Once again a busy weekend looms for people travelling to Dover, seemingly thanks to the CESMs once again taking the opportunity to cause a bit of trouble. I’ve experienced it with them, don’t know if it’s the unions or politicians, but I’m so glad I sailed direct to Spain, as I will in September. I begrudge any money I have to spend in France now, I’ve loved visiting the country many times but frankly now I wouldn’t piss on a Frenchman if he was burning to death in front of me. 
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hopefully no one is french there… oh wait 
Anyway, if in September you need a stop on the way to Austria, you can stop there.
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I’d make an exception for you anyway 
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We may have other nice French people here one day, too. Let’s not make them feel too unwelcome. 
We started going directly to santander via Plymouth years ago, France is beautiful but too much petty bureaucracy since 2016 and their are plenty of beautiful and much cheaper and friendlier countries to explore. Its not generally the people, it’s the bureaucracy.
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Are you familiar with the word oxymoron? 
Me and the Missus are in France at the moment. We got the ferry from Portsmouth to Caen/Ouistreham and there was only two gendarmes on duty at the destination checkpoints. We had to queue for at least an hour. I read somewhere that at Dover the French only have six people on duty when there are twelve checkpoints. They are just being twats. Why we just don’t do an Overlord on them I don’t know.
+1 for the Plymouth-Santander ferry, it’s a no brainer for us down in Cornwall, we do risk the Roscoff-Plymouth for our return on occasion (haven’t tried it since Brexit though).
I have to say we’ve found France to be the least hospitable of our European cousins, but that may be down to my limited linguistic skills which seems to be matched by many French?
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Have you tried shouting?
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We do a lot of pointing. 
Once on a ferry another Brit biker described France as “a bloody big roundabout we go round until we find the exit for the good bits” meaning Alps, Black Forest, Pyrenees, etc etc.
Far be it for me to agree or disagree. 
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not too much please. I like to feel like an exception, an accident…
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that would be so french
I love travelling in France and I’ve not had any truck with the French since I was mugged on the Metro (I was a green, country teenager… out of his depth and out of his field of experience… would have probably happen in most countries) As has been said elsewhere, the bureaucracy and tendency for strikes designed to make travel difficult is the biggest bugbear!
Frequently, after a fortnight driving around France, I find the worse part of the holiday is the drive back from the South coast to the Lake District. So many rude / stupid fickwuts packed together on a road system that struggles to cope… hour after hour of 3 lane queues.
I am considering sailing over to the more Northern of European countries… which are the good ferry crossings there?
Would Rotterdam/Zeebrugge to Hull be one for you to consider? Not cheap but you’ll score on miles and can avoid Calais and Dover. That has to be a good thing 
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Written December 2019
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I’ve just been looking for a possible return from Germany for us actually. We can have a proper double bed cabin with tea & coffee facilities, looks really nice, a bit under £250 one way. That’s a bit dear, but we’d save the drag from Dover, over 100 miles of fuel, no Dart charge, Hull to home is about 90 mins for me. Food for thought…
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I’ve used that line to go to Scotland. It was ok, and the km I spent in Belgium I spared in UK.
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