We flew to France (Bristol – Bordeaux) 2 days before the volcanic eruption in Iceland and are due to fly back next Sunday (25th April). In between we have driven up to our house near La Roche Bernard borrowing my mother-in-laws" car. With the easing of restrictions we think that we will be ok to fly back on Sunday, but the situation has been far from clear for the past 3-4 days and it has prompted us to consider a number of alternatives for our return to the UK – none particularly palatable!
We have to go back to Bordeaux on Saturday to return mother-in-law and car. If we cannot then fly back we will need to :
- Hire a car and drive to a channel port to get a ferry – Avis quoted us €165 for their smallest car to go from Bordeaux to Caen. That"s 1 days hire cost! Having shopped around we found a company we hadn"t heard of before (Auto Escape) that offered us the same for just £68 (and had a "no cancellation fee" policy). Whether we use them this time or not I will certainly consider them in the future.
- Then take a ferry to Portsmouth (£114 for 2 foot passengers and a cabin with my Brittany Ferries property owners club discount) – this is a reasonable price I think
- Then, find a way to get from Portsmouth to Bristol (which is where our car is parked). This is a tricky route, but at least should be able to use National Express or the rail service. I expected to find something similar to National Express in France, but strangely enough there doesn"t appear to be an option. Someone did mention that there is some competition law operating in France that prevents any coach company offering prices that are more competitive than SNCF – is that right?
Would be interested to know how others might have dealt with this situation. Although staying longer in France would normally not be a problem for us, we need to get back to the UK on Sunday (or Monday/Tuesday latest) this time.
It has been interesting to see the additional search queries that have bought search engine users to this website over the past week. Many search terms, such as "ferry port near brittany", "the easiest way to brittany from england", and even "how many hours does it take to drive to poole from manchester", may well be the result of people looking for options to get to (or from) this part of France as a result of the Volcanic disruption.
Let us know if you have had a similar experience. How are you dealing with it? Any tips?