La Bloggerie

Another Bank Holiday in France today and it’s eerily peaceful.

It always amazes me how often Holidays fall on a Thursday here.  They seem to work it that way so that it’s not worth going to work on the Friday, and voilà – a four-day weekend.  Perfect.

A whole four weeks of visiting friends and family, eating and drinking too much, and here we are back in Chalais.

It had been planned as a caravanning holiday, but the offer of a ’spare’ cottage and a fishermen’s blockade of the Channel ports meant a last-minute change and we left the caravan at home.

However, we decided to give the Portsmouth to St Malo crossing a try on the way back and were very pleasantly surprised, and not just by the offer of a refund for the ‘missing’ caravan.  Britanny Ferries could certainly teach Ryanair something when it comes to customer care.

For anyone coming to La Tannerie from the western half of the UK we would recommend this night-time crossing.  The cabin was comfortable and well equipped with an ensuite shower room; a choice of restaurants and bars with the food sensibly priced and even a cinema showing recent films.

Arriving in France at St Malo also cuts the driving time to Chalais down to 5½ hours, meaning we arrived at La Tannerie early in the afternoon after a good night’s sleep.