Simon Rayfield

Looking at the economics of this - if one spends on average more than 6 months in France in any one year, paying an extra 16 euros/month plus the disconnection charge of 4.69 euros per switch makes it barely worth it! That is assuming one gets a complete rebate each month of 39 euros for a ligne illimite fixe, for a lesser fixe it wouldn't be cost effective. sr

It looks like the competition for Speedferries customers is hotting up.  Latest is a cheap flexi deal with Norfolk Lines and a travel group for £38 return book by mid Feb. Check it out at http://www.ferrycheap.com/norfolkline-offer.asp sr ps still wrestling with Barclaycard to get a Speedferry multiticket booking repaid.

No announcement from LD Lines yet on this news, only that you can book from February to travel in July on the Boulogne route? sr

WARNING to PET OWNERS Over the past few years we have regularly taken our Golden Retriever to France with us, initially to the Med area and latterly to the SW where we have a house. We find the occasional tick on the do g as we are in a rural area and walk the fields and woods. However, the morning of the day we were due to visit the vet for the routine pre-travel inspection last November, our dog was very slightly off her food.  That evening during the check the vet was concerned about the dog's high temperature. She subsequently took a small blood smear and checked it under a microscope, returning to tell us that the dog had a blood parasite (piraplasmose) carried by ticks.  This is not transferrable to humans.  In our case the vet remarked that it was one of the earliest diagnoses they had done. If unchecked this parasite will multiply and quickly kill an animal.  Locals are fully aware of the symptoms - lethargy, loss of appetite, high temperature, they take their animals to the vet immediately.  The treatment is an extremely painful injection (for the dog) followed by sickness and vomiting for up to 48 hours - then normality.  Our vet wrote down all the details, treatment, etc for our UK vet in case the dog didn't recover quickly.  Thankfully she was back to normal within 24 hours. Our vet is from Normandy working in Monflanquin, apparently this parasite is unknown in colder northen areas (including the UK) but prevalent from SW France south into Spain, etc.  Usually occurring when ticks are active during periods of wet and warm weather (spring and autumn). It is unlikely a local vet in the UK would know about this and be able to stop the parasite before the animal became very poorly or even died.  Theoretically we shouldn't have travelled but we did and there were no further problems. Please pass this on to other pet owners! sr

Check out the LD Lines website for prices on the Dover/Boulogne route as they are already listed - because the route is longer than the Dover/Calais it seems like it will still be more expensive than Speedferries was. I think that the best deal at the moment is the Seafrance Multi-ticket as each crossing ticket is valid as a single and can be used from either Dover or Calais - turn up and go without booking on one of the next two ferries leaving. Has anyone got their Speedferries money back from a credit/debit card company yet?