BY FERRY

We prefer to travel from Portsmouth to Caen with Brittany Ferries on the overnight ferry with a cabin. These need booking quite well in advance as they are extremely popular - especially during school holiday times.

From Caen it is roughly three and a half to four hours by car. Exiting the port, follow signs to Alencon and Le Mans and pick up the new autoroute at Eccomoy which takes you past Alencon, Le Mans, and Tours, exiting at "Ste. Maure de Touraine" and following signs to Descartes. After Descartes cross the bridge, through Buxeuil St. Jacques, through the fields and turn left where it is signposted to St. Remy sur Creuse.

On entering the village, we are roughly the sixth property on the left. There are large gates and a yellow cartwheel against the wall.

Dover to Calais is obviously a shorter crossing, and there are more of them each day, but it involves six and a half hours driving on the autoroute, and having to negotiate the Peripherique around Paris.

BY TRAIN

Eurostar, now from St. Pancras or Ashford to Paris Gare du Nord, taxi or metro across Paris to Montparnasse and a TGV leaves from there for Chatellerault at approximately 13:55, arriving one hour and twenty minutes later. You can hire a car from Europcar, which is a short taxi ride from Chatellerault Station.

Alternatively you can take the Eurostar to Lille, change there on to a train for Poitiers and hire a car at Poitiers.

British Rail International Tel. No. 08705 848848

BY PLANE

You can fly with RyanAir low cost Airlines to Poitiers or Tours, then either take a train to Chatellerault or hire a car.

All flights leave from Stansted and are amazingly cheap.