferry? Not that I know of -- you'd have to drive from one of the Channel ports. Where are you hoping to get to?

I think you can get from Portsmouth to St Malo. To Roscoff only from Plymouth, I think. St Malo down to the west coast isn't that far a drive, I think.

You can drive to the Vendee in around 4 hours from Caen/Cherbourg - which is quicker than a ferry would be!

You can also go from Portsmouth to Le Havre

yOU CAN'T SAIL TO THE WEST COAST, CERTAINLY NOT WITH ANY OF THE WELL KNOWN FWERRY COMPANIES.

i was so disappointed when i opned this thread i was all excited thinkingt of passage planning

and you meant a bloody ferry

There are local ferries from the Channel Islands to France which maybe go into the W? Will google...

Oh no, they don't, just to different ports in Normandy - manche iles

Condor Ferries do a highspeed service to St Malo from Poole or Portsmouth & then it's a relatively short drive south.

I sailed from Portsmouth to Cherbourg - but about 10 years ago so not sure if you still can

I thought the same zip - "ooh how exciting" thought I.

Yes, you still can - Brittany Ferries do most of the Western Channel routes, Condor mop up the rest.

When we last did this, we were aiming for our destination in southern Brittany with a stop off in St Malo. We took the Fast Cat from Poole to Cherbourg and then drove to St Malo. In retrospect, I would have preferred to go direct to St Malo as the trip down wasn't great - the RN from Cherbourg south is very rural and you are easily caught behind a tractor. Once into Brittany and the turn off to St Malo, it is just a huge traffic queue. It would have been so nice to avoid this.

IIRC, we had a 7.30 Fastcat from Poole, and only arrive in St Malo at 5pm. We did get stuck in a traditional restuarant in Coutances for a 2hr lunch .

I'm not sure what the price differnce would have been, but would have been happy to pay £30-£50 extra to sail straight into St Malo and avoid the Contentin.

However, Brittany Ferries is fab - much better than P&O.

oh hi!
sorry been packing for w/end away (diff thing)

well im trying to work out the easiest way to get to nr bezier (between carcasonne and montpellier)

st malo isnt south! i spose if i just hop the channel and rive down it'll be the simplest...

i was kinda hoping thered be like the bilbao line, where you stay overnight and its a nice ship and kind of exciting... it still is a possibility to go that way i guess...

but then, browsing the site for it, its pretty pricey, and bilbao/basque region is a destination of itself, so easier to go there, stay a few days and come back i guess...

Oh if you want Carcassone it'll have to be Bilbao, which is a bloody long time & bloody expensive.

I would do fly-drive meself

yeah, i spose...
[unexcited face]
me, dp, and a 5, 4 and 2yo... dont fancy an airport if i can help it...

ok, so who knows of a TRULY small child friendly house or gite or summat, within a couple of hours drive of a port... available for october half term then??

18th or 25th?

18th

go by train?

Well, can't manage to guarantee child-friendly but this near St Malo is about £300 your week (plus ferry) - something like that any good or do you really want to go south?

ooh, train looks fun!
id love that. the boys would love that.
i suspect dp would not love that, sadly.
hes an awkward sod fussy bugger when it comes to travel. unpredictable too...

actually thats not bad wendy. indoor pool sounds lockable, and warm.

think dp had his mind set on warm weather tho...

train is lovely way to travel down. many guests this year did that
Eurostar to Paris, TGV direct from Paris to Beziers

i reckon its a toss-up then, between flying from bristol (2.5hr drive) to beziers (how long is drive from beziers to the house, az??) for peanuts, or taking the train down from london...