Best option for travelling to France...?

[misspollysdolly]

We are planning to have a holiday in France at the end of June in the Vendee area. I have a serious problem with vomiting (HATE it!) and thus always try to avoid 'high-risk' situations such as ferries. We are looking at our options and I just wondered what opinions you guys would have on the best ways to travel. I would favour a shorter ferry journey (Dover-Calais seems manageable to most), which also incurs no extra cost to the holiday. But then it would be a NINE hour drive to the place we are planning to go. Is it really fair to drive for that long with three kids just so that I can cope better on the boat?! How is the journeying by road through France - neither DH or I have driven there at all.

The other ferry routes cut the drive down to 4-6 hours (so still fairly long) but take around 4-6 hours, which if it is a rough crossing would be my absolute vision of Hell (a rough ferry journey from Caen is partly responsible for my fear of vom'ing, so I am facing some demons just by planning to do this). If we did the longer ferry journey, is it better to go overnight, have a cabin/be lying down? This option does incur quite a lot of extra cost (£150 at least for the return journey with cabins) too, but would mean a less lengthy cooped up drive.

I would greatly appreciate any wisdom from anyone who is more experienced in travelling to a within France as this would be our first adventure of this sort. TIA!

The LONG (slow) crossing from Portsmouth Caen/Cherbourg is OK, so why not consider an overnight sailing & sleep?

You can reserve just a reclining chair each for £5 and take a pillow. DS slwpt on the floor.

That way you will be in the Vendee for lunch

There's always the tunnel, although you would still have the long drive through France.
Driving in France is actually not too bad. Their roads tend to be quieter and the motorways are much nicer, with more rest stops and fewer cars, although of course, they do have tolls which can add up on a long journey.

We've been going to the Vendee for the past 3 years, and tend to do either Dover-Calais and the Eurotunnel. The drive isn't too bad, with plenty of places to stop off, and many of the service stations have play areas. How old are the children?

Some people prefer the long ferry ride, we don't! St Malo is another option if you fancy this...

Have you been to the Spring Harvest Holidays site, MaryBS...? (Noticed you whilst lurking reading with interest the prayer thread...sorry - just wondered!)

Anyway, in answer to your question, our children are 10, 5 and 2...the long drive, generally speaking doesn't bother me as long as the children don't end up killing each other, but with regular rest stops etc I expect we'll manage fine. The thought of a long ferry journey seems quite scary to me - enough to put me off going.

How much - roughly - are the tolls Greenshadow and how regularly...?

No I haven't, its something I'd like to do, but the cost and the fact its at/around Easter (my busiest time at church!) tends to mean its difficult.

If you go to www.viamichelin.com and put in your starting point/destination, it will tell you how much the tolls are. Calais to where we go in the Vendee (St Jean de Monts) works out at about 42 euros.