Foot passenger on Ferry to France?

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Bronco Lane

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Is it possible to travel as a foot passenger on any of the Dublin/Rosslare ferries to Le Harve/Cherbourg etc? From there is it easy to get a local train or bus connection onward easily enough.
 
Rosslare Harbour train station is right beside the ferry terminal and Bus Eireann buses serve the ferry terminal too. You can book aboard as a foot passenger and there are sailings to Cherbourg and Roscoff with Irish Ferries, twice a week to Cherbourg leaving at 18:30 and arriving at 14:00 and once a week to Roscoff a leaving at 17:30 and arriving at 11:00. [broken link removed] are better from Cherbourg and there is a shuttle bus there from the ferry terminal to the town (though Irish Ferries says there isn't for some reason).

Also [broken link removed] sail 3 times a week to Cherbourg, leaving at 21:30

Check out Direct Ferries, it is a good portal for all things ferry-related in Europe.
 
Stenaline have bought Celtic Link Ferries and will take over their operation of the Rosslare-Cherbourg-Rosslare route from the 1st of April.
 
Thanks. If I decided to take my car and as a first time driver in France would Cherbourg or Roscoff be the easiest port to navigate from. Which would have the most scenic places to visit within 100 miles of each?
 
Personally I think Cherbourg but then we tend to stick around Normandy. If you want to holiday in Brittany, then Roscoff. I hate the road between Roscoff and Avranches, it's not a motorway so it tends to get clogged easily, in some places it even goes down into one lane. Hell in summer.

I would recommend Granville as a base for a holiday in Normandy- about 2.5 hours drive but it's a lovely small city, with a medieval old town, a port with lots of restaurants and shops, walks and you can take boats/ferries to Chausey etc. Lots of things short drives away as well. Its a place where French people go on holidays so its not very 'touristy' but yet plenty to do.
 
Thanks Vanilla. That is exactly the recommendation that I wanted. When Ryanair flew Dublin/Brest we took a train to Quimper and enjoyed that part of the world. I think that Normandy fits the bill. Do you know if you can get a train to Granville from Cherbourg by any chance?

Just checked the distance from Cherbourg to Granville and it is only 55 miles. Would it take 2.5 hours?
 
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Bronco Lane said:
Just checked the distance from Cherbourg to Granville and it is only 55 miles. Would it take 2.5 hours?
Click to expand...

Use mappy to figure that out, cannot see why it would take that long. When travelling in France/Europe it's best to travel the opposite to eveerybody else. For example, don't have lunch at the peak times, but travel those times and lunch when everybody else gets going.
 
Sorry, should have said 1.5 hours, although depends on the time of day traffic wise. According to a google search you can go by train to Granville:
[broken link removed]. You can also take a train from Granville to Paris for a couple of days if you like.

You could certainly base yourself in somewhere like Granville on foot for a week. There would be plenty to do. We tend to stay in self-catering apartments but there are hotels too. There's a nice one right on the sailing port- an Ibis- that I would recommend. This is where we go for our morning coffee ( after stopping at the Patisserie first to buy something to eat along with the coffee etc) From here you can walk all over the city. Really lovely walks along the Mur D'Atlantique, a nice museum, Cathedral and so on.
 
Thanks Vanilla. This is all good. Are there a few day/half day trips that I could take from Granville in to the neighbouring countryside. Small pretty villages, gardens, scenic drives etc. Grab a lunch and back to Granville type of thing?
 
Coutances is a lovely town to visit and not far from Granville. Also Mont St. Michel is not too far away and I'd say there are coach tours there. If you want to travel further try Rouen and there are a few lovely gardens to visit - one near Rouen - Jardiin de Plume and Monet's garden in Giverny.
 
We've always had a car, so I wouldnt know about bus trips etc. There is a really good tourist office right in the centre of the city that has lots of information.

Just in Granville: there's the Christian Dior museum and gardens, a trip to the medieval old town where there is a museum, cathedral and an acquarium, a casino, a beach with an outdoor swimming pool, the walk along the mur d'atlantique, day trips to the jersey/chausey islands, lots of nice little boutiques, a market on saturdays and often antiques markets too. There are some great restaurants esp if you like seafood. I love having moule frites with a glass of chilled muscadet- cheap as chips but fresh and delicious. That's just what I can think of offhand

With a car you could go to: Le Mont St. Michel- I would highly recommend this, utterly gorgeous place, but very crowded in summer, fantastic off season. There are lots of nearby seaside towns like Agon Countainville, Regneville, Donville les bains and in the other direction, Jullouville, St Pair sur Mer. There are lots of activities in these places, depending on what you like- but you can rent bikes, go horse riding etc. There are the old fashioned rosalies- the four seat bikes too which are funny. Lots of brocantes, antique shops, cafes and restaurants.

There are many WWII museums along the landing beaches of normandy too. There is a nearby zoo in Champrepus, and I know there are quite a few big parks and gardens around too. There are many other attractions, too many for me to remember here, but the tourist office there has ( in every language) information on every thing.


Everytime we go we go to the Herel ( Ibis) for a coffee in the morning and pick up a copy of Ouest France( local newspaper) which has a section on what is going on around the different Normandy every day and tend to check the weather and work from that.
 
Thanks. It's now over to Tripadvisor to research all this information and start putting a plan together.
 
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