The best time to buy a ferry ticket is probably between October and February. During this time deals for the following year abound. Good deals can be found throughout the year especially by using the Internet. Ferrysavers and Eurodrive/ Ferryoffers.co.uk are two organisations offering a service where they will locate the cheapest fare for your journey on a given route and date.

Ferrysavers in particular claim "We will not be beaten on price". If you find a cheap crossing Ferrysavers will match it if they don't already undercut it. Phone 08704 42 42 43 for the best deals.

By Sea

Brittany Ferries

Brittany Ferries run services from Plymouth to Roscoff (6 hours), from Portsmouth to St-Malo (9 hours), from Poole to Cherbourg, from Portsmouth to Caen and from Cork to Roscoff.

Condor Ferries

Condor Ferries runs a high-speed service between Weymouth and St-Malo (4 hours 15 minutes) though it can be trying on a rough crossing.

P&O European Ferries

P& O offer a service from Portsmouth to Le Havre (when we tried that one we found it almost impossible to get away from le Havre – the French signposts there are not all they might be. Head for Paris!) and from Portsmouth to Cherbourg – more convenient, perhaps, but it's a long drive down the Cherbourg peninsula!

There is also a very fast (2 hours 45 minutes) P&O service from Portsmouth to Cherbourg in a Fastcraft.

Irish Ferries

Irish Ferries take you from Rosslare to Roscoff, or Rosslare to Cherbourg. We haven't had the opportunity to travel with them, so can't offer any opinion.

Hoverspeed Fast Ferries

Hoverspeed run services from Dover to Calais and Folkestone to Boulogne.

SeaFrance

SeaFrance also do Dover to Calais. What a choice you have in the south-east!

Holyman Sally Ferries

They used to offer Ramsgate to Dunkirk, but I don't know if that's still in operation.

BY CAR AND RAIL

Le Shuttle Channel Tunnel service takes you to Calais, and is great for poor sailors!

BY RAIL

Eurostar run an excellent service which takes you from London to Lille in two hours. Change at Lille and travel to either Vannes or Auray, which takes another 5 hours - but on a super-fast French train (the TGV) which runs to the minute and is very comfortable!

BY AIR

American visitors may well fly to Paris and hire a car. The journey from Paris to Kermaux takes just over 5 hours.

Fly Ryanair from London Stansted to Dinard in an hour, then hire a car. It's an hour-and-a-half drive to Kermaux.

Air France operates a Brit Air service daily from London-Gatwick to Rennes, Nantes and Brest.

Aer Lingus will fly you from Dublin via Cork to Rennes.

Otherwise, to fly to Brittany change at Paris and come to Lorient (about 1 hour).