There is a bewildering variety of routes and means of transport for getting to France and we have tried most of them. St Julien is about 500 miles from Calais/Dunkerque and about 350 from Caen. Realistic journey times are around 8 to 9 hours hours from Calais and 6 hours from Caen. Your satnav will (at last) find the house from the address (on the next page). I always avoid Paris by going via Rouen and then either Chartres (if we're not in a hurry) or Angoulême (if we are). I also have a toll-free route to save the pennies. To cross the channel you can leave from Dover /Folkestone to arrive in Dunkerque or Calais; further west you can cross from Newhaven, Portsmouth, Weymouth, Poole and Plymouth to ports such as Dieppe, Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg, St Malo and Roscoff. Whichever way you go, it is a long way and you may consider an overnight stop; there are several chains of cheap hotels. You can also fly to Limoges or Bergerac (both around 90 minutes from St Julien) from various UK airports or take the train to Angoulême in about 6 hours from London. There is even a bus from Angoulême to Brantôme that meets an evening train from Paris 4 days a week. Car hire is available at airports and Angoulême station. You can even arrive by bike – several people have. I took 6 days from Caen, but others have done it more quickly.