Catalan Fishing Boats, Collioure
France 2004 - Part 1 of 4

A Focalplane Travelogue
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Languedoc Panorama - Lake Montady

Let's Go To France! A promise we made to each other nearly two years ago when we decided to leave Houston. No more excuses, we realized, once the BMW was registered for European driving. Besides, 2004 will go down as the year when summer failed to appear (well a slight exaggeration but even so, we felt cheated by the wind and rain that seemed a daily ritual). So the warmth of the Mediterranean beckoned as the days grew shorter and an Indian Summer failed to materialize beyond a few days in early September.

We thought about warm waters, hot sunshine and good food and wine and recognized that only the extreme South of France would do in mid-October.
A search on the Internet came up with a self catering apartment in Languedoc with a vacancy for the week we needed. The apartment is located in Nissan-lez-Enserune, in the heart of the wine-growing Languedoc region. A quick exchange of e-mails confirmed the booking, then we realized we needed to book a Channel crossing.

Again, the Internet helped. We chose Le Shuttle, the train ferry that uses Eurotunnel, and by restricting our time of departure were able to get a very reasonable return ticket, approximately one third of the full rate. Learn more about Le Shuttle in our Travel Notes below.

The remaining time in France was soon calculated, planned, researched and booked. A part of our time would be spent visiting relatives in Montlucon, a small city in the middle of the country. The days spent in Montlucon are not covered in this travelogue but it would be fair to assume that a stopover in the general area would make sense for those looking to make a fairly leisurely journey to the Mediterranean. And holidays are supposed to be leisurely!
Driving South we planned to stop the first night near to Calais, immediately after crossing the Channel. We arrived at the Folkestone Terminal early and were able to advance our departure by half an hour. The extra time proved to be useful when we found that the French road signs had recently been changed upon our arrival in Calais! Everything we had read about Le Shuttle proved to be correct - it is an efficient system. We do wonder what it would be like at peak times, however.

The train is unique to the Channel Tunnel and is a double decker. You simply drive through the side door and along the length of the train. Doors are closed between each rail car and without a jolt, off the train goes, into the tunnel for a fast run covering 35 miles in as many minutes.

First sign after driving into France - Welcome to Tesco's!

 Channel Tunnel Shuttle
Wind Turbines near Boulogne, France

Our first night in France was booked at a small B&B only minutes from Calais. As we drove down the Autoroute, it became clear that the Exit Numbers had been changed! So we exited and drove back up the coast road, seeing fine Chalk scenery along the way but becoming increasingly frustrated by the perplexing lack of meaningful directions!

Finally, and we really shouldn't admit to this, we stopped and connected the GPS unit to our PowerBook, loaded Route 66 and switched on the system. We were only a kilometer from our B&B! Our friendly hostess, Catherine, met us and showed us to our loft room and also booked us dinner at a nearby hotel restaurant, the Hotel Normandy at Wissant (A very good recommendation)

This B&B met our every expectation and is strongly recommended. Comfortable bed, hot shower and an excellent continental breakfast to see us on our way.
Travel Notes

Le Shuttle - under the English Channel/La Manche

There used to be only one way to go to Europe from the UK with your car and that was by ferry boat. Ferries have gotten much better over the years, but they still depend on the weather. Having experienced Force 8 Gales many years ago, we opted to avoid the surface of the ocean and go beneath it. Eurotunnel offers what is probably the fastest and most efficient method of crossing to Europe. You must arrive 30 minutes before scheduled departure while the crossing takes 35 minutes. So in a minimum of 65 minutes you have not only crossed the Channel but have also gone through passport and customs control and can immediately start the long drive south across France. You drive on to the train and stay in your vehicle during the crossing.

We paid £98 for a return trip that stipulated we could not depart before 5 p.m. going to France and must start our return from France before 10:00 a.m. These restrictions suited our plan to use B&Bs on the French side in both directions. A full, unrestricted return costs nearly £300. The one way penalty for changing our ticket was £30 (but we would still be limited by the time of day).

French Autoroutes

Many French autoroutes (a.k.a. motorways or freeways) have tolls (peage). For long distance travel there really is no other choice unless you have plenty of time to spare, so factor in the toll costs. A few autoroutes, such a A75 south of Clermont Ferrand, do not charge. The site helps to calculate toll charges.

Bed & Breakfast (Chambre d'Hote)

Many French B&Bs are inexpensive and offer good simple accommodation. It pays to use a reputable guide when selecting B&Bs as these screen out undesirable places. We used Alastair Sawday's Guide. A good B&B need not cost more than 50 Euros a night.

Self Catering

This is a very popular form of accommodation in France, particularly in the resort areas. Standards do, of course, vary enormously so it pays to research places using the internet and publications. Go for the online guides that publish the most information. For example, our apartment in Nissan was advertised on two sites. Alastair Sawday had minimal information whereas Vacation Villas carried complete information. We booked using the latter. However, the owners now have their own site here.

Beaches

A good beach is very important to us. After years of Texas sand bars, we rather like beaches that are backed by rocks and cliffs. We also love clean, clear water. So some of the beaches we visited passed the test, others did not. We particularly liked those around Argeles-sur-Mer (though they do get very crowded in summer) but also liked the rocky coves at Collioure and Cap d'Agde. Perhaps because they reminded us of Texas, the beaches around Gruissan were somewhat disappointing.

Guides and Maps

We found our Rough Guide of France to be a disappointing publication. If we had believed all we read we probably wouldn't have discovered half the places we really liked. Perhaps the writers have become jaded with all the development?

By contrast, the Michelin Green Guides are reliable sources of information but it is frustrating that they list places alphabetically rather than geographically. That you have to know what you are looking for rather defeats the purpose of the guide.

Michelin maps are also very good, but for more detailed mapping, we recommend the Series Bleu 1:25,000 scale maps. These even show all the tourist attractions (such as camp sites) and do a much better job at this than the UK equivalent scale series.

We also used our Route 66 mapping software (at times in conunction with our GPS unit).

What about public transport?

Budget airlines such as Ryanair and Flybe offer flights from the UK to regional airports in Languedoc-Roussilon.

French Railways (SNCF) have excellent long distance services and can be very cost competitive (even with the airlines).

We saw very few buses but they do exist.

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