There are many ways to get to France from England, you can use the tunnel (either by rail or in your own car), fly, go by hovercraft or take a ferry. Ferries sail from numerous places to the North of France, but as someone who has spent the last 12 years going between England and France, my preferred method is the ferries to France from Dover. Even over the 12 years that I have been doing this, things have changed a lot, so let us have a look at the recent history of ferries to France.
The shortest ferry route from England to France is Dover to Calais, which is served by P&O and also, since 2012, DFDS Seaways who have acquired the route in addition to their famous Dover Dunkirk route.
Until early 2012 SeaFrance also operated a Dover Calais service, but the company went into liquidation in January 2012. There were many attempts to save SeaFrance, since the company was put into receivership in November 2010 and managed to make a loss of a staggering €240,000,000. None of these attempts worked and SeaFrance are no longer in existence. SeaFrance operated with a fleet of four ships, SeaFrance Rodin, SeaFrance Berlioz, SeaFrance Nord Pas-de-Calais and the SeaFrance Molière. After the collapse of the company in 2012 the SeaFrance Rodin and SeaFrance Berlioz were docked in Calais, and SeaFrance Molière and SeaFrance Nord Pas-de-Calais we docked in Dunkirk.
On 11 June 2012 a bid by Eurotunnel was accepted for the acquisition of three of the ships from the SeaFrance fleet. It is believed that the company that operate the Channel Tunnel obtained these three ships so that they could be leased by another operator. Having travelled on the DFDS Dover Calais route in June 2012, I am almost certain that the 'new' ship DFDS has, is actually the SeaFrance Molière which is now called The Norman Spirit. So I can only presume that the other three ships will be operated by P&O, being leased from Eurotunnel. I don't know these facts for certain, so if anyone knows anything different please get in touch and I will update this article.
SeaFrance wasn't the only cross channel ferry company to go bust in recent years, I used to always use the service provided by Speedferries, who ceased to operate in 2008. Speedferries had just one vessel, called SpeedOne which operated between Dover and Boulogne Sur Mer. This was an ex Royal Australian Navy vessel, originally launched in 1997, which was acquired by Speedferries in 2004 and used until their demise in 2008. SpeedOne was a catamaran, which was capable of an impressive 48 knots or 55 mph. SpeedOne operated on this Dover Boulogne route until the vessel was impounded, by the French authorities at the end of 2008, as the company had failed to pay taxes. SpeedFerries was placed into administration shortly after. Speedferries are no more, but SpeedOne still continues to service the Guernsey St Malo and the Jersey St Malo routes for Condor Ferries. The vessel is now known as the Condor Rapide.
So what are your choices now for ferries from Dover to France? Well at the moment it is just between P&O and DFDS. On the Dover to Calais route P&O do have more sailings each day, but DFDS tend to be cheaper. My own personal preference is to use the less hectic, more luxurious and cheapest route which is the DFDS Dover Dunkirk route. My normal route, once in France, is to head South either towards The Alps or South West towards the Pyrenees and Spain. Either way the first autoroute I am looking for is the A26, which you can either pick up at Dunkirk, or you can get a feel for driving on the right by 'cutting the corner off' and joining the autoroute at junction 3. If you look on a map you will see what I mean, you go through some very strange named places like Watten and Tatinghem. To be honest though it is probably just as quick to jump on the autoroute at Dunkirk and a lot easier at night for certain.
I've written this article in the summer of 2012 and, as you can imagine things are always changing with the ferry business in the English Channel. The Channel is the World's busiest seaway, with over 500 ships per day using it. As the UK's main connection with the rest of Europe this has always been and will always be big business for ferry companies and all the related industries. I still find it amazing that you can take a car, or even a motorhome with five people onboard, over to France for less than the cost of a restaurant meal for two.
I believe that travelling in Europe, taking your time and absorbing local cultures and traditions is one of the best things you can do. If you live in the UK, don't ever feel that you are a long way away from your European neighbours, you really are not. From Dover you can be in very much in rural France or Belgium in about two hours and at the moment this can be done very cheaply. Travel safely and enjoy.
Rick Lomas spends most of his time in France, Spain and England and has done so for the past 12 years. A consequence of this is that he has taken many ferries from Dover to France and is knowledgeable about the services available. As a consequence of this he is a major contributor to a site about cross channel ferries that you can find at http://www.cheapferrytofrance.com/ where you can find useful information as well as a free guide to 'Driving in Europe'.
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