Hi all, wondering on best route to take from uk to the perpignan area? Will be travelling by ferry but want to avoid loads of tolls aswell as built up. I can use any port from the uk but which one do you guys recommend i go to in france ? Everyone is saying to avoid calais. Based in berkshire. Thank you in advance
Hi Lola
I do that route often - from Berkshire to Narbonne area…and back - every week for work…
best route is Portsmouth to St Malo then drive around 8 or 9 hours…on the French side…
Portsmouth is just an hour drive
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The ferry between Portsmouth and Bilbao or Santander is good. It’s a 24 hour trip but very relaxing (unless you get a storm in the Bay of Biscay) and the drive to Perpignan via Toulouse is about 6 to 7 hours, all motorway if you want. I did this to go Southern England to Carcassonne.
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Don’t worry about tolls as there are always alternatives. On Friday I helped someone plan a route from Tours to Metz off the autoroute. He was really excited about saving over €40.
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only issue with that route is you spend on average £150 more one way…
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I’d probably use the Portsmouth - Caen ferry, possibly with a stop part-way if I were avoiding toll roads. Google maps reckons about 13hours for that drive. Portsmouth - Bilbao would also work, but will be more expensive and still requires 9 hours of driving.
FWIW in the early 90s we holidayed a few times at Biarritz, taking the afternoon sailing from Portsmouth to Caen, then driving through the night on small roads, arriving around 7 or 8am. Speed cameras were much less of an issue then too. If you must avoid toll roads, night driving is effective at covering distance with less delays and the stress of traffic problems. I find it very stressful to cover distance in France on non-motorway roads in daylight.
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I travel from Guildford, usually to the area between Poitiers Angouleme and Limoges, and I tend to go Newhaven-Dieppe on the way out and Caen-Portsmouth on the way back, just because that works well for me with the ferry times.
Newhaven-Dieppe is the cheapest ferry because it is subsidised by Seine-Maritime to keep Dieppe going as a port.
Depends if you are OK with driving or would prefer to sit on a boat in which case the Spanish ferries may be preferable, but at higher cost.
If driving from Caen or Dieppe down to Perpignan I’d definitely be doing an overnight stop half way I think!
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These ‘least toll’ but use some motorway routes can take 2 days minimum but 3-4 days is better.
For ferries there’s Newhaven / Dieppe or If doing Calais coz it’s cheapest - Both routes lead to Rouen.
If Calais, take A16, it’s pay until Abbeville, 15 odd euro? If not paying then the coast route is a bit wiggly - good extra hour, hour and a half? at least. Then A28 free to Rouen.
From Rouen after the tunnel, aim for Chartres / Orange. people here have suggested the D6015 along the seine and then across to Port d’larche which sounds interesting. Look for that discussion thread - I think it’s titled something about toll ‘libre’ / A13.
Then onto A154 / N154 - watch speed cameras around the abrupt transition from 130km to 90 - but that might be going North…
When arriving at Chartres consider going through the centre because the ring road goes on for ages with seemingly millions of roundabouts - anyway the Cathedral is - not bad!
Then across to Orleans with the D935 (I think) / D955.
That’ll go into the A10 which will avoid going into Orleans if desired.
From Orleans there’s two options -
One can drive down the East and west banks of the Loire - so that’s D14 D951 to Gien, picking up some of the toll - free parts of the A77 and the N7 much of which is dualled. Ten after Moulins, head south to Clermond - Ferrand - the D2009. If you skirt Riom and into Clermont you will avoid the last toll part of the A71 which you declined to take at Orleans.
From Clermont the toll free A75 goes to Bezier - the turns and tunnels at the end can be very interesting if it’s pissing down! You have to pay the Millau bridge - 15 odd euros? - or going into Milau itself and up the other side will afford better views of the Georges du tarn and add 45 odd minutes.
From Beziier you can take the autoroute down to Perpignan, or the road which will be an extra good couple of hours.
This route from Orleans provides for some interesting scenery around the Loire, Clermont and the Cevennes mountains.
Another way we’ve gone is Orleans - Limoges (A71 is the paying part of the autoroute on that, not too much damage to the wallet but I’m sure there will be a reasonable N route between Orleans and Vierzon) then the A20 is free from Vierzon to Brive la gaillarde.
From there one can potter through the Quercy - Figeac, cordes Sur ciel, Albi, Castres, bezier, or turn south along the bezier road to hack down to narbonne directly.
Here, the interesting scenery begins after Brive.
There’s a variant of this which I haven’t done but might be interesting - especially having seen the rands photo’s of some of the area - which is to head over to the A75 after Brive - so thats figeac / Rodez / arriving A75 at Severac.
Yes newhaven -dieppe seem really cheap compared to the others and for sure we would stop halfway in a hotel. Seems like such a long drive but maybe we will have some nice views and nice spots to stop of and take in. First time, but we’ve got to try it out
Very very useful information and i like the part about good views and mountains. Thanks alot. Looking into it all now
Even cheaper than cheap if you are over 60 and book with them by phone (not via their website or a third party) - 20% off their already low fares!
The boats are smaller than Brittany Ferries’ ones on the Portsmouth-Caen route, but although that means fewer facilities on board, that can also be a plus as they usually load and unload quicker.
And there is less traffic around the ports as both are tiny.
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If you do use Newhaven watch out for road closures around Brighton. We came back that way on Saturday and had real difficulty finding a way around the closures, not helped by being very tired and with an iffy tum. This was the worst it’s been, but we’ve had smaller closures at other times too.
When I moved to live in Perpignan area the other year, we drove down from my home not that far from Roscoff and it took 13hrs with petrol and food stops so if you catch the Plymouth ferry it will be longer than the Caen/Le Havre area boats. My BIL used to drive his HGV weekly to Barcelona via Toulouse/Perpignan route and always took the Caen ferry to keep him to the west side of Paris
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The whole of Sud-Angleterre is a roadworks paradise at the moment - the fine weather has brought the hi-vis hole diggers out in droves.
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D840 goes past our house!
It’s a good fast road, with some fine scenery, but watch out as there’s new cameras and the speed limits change between the Lot and the Aveyron, also between the latter’s departmental and national roads (after Rodez it’s only 80 kph).
Cheaper still if you are over 60 and book over the phone
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Indeed - I refer the Honourable Member to my post #11 above. 
Late to the party (as usual)
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But it doesn’t really start until you get there.
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That must be a pretty much non stop time unless you’re prepared to go over the speed limit a fair bit. Depends if you want a relaxed journey or just want to get from a to b in the fastest time. My nephew drives from the northern French ferry terminals to half way down the Spanish Med coast in one go, but I think he’s bonkers.
Again, depends what you want. If you go every week then you pick the cheapest, which should really be by air rather than car but if you need the car there then that’s different. You also do save about €60 ish on tolls and petrol going via Bilbao so that reduces the difference. You do tend to get more roadworks as well on the A83/A10 than the A64/A61 and have cities like Rennes, Nantes and Bordeaux to get around as well which can be a nightmare. I wanted the most relaxed way to travel there and I’ve done both routes and going from Bilbao is certainly a lot less stressful. I decided it was worth the extra money for that.
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