With the holiday season being in full swing we at Femalefirst decided to look at how a family would get on travelling by car to France, the ups and downs the pitfalls, but most of all the laughs and the good days along the way.
Vauxhall Zafira
So si of us put our plans together, two adults (Mum and Dad) and –wait for it four teenagers on a tour to France.
The first decision to make was which vehicle. We approached Vauxhall Motors and they suggested the Zafira Tourer a family seven seater and they provided us with a Zafira Tourer CDTI diesel.
Next up where to go? Eurocamp had asked us earlier on this year if we would try out their holiday park in Brittany. They offered an Avant their latest mobile home with 3 bedrooms from the pictures, perfect for a great family holiday so we opted for Doll-de-Bretagne, Brittany a location about 1 ½ hours off the ferry terminal at Cean.
Cean by the way is near to where the Normandy landings on WWII took place in 1945, so they had experienced crowds of noisy tourist’s before so we should be OK.
Next up how do we get across the Channel. Step up Brittany Ferries. After some discussions they recommende we take the early Ferry from Portsmouth to Cean.
All requirements sorted lets get packed.
Vauxhall Motors
First Job: Load the Vauxhall Zaferia for our trip which meant fitting 3 adults in and 3 teenage kids plus luggage for a week was going to be a struggle or so my husband thought. The Zafira is one of our own personal favorites but having 4 teenage kids growing all the stuff that goes with them would it be up to the task?
Well it did not let us down, everything went in including the passengers as I had thought and we even managed to take a little extra than planned.
Our ferry was on the Saturday morning departing from Portsmouth at 8.15 so we set off Friday planned to stay over in Portsmouth and head round to the ferry terminal early Saturday.
Now Friday afternoon is not the best day to be travelling the motorways, and when we encouered an hours delay due to an overturned HGV just 45 minutes into our 5 hour journey it did pass through my mind what state would six people packed in a fully loaded car be in when we eventually arrived in Portsmouth. Well we were about to find out don’t let us down Vauxhall Zafira.
We arrived at the hotel 5 minutes away from the Brittany Ferries terminal with in one piece no major arguments no crisis so to bed ready for the early start.
Brittany Ferries
Next morning breakfast check the car and off to the ferry. We queued for our Ferry which was called the Normandy, they have you in lanes the logistics of it all is really good within 40 minutes of us queing we were on board. We had a cabin so we could get our heads down if needed or just to have a lounge around while we were at sea. The kids were not bothered about staying in the cabin to much to do, visiting the duty free shop, a late breakfast, and then opted to go the cinema on board. I decided to get my head down and read my book.
The journey was about 4&12; hours a very pleasant crossing but then again the weather was good so a lot of people sat on deck just sunning themselves. Must add this was a great trip and we arrived well rested and refreshed for our journey through France – thanks to Brittany Ferries for providing a great service.
We arrived in Cean, a beautifully sunny and warm , we put the address into the sat nav , and off we went, it said we would reach our desination in 1.30 and true enough we arrived in Dom de Brittan but that is the name of the town, so from then on it it was down to road signs, lucky for us the holiday parc was well sign posted and we got there about 15 minutes after we had arrived in the town.
Half an hour drive and we arrived at the imposing drive up to the camp.
To be continued in the sequell -Femalefirst hit Eurocamp. Read the sequel here
Tagged in motoring news Holidays