Long Journey with 2 dogs and 2 cats

[Innocents Abroad]

First ever posting so please be gentle with me.

In two weeks time (yikes!) we will be setting off for our new lives in France and driving from North Yorkshire to south of Jonzac down in southern Charente-Maritime. In the car with us will be our two dogs and two cats, and in the trailer behind, enough 'stuff' to keep us going for a few days till the rest of our belongings catch up with us. We've got a largish animal crate for the cats to travel in so they can move about and we can put a bowl of water in, and we've also bought a couple of harnesses so that they can safely stretch their legs and use the litter tray, etc. We were planning to grit our teeth and do the whole trip in one go but our thinking is now changing and we're considering having a half-way overnight stop, probably an hour or so south of Calaise. The obvious problem with this is our four furry ones. Sizewise, we have a border collie and a largish retriever. I'm sure there must be lots of you out there who have done a similar journey so any advice and/or suggestions of (overly) pet friendly hotels who don't mind pets en masse would be greatly appreciated.

Lynda & Pete

[Lyndap]

Hi We are also moving in 2 weeks time, but with 1 cat and 2 children! We've decided to take the overnight ferry to Le Harve, although expensive in comparison to Dover routes, I dont want to leave our trailer in a hotel car park overnight. (We've just had one stolen and we know trailer theft is rife everywhere) Anyway when we travelled over in April we stopped at a hotel change called B&B hotels -www.hotelbb.com.  We used the ones in both Rouen and Boulogne. They were extremely cheap and allowed dogs & cats; I think it was 2euro per animal.  They may only take up to 2, but as no-one sees you it wouldn't be difficult to sneak a few cats in as well! Good Luck Lynda

[Christine Animal]

When we used to go down to Spain, with several animals in the car, cats and dogs (we've got too many to go away at all now) we used to stop in the Campanile motels who accept pets.  We used to ask for a ground floor room, they never even come and see, you just go to the reception and get the key, go back to your room and settle everyone in, litter tray in the bathroom, their beds on the floor.  Leave everything clean in the morning and return the key to the reception desk.  We used to find it marvellous.

[Innocents Abroad]

Many thanks for your replies and suggestions for accommodation.  Must confess, we hadn't got as far as thinking about having to leave the trailer - packed with too many 'essentials' to unload - in a hotel car park for the night! 

Might be back to Plan A after all!

Thanks again!

[Guest CFrost]

Hi, we are due to move in a couple of weeks time with a dog!  She has been back and forth to France and we have done it in one trip.  Plenty of stops (every 2 hrs) to stretch her legs and water given in the van,she sat up front in a box Luton, but we did make a stand for her bed to sit on She was fine on both journeys, it took about 26hrs in total!  By the way, we are going to Chadeniers, just outside Gemozac and not far from Jonzac and we currently reside in West yorks!!.  Good luuck with your move and we hope all goes welll with your pets

Kimberley

Chadeniers 17

[Innocents Abroad]

Many thanks for your posting and kind words of encouragement. Your timing of 26 hours fits in with our estimation so it was good to have it confirmed.  All our 'reckies' have been done via Ryanair and whilst we have driven down to the South of France a few times we've never done it with the necessity of so many stops; we were planning on every couple of hours too, for leg stretches for all and driver swap over.  Do you stick to the obvious map route or have you discovered any useful little detours that you might want to share with us?

Good luck with your move too - and also to you Lyndap!

Bonne courage!

[Eslier]

I would recommend travelling via Plymouth / Roscoff for a number of reasons. Firstly, Roscoff is about the only port I've found where there is a large, relatively quite, car / lorry park within the port area where it is easy to stop and take your dogs for a walk immediately after you get off the ferry. There really is plenty of space. Secondly, if you head down towards Devon, there are loads of farm B&Bs who will be happy to take your pets. Many are in rural areas so no problem with the security of your trailer. If you find somewhere not too far from Plymouth you could get the early morning ferry to Roscoff and be well on your way through France by mid afternoon.

With your cats, if you've got room in the crate you could leave a litter tray in there. If you by some of the expensive "gel" type cat litter then you won't get any nasty smells in the car. It really does work - I've tried it when bringing our cats over to France.

We had no problems with our two cats and two golden retrievers. They just took it all in their stride - I suppose you wouldn't expect any different from a retriever ! Last time we did it (with the dogs only) they were in the car for about 26 hours and were absolutely fine with just three walkies stops! Don't worry about it, I'm sure your pets will all be fine.

One last tip. When you get to the ferry port, if they ask to scan your pets then remind them they don't need to do this if you are on a one way ticket. The last thing you want is to have to get the cats out of their crate and risk them escaping in the ferryport ! Be firm if you need to, they can't insist on scanning them when travelling from the UK to France.

[Lilly]

I moved over two years ago on the hottest day on record with a trailer two dogs 1 cat and 2 rats (and two kids and hubby!!) I can't help with easy places to stay as we took too long a detour to recommend to you! but usefull advice is .....1.Don't over load your trailer as with a hot car and hills ( beautiful they maybe ..from a distance)steam train like sounds emit from the engine and lots of conking out even with a newish Sharan tdi and the animals all 8 of them get hot even with good climate control because the sun beams in to your green house on wheels. My advice is travel at night and early morning when possible.

2. Don't under estimate travel times as it is very busy here now.

3. Take freezer blocks for animal travel cages and to keep water cold as warm water does nothing for hot animals.

if I think of anything else I'll post it, have a good journey and I wish you all the best in your new life here.

[Guest CFrost]

Hi, we came over to France via the tunnel, this was because we could have the dog with us all the time and it only took half an hour! we then took the main route to paris then onto the A10.  This was the most direct route to our house in Chadeniers, we also found that there were plenty of places to stop and re fuel or have a kip.  We have also driven the country route and although the time scales were similar and there were no tolls to pay ( almost £90 sterling each way:cry we found there were less places to stop and also for refueling, if you don't have a french bank card, then we were limited to filling up out of hours etc.  So when we make the final trip in a couple of weeks, we will be taking the tunnel, Calais, Paris and A10 route, it is so much easier foir the dog

hope this helps and have a safe journey

Kimberley

chadeniers 17