jennilin

Hello everyone,
Driving from UK to french/spanish border happy for the journey to take a week or even longer( flexible). Can anyone recommend any wonderful interesting places to visit and stay en route.
Thank you so much
Jenny

Rastaguytoday

What kind of car/boat are you piloting?

Maybe this one that appeared earlier this week.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-bi...8867--mlb.html

You really need to be more specific. As stated, I thought your post was hilarious.

Maybe the Isle of Man?

jennilin

Hello,
I think driving suggests car and the posting is entitled "Where to stay on a journey from Folkstone to french spanish border" Then I state driving from UK so one can assume start point (Folkstone) is in the UK! sorry if it's not specific enough for you but thank you for your kind response.
jennilin

annhig

jenny - just ignore him. Sometimes he's just too clever by half. What you were asking about seemed pretty clear to me.

what time of year are you travelling and will there just be one of you? a partner? children? do you want to book in advance?

all of these considerations may affect the answer.

however to give you an initial steer, we did something like this about 30 years ago, and we stopped off first for a couple of days in the Loire [about as far as you'd want to get in one jump from Folkestone, depending of course on the time of your ferry/eurostar train].

then we drove down through the Vendee and the Landes [I seem to remember that we stopped in Cognac, which was fun] and ended up at Pau, before crossing over into Spain. you could also drive through the Dordogne and then head for toulouse.

even in high season, you would probably be able to find rooms as you go if there are just two if you. [we did this a couple of times a few years ago with our kids in tow and never booked ahead].

if you could get hold of either of Arthur Eperon's books [Travellers' France and Encore Travellers' France] you might get some more ideas - the prices are of course all out of date, but the descriptions of places and non-autoroute roads still largely apply.

adrienne

Where are you landing in France? I think that and the time of year would determine what suggestions are made. Where are you crossing the Pyrenees? Perpignan? Biarritz?

You can do the coastal route and visit Rouen and the D Day beaches and Mont-St-Michel or do an interior route and see some chateaux and famous cathedrals.

Rubicund

I guess that you're entering France at Calais, either via a ferry or the Chunnel and if you've got a week to do this,I'd firstly take an easy drive to Reims and visit the cathedral and drink some Champagne.

I have no idea whether you want to see Paris, but let's assume that you've been. (If you haven't, then a couple of nights won't go amiss). Overnight in Reims and then to Troyes and Orleans. Couple of nights.

3 or 4 hours later you will be in Macon to drink some really good beaujolais and explore the valley through all the small beaujolais cru villages. Stay at Les Maritonnes at Romanesche Thorins.

Then it all depends on where you want to arrive at the Spanish border, East or West? You could head for Avignon via Lyon or across to Clermont-Ferrands and Sarlat.Then Biarritz to the West or Perpignan to the East.

StCirq

I wouldn't go as far inland or east as Reims or Clermont-Ferrand or Lyon - that seems extreme to get from point A to point B efficiently. I'd prefer the coastal or near-coastal route, stopping in Normandy and Brittany and La Rochelle and Bayonne and St-Jean-de-Luz, maybe veering a bit inland to visit Cognac on the way. But there are a thousand ways to skin this cat, so I think you'd best just get out a good map and some guidebooks and see what's most appealing to you.