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Caen ferry port


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Never having used the Caen ferry route I'm now having to draw up directions for some first-time visitors who will be coming via Portsmouth-Caen. The maps I've looked at online for the port of Caen seem to be contradictory; some show the port at the mouth of the river whilst others show it right in the centre of town. Where is the actual port? Is the route to the motorway for Tours well-signposted?

Sid

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[quote user="Dick Smith"]It's at Ouistreham.....[/quote]

Ah, it's at the river mouth then, thanks Dick. I wouldn't have a problem finding the way out of the port but some people need to be spoon-fed! For a first time visitor in France the signpost positioning and directions can be a little difficult so I'm making allowances!

Thanks

Sid

late edit... and thank you too, Mel.

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Used Caen for first time at the beginning of June to go to Charente- Maritime, so via Tours. Easy route BUT sat nav wanted to send me via Rouen to get onto A28, not cutting through via Argentan etc. Luckily I ignored HIM!!

Pouyade

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Just follow the signs for Caen when you get off the boat (i.e. follow everybody else). The road more or less follows the river, with the river and canal to the left - watch out for the left turn with filter traffic lights in the town. The road becomes a dual carriageway, which meets the Caen periphérique after a few km. Make sure you get the right exit - for east or west. It's probably one of the easiest of the French ports to find your way out of - and in to.

Although there are docks further upstream, the ferry port is indeed right at the river mouth.

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I have used Caen several times. 

There is no problem coming out of the port.  Everything is more-or-less well signed. 

The problem is getting there.  It is about 20 mins from Caen so you need to leave time for this.  There is one sign off the peripherique that doesn't give you much notice to turn off.  I have overshot it on two occasions, especially in the dark.  My advice is that on the first occasion, you don't overtake but hug the right lane so that you don't miss the turning.

 

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[quote user="Russethouse"]I'm glad I'm not the only one Cathy, the trouble is if you miss the turn you go over a bridge and have to double back as you are the wrong side of the estuary, best to look up the exit number and go by that.......[/quote]

That's why I suggested using satnav.

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[quote user="Mel"]Tut, tut... female navigators... (lol)[/quote]

Very LOL - Mr RH couldn't navigate his way out of a paperbag and once famously seemed quite unable to even get us out of Reading on the first leg of a trip to the Vendee, ....and he was born here.[:(]

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Here's a link to a route from the dockside to Tours.

Ouistreham Ferry to Tours

You can copy the link off the page and email it to guests - or embed routes in your website like here:  http://www.normandie-chambres.co.uk/direct.html

As a little aside, I would like to nominate the first 8 km from the Péripherique of Caen towards Argentan as crossing one of the ugliest, grimmest landscapes in France.  Matched in all of western France perhaps by the Rouen eastern "bypass" which is relieved only by the "cow" roundabout.

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As a little aside, I would like to nominate the first 8 km from the Péripherique of Caen towards Argentan as crossing one of the ugliest, grimmest landscapes in France.  Matched in all of western France perhaps by the Rouen eastern "bypass" which is relieved only by the "cow" roundabout.

The A26 in the area of Arras get my nomination, only relieved by mountainous slag heaps [:(][:(]

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[quote user="Russethouse"]I'm glad I'm not the only one Cathy, the trouble is if you miss the turn you go over a bridge and have to double back as you are the wrong side of the estuary, best to look up the exit number and go by that.......[/quote]

I'm delighted that I'm not alone in doing this.  The signage is very bad.  There is no advance notice and, RH, you are right that it is just before the bridge over the estuary.  I'm going there in about 10 days' time (in daylight) and so I'll have a closer look and post a note with advice about what to look out for.

 

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If you are going to the port then the turning to Ouistreham is after the big bridge; it seems pretty well marked to me! If you think the landscape on the Caen to Falaise / Argentan road is grim, then you need to read your history of World War II; it took weeks of intense fighting by the British and Canadians to get from the landing beaches (which start just next to the ferry port) to Falaise.

regards

Lisa

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It all depends on which direction you are going round the peripherique.

As you are talking about going over the river/canal (to be pedantic it's not the estuary this far upstream) on the big bridge when you miss the exit to the port, I presume you are going in the anticlockwise direction, i.e. coming from the west. In that case, look for signs saying 'Porte d'Angleterre'. There are in fact two exits, close together, with that name - you want the second one (but it's no problem if you take the first, you just meet a roundabout). The second has signs for Ouistreham car ferry. It's one of those intersections where the same lane is used for traffic both joining and leaving, which can be a bit awkward at times.

If travelling in the other direction, as noted above, it's dead easy. It's immediately after the big bridge, and is reasonably well signposted.

The journey is well and truly etched on my brain, but I can double-check tomorrow if you wish.

 

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[quote user="LisaJ"]

If you think the landscape on the Caen to Falaise / Argentan road is grim, then you need to read your history of World War II; it took weeks of intense fighting by the British and Canadians to get from the landing beaches (which start just next to the ferry port) to Falaise.

regards

Lisa

[/quote]

I'm very well acquainted with the history of the IIWW, and especially the Battle of Normandy.  You forgot to mention the part played by the Poles, whose participation in the Battle of Normandy is also commemorated at the Memorial of Coudehard-Montormel, marking the "official" point at which the final stage of the Battle of Normandy was won.  It would have been won earlier had it not been for General Leclerc's error in blocking the advance north of the American forces at Argentan, thereby delaying the closing of the Falaise pocket by the American and French forces arriving from Le Mans and joining with the other Allied forces pushing inland from Caen.  This allowed many more of the German forces to withdraw towards Paris than would otherwise have been able to do so.

Though what this directly has to do with the uprooting of the bocage in the 50's and 60's, leaving vast open plains relieved only by electricity pylons and, more recently, wind power generators and the building of horrid industrial wastelands from the 70's onwards, I'm not sure.  [:D]

BTW, if you're interested in the liberation of Normandy, read about the liberation of our wee village here:

Liberation of Ancinnes on the Normandy-Pays de Loire Border

or in French here:

Libération d'Ancinnes

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Thank you to all who have responded to my query; some very useful information, as I have come to expect from this forum! The route links are good too! Our friends don't have SatNav (neither do we) so hopefully the Rouen detour will be avoided.

Sid

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There are plans for a proper motorway around Rouen to link the top and tail of the A28, but unfortunately that's all they are at the moment - plans.

There is a rather spiffing new bridge under construction west of central Rouen, though.  They've made it an extraordinarily expensive 'lift' bridge so it can be raised and lowered.  However, I believe that the only time this will be necessary is for the occasional "tall ship" passing beneath and even the tall ship owners appear to be rather muted in their reaction to it.

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[quote user="Will"]

It all depends on which direction you are going round the peripherique.

As you are talking about going over the river/canal (to be pedantic it's not the estuary this far upstream) on the big bridge when you miss the exit to the port, I presume you are going in the anticlockwise direction, i.e. coming from the west. In that case, look for signs saying 'Porte d'Angleterre'. There are in fact two exits, close together, with that name - you want the second one (but it's no problem if you take the first, you just meet a roundabout). The second has signs for Ouistreham car ferry. It's one of those intersections where the same lane is used for traffic both joining and leaving, which can be a bit awkward at times.

If travelling in the other direction, as noted above, it's dead easy. It's immediately after the big bridge, and is reasonably well signposted.

The journey is well and truly etched on my brain, but I can double-check tomorrow if you wish.

 

[/quote]

When I first started work I was a dental nurse, which meant that when the dentist said something like MO right, I charted it on the left - thats my excuse - but surely Will if you are coming from the West you are going clockwise.

Take notes next time  Will - women look for different land marks, like when you see the sign for Carrefour start indicating, etc [:)]

 

 

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I thought long and hard about whether to say east or west or clockwise or anticlockwise - the signs on to the peripherique all seem to say east or west, even if you are actually travelling north/south at that point. I came to the conclusion that whatever I wrote could be confusing, and somebody would disagree, and, RH, you have proved the point. What you say is true at the 'top' of the peripherique, but of course it is the other way round at the 'bottom'.

So much depends on where you intend to enter/leave the ring road, which governs which way round you go. Best thing is to look at the map.

 

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