Trying to plan a family holiday next year (as the job is safe till next Dec at least)
Have knocked the USofA on the head due to crazy prices.
Have been looking into renting a Gites type place in France and was wondering if anybody had used the tunnel for taking a car over, costs, time etc
and do you need to do something with your headlights(?) when driving in Europe
Tunnel is easy and fast, though is more expensive than ferry.
You'll need to fit headlight beem deflector stickers (car headlights dip to the nearside, which is the middle of the road for Johnny Foreigner).
France (and other places) requires you to have hi viz vests in the car, a first aid kit, warning trianle, spare bulbs and other shenanigangs.
For all of this, a quick scoot round the very useful AA website.
Be amazed at the lunacy of the Belgians and Dutch, and the wide open highways (unless you travel past Lyon in July) of France.
few things on there to think about. Cheers
use the tunnel & book a 24hr return but only use 1 way then do same on return leg via internet (most gites will be enabelled) if you are going south of Paris & use tunnel pick motorway to Bolougne then Paris rather direct Paris route (quiet as Todmorden on a Saturday night)just remember our cousins abroard have no idea when it comes to roundabouts 
Try Chez Nous for an excellent selection of gites all over France
Driving in France is much nicer than here. The roads in general are quieter and not having some tw*t permenently stuck to your back bumper makes a refreshing change.
The ferry is slower but (slightly) more interesting than the tunnel. Toll roads are fast and quiet but can get boring. There are plenty of stopping areas and signposting is very good.
Incidently my satnavs(garmin) basic built in maps are adequate no need for the euro city map upgrade.
Overall I would rather eat poo than drive in the uk, but quite enjoy driving in France.
FYI i drive through France/Germany/Spain every 3/4 weeks and never fitted any light bits to the car or carried the required stuff. Can't say i've ever had a problem in doing so.
I drove in France for the first time this summer. As I have held a full license for less than two years I was restricted to slightly slower speed limit on the 110/130 km/h roads and had a very nice easy drive. My co-pilot had no such restrictions and aside from the silly distance we covered had a decent time driving on the roads. We hardly ever had mroe than two lanes per carriage, but the drivers were good at overtaking and moving over.
Driving on the wrong side was actually quite easy, although I was warmed up from watching and map-reading for the first leg in France.
Visibility over your LHS blind spot is noticeably bad if you're in a UK car and take extra care when on a slip-road joining a fast road.
We did the Tunnel and it was expensive as my other driver forgot to get round to booking. For four in one car it was still much cheaper than the ferry as you pay per car.
We bought the headlight stickers but didn't get round to fitting them!
HTH and reassures you!
For gites, try Abritel - it's a French site (but the site the Frnech use), so good access to all sorts of places.
Found an ace place near Carpentras this year, not far away from start and finish of this year's Étape.
I have to agree with the french roads being so much quieter. Be sure to factor in the cost of toll roads however as these can soon add up if your planning on using the motorways to go anyway (I think it is something like 22 euros on the way to Paris)
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