France Travel

P&O Ferries has announced that it is to discontinue its Portsmouth to Bilbao route from after 27 September 2010.

The Spanish terminal is at Santurtzi about 10 miles from the city on the edge of the Basque country. For francophiles the advantage is that Bilbao is less than 2 hours from the French border and destinations such as Biarritz and Bayonne, and as such offers a much more convenient journey to the Pyrenees than driving all the way from the Engish Channel, Normandy or Brittany. By comparison Biarritz is more than 660 miles from Calais, over 500 miles from Caen, Le Havre and Cherbourg and 450 miles from St Malo. By the time you factor in the cost of autoroute tolls and overnight accommodation the higher cost of the 35-hour crossing (or cruise).

After September 2010 the only alternative will be the Brittany Ferries Service to Santander which is about an hour further west than Bilbao.
I keep hoping that someone would open a ferry service from UK to Bordeaux which would be an ideal entry point for the whole of SouthWest France.

Dunkerque (62 Pas de Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais) manages to brighten up the miserable nothern French winter with its annual Carnival from 23 January to 6 March 2010

The most famous, the nosiest, the most mental, but also the oldest, is the Dunkerque Carnival. For weeks on end, groups called fisherbands take the measure of each other, confront each other with sarabands and songs, disperse and liven up the town, and finally come together in one huge choir to celebrate their sailors, honour Jean Bart, and claim, with body and voice, their herrings thrown from the top of the belfry.
If you’ve never done Carnival here, you’ve never seen a real carnival !

For more info see www.northernfrance-tourism.com
Of course Dunkerque is directly connected from Dover with Norfolkline Ferries – but beware that the port (near Loon-Plage) is some 18km from the town centre

January is the time to take advantage of early booking offers for summer cross-Channel ferry crossings – Prices will undoubtedly rise in the Spring – but there will be some uncertainty about prices nearer the time – much will depend on demand and capacity plus issues such as the sterling exchange rate and/or fuel surcharges. But if you can lock in to the lowest prices available now, it is unlikely that you will do better.
After the demise and problems with Speedferries, the best safeguard must be to book with a credit card which should enable you to get your money back in the unlikely event of any business failures.

Using a site such as www.ferrycheap.com offers price comparisons and is currently advertising the following early booking fares:

P&O Ferries from £25

SeaFrance from £22

LD Lines from £18

Eurotunnel from£53

NorfolkLine from £14

Some fares may be single, or day trip – be sure to check and make sure you know the booking conditions in case you need to change the date/time of the crossing. Most companies, make some allowance for late arrivals because of traffic or breakdown, but there are limits, and of course on some of the longer crossings the next ferry may be 6 or more hours later/

When the Channel Ferry operator Speedferries collapsed last year many people were caught with pre-paid tickets and vouchers which could not be honoured.

;Now the Administrators Ernst & Young are reporting that the proceeds of the sale of assets (including SpeedOne) will not even raise enough money to pay off the Bank who are secured creditors; so there is nothing to be shared with preferential or  unsecured creditors such as ticket holders.

The Bank of Scotland got about £2m back, and Ernst & Young earned over £880,000 for being Administrators.

The only hope for paying customers would appear to be through the credit card companies if you paid by credit card.

Since the collapse of SpeedFerries LD Lines has been developing the Dover – Boulogne route which remains one of my preferred routes into northern France.

Boulogne's port hub

LD Lines Ferries are changing over to a traditional ferry on their Dover-Boulogne cross-channel route which will increase capacity and competition on the short-sea crossings from Dover. Also there is now a new Ferry port at Boulogne which will hopefully be less down-at-heel than the previous landing point. The new terminal is called the Boulogne Hub Port, which remains close to the town centre and provides reasonable access to the A16 and other autoroutes. Additionally passengers can leave their car in a free car park by the terminal and with a short walk across a footbridge into the heart of the town.

From early November 2009 the Norman Spirit will transfer from its current Western Channel Portsmouth – Le Havre route to commence operations on LD Lines’ Dover – Boulogne service, considerably increasing freight and tourist traffic capacity. The high speed catamaran Norman Arrow, which began operating across the Dover Straits in June 2009, will re-locate to the Portsmouth – Le Havre route, where she will begin a six month seasonal operation from Easter to September 2010. Norman Spirit will operate four return sailings daily between Dover and Boulogne and provide a crossing time of one hour 45 minutes. The ship has capacity for 1850 passengers, 700 cars, 110 freight vehicles and the service will also carry coaches and foot passengers.

LD Lines is also offering 10,000 Tickets @£22.50 each way for a car + 4 passengers – a limited number available at this price – so book soon – see www.ldlines.com

Boulogne is a pleasant arrival port – and the town is well worth a visit. Like most ferry ports industry and warehousing tend to dominate the immediate  area, but the more interesting and  attractive parts of the town are close by. The ferry trip provides a good view of the French coast (when the weather is good) and is schedules to take 105 minutes – slightly longer than the Dover-Calais crossing, but being further south compensates if  heading towards Paris, Rouen, Normandy, Picardie or beyond.

Find the best rates for Hotels in Boulogne-sur-Mer

The route for the 2010 version of the Tour de France has been announced. The race starts in Rotterdam on 3 July 2010 and after a few days in Holland and Belgium the route takes in Champagne and Burgundy before heading for the Alps. Then southwest through the Côtes du Rhone before skirting the southern edge of the Massif Central, down through Languedoc-Roussillon before several gruelling days on the Pyrenees. One of the highlights will be on Saturday 24 July 2010 when there is an individual time trial from Place des Quinconces in Bordeaux up to Pauillac along the Route des Chateaux. In racing terms this is an important day as its is the penultimate day after 3 weeks on the road immediately before the Grand Finish in Paris on the Sunday 25 July 2010

From a spectator point of view it promises a good day out in the Medoc – as although you miss the momentary flash of 100+ professional cyclists zooming past, you get to see ech rider individually and can make a whole day of it with the race taking 2 hours or so to pass.

For more info see www.letour.fr