Boats...Ferries, always a pleasure but - sometimes regarded as a necessary evil - and often costing more than you'd like to pay. With very regular travellers, the glitter sometimes wears off if you are backwards and forwards several times a year. If, like us you are renovating a house, you have little choice as long as you are toting materials, tools and furniture backwards & forwards. Once you are established in France or, if your initial property is "walk in and turn the kettle on", you may (according to location) be able to choose low cost airlines as an alternative (just as long as you have good travel links on the other side or have good friends who can meet you at the airport).Actually - we have friends who always travel as foot passengers on Brittany Ferries and have good parking & pick up facilities at each end...food for thought! Important - Eastern Channel... Some of our clients have taken the Channel Tunnel or Ferries from Dover to Calais and then driven to view in Brittany. OK if you are going for a week or more but certainly not if you are just planning a short trip. It's a 6 hour drive from Calais to central Brittany!

Check the map to see your best route...Newhaven (mid channel) Portsmouth, Poole, Weymouth, Plymouth (Western Channel) - taking you to Dieppe, Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg, St Malo and Roscoff...This is a bit more like it...The options begin to open up dependent on where you are based in the UK. The prices vary from reasonable to "you must be joking". So you should shop around until you find something that suits your pocket. On this page you'll find some links that may help you to decide what does suit you best.

Planes...Brittany & Normandy are opening up as a matter of priority and all carriers are looking at how they can offer services to the regular traveller to all parts...Check the map to see your best route... And I've just heard about Skybus...Regular flights between Newquay in Cornwall and St Brieuc in the Cotes d'Armor. You lucky South westerners! The travel aspect of your journeys to and from Brittany depends, of course, on where you find the house you are looking for...or more particularly - where you decide to house hunt because of the travel links that are already in place - building your property choice on the proximity to a port, airport or both.. There's something more to consider too...and that is what state the house you choose to buy is in...
Finished property...what I call "walk in turn the kettle on"! In cases like that you are free to use You won't have to tote tools or building materials backwards and forwards.
Or, if your purchase is a ruin or project - meaning that for a good while at least you may need to transport tools, equipment, materials, pieces of furniture etc., etc., not only backwards and forwards to the UK but also those runs to and from to Mr Bricolage, Castorama or Leroy Merlin where (if you're anything like us) you'll spend many a happy hour glazing over in front of the plumbing or timber section - wondering at the prices of wood or the dozens of different sizes of pipework and fittings and whether.it's best bought in France or the UK In this case you're definitely a Ferry Passenger...

Bon Voyage