Can you tell me how you get an appointment at the French Consulate?

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

I know that this is not the place to ask, really, but I couldn't think where else to go. And I thought there would be some French nationals about.
DH needs to renew his French passport and we live in darkest rural England. Apparently you now need an appointment to go to the Consulate - gone are the happy days when we spent two days queuing outside it to get our livret de famille . However, on the website, there are only two possible days until the end of November - one appointment at 9am next Monday and a Tuesday in November with half a dozen time slots.
The trouble is, DH cannot get a day off work except on a Wednesday. Will there be more time slots coming up for December? If so, when will they be online to book? This is going to involve an expensive train journey and probably a hotel stay - could it be more difficult???

Why don't you call the consulate and ask?

Good idea. I thought it was probably something everyone knows and I would look silly, I suppose. Also the practicality of having half an hour or so to wait in a phone queue - tried it - on my one day off when I have a million things to do. But I will line up a good book to read while I wait.

appointments do get added up all the time on the website, so just bookmark the page and go back to check regularly. They add a bunch of far-away (like one month) appointments once in a while, but also often some for the coming days/week.