chunnel by car. 5 -7 days by car in france. Where?

[philv]

Its for the girlfrienrs birthday.

We don't want to do too much driving.
No dashes to south of france etc!

Any reccomended routes, cheap places to stay etc.

Going in. A coiple of weeks. Last week of may.

Thanks

[omniflow]

Buy this guidebook

https://www.amazon.co.uk/France-Charming-Small-Hot...

Link probably won't work as I've chopped a load off the end, but you can search for it by title.

Find some hotels you like the look of and build up a plan from there.

[Motorman74]

Depends what you mean by not too much driving.

Bayeux was fantastic, I'd happily live there, brilliant fresh produce, lovely restaurants, lots to see and do - Epernay and the champagne tours are also amazing - my wife absolutely loved doing a couple of tours (Mercier and Moet) on her birthday - she'd had 7 glasses of champagne before lunch.

But they are both a good few hours from Calais.

[Rob 131 Sport]

Loire Valley is probably your best bet. Depending on which part of the Loire Valley your looking at its a 4 to 6 hour drive from Calais.

[TR4man]

Le Touquet is a very nice and cosmopolitan town which is only about an hour’s drive from Calais. Nice beaches and shops with some nice eateries.

[WyrleyD]

Just arrived back last night from France (St Malo-Portsmouth) and had a couple of glorious days around Dinan/Dinan-Port/Dinard/Saint Cast-Le-Guido after a straight 19 days of rain in the Limousin. Stayed at the Mercure in Dinan-Port for two nights before catching the ferry. Very nice part of the country but never had time before to have a look around as we've always gone straight to the ferry. A good restaurant in Dinan-Port is L'Atellier Gourmand, highly recommended.

[greygoose]

What do you and your gf like to do?

[Arrivalist]

I’d always aim to end up in the Cote d’Azure because it’s one of my favourite places. However, if you don’t want to go that far I would spend a night or two in Reims and visit one of the Champagne houses and possibly go to Evian and do a boat trip on Lake Geneva. Plenty of lovely food along the way.

[Rob 131 Sport]

WyrleyD said:

Just arrived back last night from France (St Malo-Portsmouth) and had a couple of glorious days around Dinan/Dinan-Port/Dinard/Saint Cast-Le-Guido after a straight 19 days of rain in the Limousin. Stayed at the Mercure in Dinan-Port for two nights before catching the ferry. Very nice part of the country but never had time before to have a look around as we've always gone straight to the ferry. A good restaurant in Dinan-Port is L'Atellier Gourmand, highly recommended.

Whilst it’s a great location, its too far from Calais on the basis of the OP requirements.

[Bill]

greygoose said:

What do you and your gf like to do?

This. And what is "too much" driving?

[philv]

Thanks for all the repies.

A couple of hours max driving any one day, preferably an hour.

We like a little bit of sight seeing, looking in various shops, nice food, the usual casual tourist thing.

My girlfriend is driving for first time abroad.

[ecsrobin]

Does it have to be France? Ghent and Bruge are short trips that are both great places.

[PositronicRay]

Saint-Valery-sur-somme quaint seaside town also Montreuil Sur Mer, walled town, walk the walls visit the museum and enjoy dinner in the sq. Both places have a full range of hotels and chambre d'hote.

Book ahead.

[andyA700]

philv said:

Thanks for all the repies.

A couple of hours max driving any one day, preferably an hour.

We like a little bit of sight seeing, looking in various shops, nice food, the usual casual tourist thing.

My girlfriend is driving for first time abroad.

Colmar in the Alsace is absolutely lovely, easily reachable in one day and the surrounding villages and countryside are magical.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andym42/albums/72157...

[rufmeister]

Head East into Belgium for some lovely beaches, and historic towns maybe?

When our kids were younger we loved doing weekends there, place ourselves in De Panne and bumble about from there.

[Bill]

philv said:

A couple of hours max driving any one day, preferably an hour.

That will limit you a fair bit unless you make it a multi-leg trip. Epernay is a few hours in the motorway and well worth the effort.

[heisthegaffer]

andyA700 said:

philv said:

Thanks for all the repies.

A couple of hours max driving any one day, preferably an hour.

We like a little bit of sight seeing, looking in various shops, nice food, the usual casual tourist thing.

My girlfriend is driving for first time abroad.

Colmar in the Alsace is absolutely lovely, easily reachable in one day and the surrounding villages and countryside are magical.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andym42/albums/72157...

Nice photos mate and looks a lovely place.

[ecsrobin]

heisthegaffer said:

Nice photos mate and looks a lovely place.

It is and then you’re not too far from the largest car museum in the world. However doesn’t fit the OP’s brief in a quick trip.

[//j17]

philv said:

Thanks for all the repies.

A couple of hours max driving any one day, preferably an hour.

We like a little bit of sight seeing, looking in various shops, nice food, the usual casual tourist thing.

My girlfriend is driving for first time abroad.

Do you both drink?

Lot to be said for just driving south from Calais if you do.
- Day 1 there's not much of interest in the Pas du Calais but 2hrs from Calais will get you to Saint-Quentin which has a nice centre.
- Day 2 just 1hr driving will get you to Reims and some Champagne tasting.
- Day 3 and 1.5hrs driving will get you to Troyes which also seems to have a nice old town area.
- Day 4 and 2 to 2.5hrs driving will get you to Dijon and Bergundy tasting and mustard, with every village south from there being win based.
- Days 5/6/7 working your way back up.

[davek_964]

Hijacking the thread a bit, but :

We're going over on Eurontunnel for August BH - leave Thurs morning, back Monday evening. Happy to drive a bit from Calais - 4-5 hours is probably max.

For some reason, the g/f wants to be close to beaches - which probably limits us to going East or West from Calais - but I may be able to persuade her that isn't necessary (6 weeks after that we'll be going somewhere which is pretty much just beach - so not sure we really need to restrict the August trip quite so much).

Any additional suggestions?

(I've seen the suggestion for Belgium which might be a good bet - we did Bruges a couple of years ago, but could stay closer to the coast).

ETA : Thinking Amsterdam could be an option. Never been, only about an hour from the coast and ~4 hour drive from Calais which is a distance I'm happy with.

Edited by davek_964 on Tuesday 21st May 14:47