Sorry mate! All the main line services go via Paris!

But with the TGV service from Bordeaux to Paris, a quick hop across Paris by taxi and a fast service (even using the Eurostar depending on the time of day you are travelling) to Calais should make it relatively painless and even comfortable!

The sooner you book, the cheaper the fare it seems. Try visiting http://www.sncf.com .

If you use Mappy, it avoids Paris by quite a way. Have a look here:

http://www.mappy.com/

hope this helps.

John

Oops, sorry, I didnt realise you meant by train.

John

Sorry I should have said we will be travelling by road.

Oh right! Try http://www.viamichelin.fr for a routing (it will do it in English!) and you can tell it to avoid Paris.

Hi ya,
try this way we saved around 3 to 4 hrs not going around Paris.
head for niort then onto poitiers then onto tours. turn off and head for le mans rouen and calais. not sure of the road no's but they were tolls but it was a lot quicker than going around paris hope this is of some help.

And in theory (!!) if you travel on a Sunday, you shouldn't have any lorries on motorways until 22H00. Well locally it seems that the French lorries accept this, but the 'foreign' lorries don't!

I agree with Wirehacker: Niort - Tours - Le Mans - Alencon - Rouen - Abbeville - Calais. Would that this route had been available when we took the kids on holiday to France in the '80s! Quite a pleasant route, especially north of Le Mans, but watch your directions carefully around Rouen.

I agree with Grunt. Now that the A28 is fully open the west side route is great. I found that the route finders tend to take you through Rouen (J23 off A13) which is fine if your navigational skills are good, we tend to go to J24 where you will see the signs for Calais, much easier to follow IMHO.

As John mentioned Mappy.com is a good route finder, and it will highlight the speed cameras.

Bon Voyage
Saggy

Get a Tom Tom Europe (mine on a PDA with separate antennae much more flexible)

Do an Itinerary for travelling the route (like Wirehacker said)

Niort - Tours - Le Mans - Alencon - Rouen - Abbeville - Calais

by Autoroute it's around 8 hours with a couple of short breaks or about 16 hours non stop by Route Nationale

Done that route my self and the other way too this year again and I find it easy and quick and as not all the road is toll it's relatively cheap Mappy will let you plan this way and tell you what tolls and even an estimate of what fuel you will use

We had a Satnav for the first time this year (built into the car), and we wonder now how we managed without it The route we followed to and from the tunnel was the same as the others, Calais - Abbeville - Rouen - Alencon - Le Mans - Tours - Niort. We did stop overnight in Rouen on both trips and were glad we did as it would have been a very long journey otherwise.