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With autumn fast approaching we console ourselves by looking ahead to our main holiday in France in 2007. Yes, its the Rugby World Cup (in September) but we prefer peaceful rural France, probably in the SouthWest, Midi-Pyrenees - great landscapes, pretty villages, small markets, interesting wine and superb food.
But looking at how to get there is complicated, trying to calculate exchange rates, motorway tolls, the price of fuel, cross-channel ferry crossing and the route across France - and that assumes we dismiss the other options of budget flights (see www.frenchduck.co.uk/travel/flights.html), car hire or great train services.
Dover still dominates as a port of departure - with recently improved routes to Boulogne and Dunkerque but the cessation of the Hoverspeed services - and the western Channel has seen a loss of P&Os services to Le Havre and Cherbourg. There are other options including Dieppe and Le Havre (see www.frenchduck.co.uk/travel/ferry.html)
However even having got across the Channel the autoroute system in France continues to improve with fast new routes available which help you to avoid Paris and some of the other traditional pinch points on your journey south (see www.frenchduck.co.uk/travel/autoroutes.htm)
Whilst things can change over the next 8 months or so, a little research offers the following snapshot of some of the options.
Based on typical hypermarket fuel prices as at 1 October 2006 and a tourist exchange rate of £1=€1.405:-

Unleaded Petrol (sans plomb 95) is €1.17/litre (83p)
Unleaded Petrol (sans plomb 98) is €1.20/litre (85p)
Diesel (Gazole) is €0.999 (71p)

Autoroute options
Dunkerque - Paris toll (péage):£11.17; 293km(183miles) journey time 03h00
Boulogne-Paris via A16 and Amiens toll: £12.03; 254km (159m) time 02h37
Calais - Paris via A26/A1 toll:£13.17; 289km (180m), time 02h50
St Malo - Bordeaux tolls:£17.30; 539km (337m); time 05h12
Paris - Toulouse via A20 tolls: £20.78 678km (424m); time 06h20
St Malo - Toulouse - tolls £28.26; 772km (483m); time 07h21
Calais - Strasbourg - tolls £29.04; 622km (389m); time 05h28
Paris - Bordeaux tolls £33.74; 590km (369m); time 05h31
Calais - Avignon via Reims tolls £36.80; 988km (618m);time 08h49
Calais-Nice via Reims tolls £62.70; 1238k, (774m);time 11h02

For more on travelling in and to France CLICK HERE