We travel to Limousin, about 50 miles north of Limoges, directly east of La Rochelle, four times a year to visit our 'maison secondaire'. We have tried many different routes and ferry crossings and have found that the route through Rouen, Evreux, Dreux and Chartres (N154) on to the A10 to the A71 just north of Orleans, then A20 is by far the quickest and cheapest. We tried the A28 but found that it added about 60 miles and 1 hour to the journey and the motorway tolls were at least twice those on the A20 route. We used to sail from Portsmouth to Le Havre but since P & 0 stopped this route we find that Dover Calais works best for us. We live in the north east of England so we need an overnight stop in northern France but the 300 miles plus take about 6 hours. We too remember Stirling Moss but we don't try to meet his speeds. Hope this helps, bon voyage.