2009年10月6日火曜日

Ferries to France

One of my club's seniors, who has graduated from NUFS last year, has been to France to study abroad. He told me that he had visited England by ferry while he stayed a year in France. I was surprised that he visited England and returned France just one day! I didn't know that we can cross the Dover Cannel so easily. Now, I would like to tell you about ferries to France from UK.



There are a lot of ports in UK including Portsmouth, Weston, Holyhead and Liverpool. If you travel to France by ferry, it is very convenient to take it from Dover. Dover port has popular two routes: Dover-Calais and Dover-Boulogne, and two major ferry operators: P&O and SEAFRANCE.



Now, I would like to focus on the route Dover-Calais. Each operator serves around 2o a day, and it takes 1 hour and half. The fare depends on the date, time, numbers of passengers etc..., but when I searched it on the internet, it costs £16.50 (a single ticket, 1 passenger, no car) and £42.50 (a single ticket, 1 passenger with a car) It is not too expensive but it is faster to take hovercraft if you travel without car.



I could not get good information about hovercraft to France from UK, however, the first hovercraft was invented by a British engineer Christopher Cockerell, and it was named "the Princess Anne". Click here to check its picture and history.


REFERENCES:
Dover Ferry http://www.directferries.co.uk/dover.htm
Google map http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?hl=ja&lr=&rlz=1R2TSHD_jaJP341&revid=394125543&resnum=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=dover+ferry&fb=1&gl=jp&hq=ferry&hnear=dover&ei=6nxMS4K1DovW7AOjtZGFDA&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CCwQtgMwAw