Page 421 - Lonely Planet France’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

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France

Travel Guide

GETTING THERE permitted, meaning gas-powered cars and
many campers and caravans have to travel
& AWAY by ferry.
Eurotunnel sets its fares the way budget
airlines do: the further in advance you book
and the lower the demand for a particular
AIR crossing, the less you pay; same-day fares
Air France (www.airfrance.com) is the na- can cost a small fortune. Fares for a car,
including up to nine passengers, start at
tional carrier, with plenty of both domestic UK£23/€32.
and international flights in and out of major
French airports.
Smaller provincial airports with interna-
tional flights, mainly to/from the UK, con- TRAIN
tinental Europe and North Africa, include
Paris-Beauvais, Bergerac, Biarritz, Brest, Rail services link France with virtually
Brive-la-Gaillarde (Vallée de la Dordogne), every country in Europe. The Eurostar
Caen, Carcassonne, Clermont-Ferrand, (www.eurostar.com) whisks passengers
Deauville, Dinard, Grenoble, La Rochelle, from London to Paris in 2¼ hours.
Le Touquet (Côte d’Opale), Limoges, You can book tickets and get train
Montpellier, Nîmes, Pau, Perpignan, Poi- information from Rail Europe (www.
tiers, Rennes, Rodez, St-Étienne, Toulon raileurope.com). In France ticketing is
and Tours. handled by the national railway company
SNCF (www.sncf.com). High-speed
train travel between France and the UK,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and
CAR & MOTORCYCLE Austria is covered by Railteam (www.
Entering France from other parts of the railteam.co.uk).
EU is usually a breeze – no border check-
points and no customs – thanks to the
Schengen Agreement, signed by all of
France’s neighbours except the UK, the Practicalities
Channel Islands and Andorra.
¨ Time France uses the 24-hour
Eurotunnel clock and is on Central European
The Channel Tunnel (Chunnel), inaugurat- Time, which is one hour ahead of
ed in 1994, is the first dry-land link between GMT/UTC. During daylight saving
England and France since the last ice age. time, which runs from the last Sun-
High-speed Eurotunnel Le Shuttle day in March to the last Sunday in
(%in France 08 10 63 03 04, in UK 08443 35 October, France is two hours ahead
35 35; www.eurotunnel.com) trains whisk
bicycles, motorcycles, cars and coaches in of GMT/UTC.
35 minutes from Folkestone through the ¨ DVD DVDs are set for region 2.
Channel Tunnel to Coquelles, 5km south- ¨ Weights & Measures France
west of Calais. Shuttles run 24 hours a day, uses the metric system.
with up to three departures an hour during
peak periods. LPG and CNG tanks are not

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