If you are planning to take your car on holiday to France, French Motorial offers an efficient overnight service to get you, your family and your car to and from the South of France.

Running several days a week (generally Fridays and Sundays), on popular holiday routes from May to September, you can join this service at Calais to your chosen destination at St Raphael, Nice, Narbonne, Avignon, Toulouse or Brive-  (see www.raileurope.co.uk for times, dates and prices or call or call Rail Europe’s Motorail line on 0870 2 415 415 - the call centre is normally staffed from 9am to 5pm on weekdays). One route will take you from Calais to Nice via Avignon and Frejus and the other will head for Narbonne stopping at Brive and Toulose en-route. 

The service generally runs overnight, providing sleeping compartments (known as couchettes), in which you and your family can relax and enjoy the ride until you arrive at your destination early the following morning. The vehicles are loaded onto special car carriers at the rear of the passenger accommodation. Pets are not permitted to travel on this service.

Each group of passengers travelling together will be allocated a six or four berth air-conditioned couchette which offers bunk style beds (converted to seats when not in use), basic washing facilities and storage for your overnight bag. Bed linen is provided and the couchette is exclusively for the use of a group travelling together– one couchette being allocated per car taken on board. You will not have to share a room with complete strangers! Shared wash rooms and toilets are located at the end of each carriage.

Beverages, alcoholic or hot drinks and light refreshments are available from the bar carriage, although it is permitted for passengers to take on their own alcohol to drink on the journey.

There are big advantages in using the train to take you and your vehicle to your destination in France.  This excellent facility allows you to commence your driving holiday in your chosen part of France, without the tiredness, stress and fatigue often experienced by those choosing to drive from one end of France to the other!
As well as the saving on mileage and petrol, you can avoid many of the road tolls and benefit from the convenience of having your own car waiting for you immediately you arrive. The bulk of your luggage, (and you can take as much as you can fit in), remains in your vehicle which also means that you get a speedy check-out, without the need to wait for bag collection etc.  You can also bring back as much shopping, including your French wines and cheeses, as you can safely fit in the boot!

Bon voyage!

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 3rd, 2006 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Travel Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.