It started with a social media post from DFDS ferries with an offer on the Newhaven- Dieppe route. And I thought nah, it’ll be too expensive with the van. I looked anyway and it came in at £177. I booked it almost immediately.

I did a small amount of research – driving to Newhaven is about the same distance and time as driving to Dover from the South Yorkshire Technology Corridor, 4 hour crossing time; leave at 7am, which means check-in at 5. There looked to be campsites nearby but I did zero research beyond that.

I looked in to Dieppe town. Seafront aire, looked like free parking in town. Docks right there in the town. Half an hour to familiar territory of Le Tréport. Done deal.

It was a Sunday morning crossing so we set off Saturday afternoon, and despite a weird back and forth and diversion, got to the dockside about 8ish.

Newhaven docks are small. I had kind of found out about a car park which I was hoping we could use overnight but we got chatting to a guy who had already pulled in to the queue at check-in and put his jacks down, and we decided to follow suit. All was well until the refrigerated lorry in the car park opposite kicked up at 4am.

Eventually a little mester worked his way down the line knocking on windows to say check in was about to open and we were off.

The ferry was a yellow Transmanche operated by DFDS and we had prepaid for a breakfast which we lined up for first thing. It wasn’t worth the queuing time or the price tag. A lighter continental breakfast would have been cheaper and more edible. Same for the main course on the way back. Not worth the money.

The crossing though was lovely. Sun out, and a walk on deck was most bracing.

3 outdoor decks with seating, the usual gift shops etc so at 4 hours it seemed short and sweet and we reckoned up that it was our 3rd ferry trip of 2025.

Entertainment was courtesy of the pin box thingy. Hilarious.

You could see the town from the ferry and vice versa.

There was a bridge under repair between the ferry port and town/seafront so we had to take a diversion of about 10-15 minutes but we parked up looking out on the shingle beach and headed straight for the nearest restaurant.

Unsurprisingly, after the subpar breakfast, we were starving, and seeing moules frites on the menu was  a treat.

20 euros for a large Leffe whilst we perused the options. The girl child still has a way to go with her GCSE French because she thought champignons frais was Champagne and strawberries in the mussels!

However, for a supplément of 4€ we enjoyed a most delightful café gourmand, which became a bit of a theme during the week.

In a very idle, take it or leave it kind of fashion I had researched campings around Le Tréport, and found one offering Motorhome emplacements at 20 euro before supplements. The week before take off there were still plenty available so I booked us in. 155 euro in total with EHU and all the campsite facilities. 20 mins walk to Le Tréport one way and the same to Mers Les Bains in the opposite direction. 5 minutes drive to Auchan. Jobs a good un.

Monday was a quiet day on site and hunter-gathering supplies from the Auchan. As tradition dictates we secured Carambars, Danette au Chocolat, Croque Monsieur, Orangina etc etc

An afternoon stroll into town was extremely breezy, so after inspecting the sea front we took refuge in a harbour front bar/crêperie where the children partook of Nutella crêpes and the grown ups had a small (ahem) amount of booze.

No 20 euro beers today but the Irish coffee was a lot more Irish and a lot less coffee. Surprisingly we had to shell out 50 euro for the pleasure. Eating and drinking out is getting steep!

The afternoon’s bumptiousness affected our appetites, so rather than cook the curry we had been slowly defrosting since leaving home, we just nibbled at the pâtisserie selection that we acquired earlier at the supermarché.

Mother would be relieved to know that you don’t have to be up at the crack of dawn to go out cherching du pain, as the camp has an ordering service, so we partook of the traditional bakes and pastries of a morning, for a very reasonable fee.

Tuesday we headed north to St. Valéry, where we had been before, in pre-van days when we stayed in a chalet near there. I misremembered the parking situation and we ended up touring the narrow cobbled centre, dodging pedestrians until we got to the marina/steam train area where I thought we could park. Alas we were foiled by height barriers and ended up paying to park at the roadside further down.

We took a walk and ended up sat outside another bar crêperie where we enjoyed our second café gourmand of the week whilst the anklebiterz put away waffles and crêpes again.

Back to camp to finally eat that curry, then.

Its worth taking a side note here about the layout and facilities of the camp.

Around the reception area is the bar/restaurant (closed) petanque installation, aire de jeux pour enfants, heated facilities block and grass pitches where there was a smattering of caravans.

The main portion of the campsite was a long road bordered with many motorhome pitches which were part hardstanding and part grass with hedges, although access to the EHU was unorthodox, needing long power leads having to bypass other pitches to find your numbered plug.

We were bang opposite the other facilities block which was neither heated nor fully open 24/7, and with a gorgeous view of the service point, and the daily queues of vans waiting to jettison the contents of their bogs.

Mother would not be impressed by the lack of toilet seats and the rationing of PQ due to repeated thefts, according to the notice on the cubicle door. However, if you were prepared for the lengthy trot to the heated building you would be rewarded with ambient temperatures, intermittent paper supplies and a soap dispenser at the sink!

Any road up, the forecast for Wednesday was better, so we braved the almost 2 hour journey down the coast to Étretat, home of the famous chalk cliffs, setting of the adventures of Arsène Lupin and many sea front seafood restaurants.

Now, here I did do some research, because Étretat is tiny and a tourist hot spot, so parking for the Big Red Beast needed to be taken seriously.

There are a number of car parks, all with height barriers, all stating in the reviews that they are not suitable for Motorhomes. There is an aire at the back of town named after a certain M. De Maupassant, but at 13 euro was not a tempting thought. Google provided the solution with a roadside picnic layby, a 15 minute walk in to town, just before the train station, which we were lucky enough to get the last one of the 3 or so available spots.

It was fine when we walked downhill into town and toured around a bit, but the prices were no laughing matter and we ended up in a medieval looking hotel called Le Salamandre, with an open fire and the promise of a mini fruits de mer starter.

We had a leisurely lunch of many courses, including the now almost obligatory café gourmand (supplement of 4 euro mind) and shelled out a whopping 158 euro for the pleasure. I was mightily entertained by the bus tourists who had ordered and not had time to stay to eat and therefore didn’t want to pay, and when we exited we discovered that the weather had taken a turn, so instead of visiting the clifftop gardens we pegged it back to the van and actually had to refuel for the first time since leaving home.

Thursday we stayed local and walked down along the harbour and across the bridge into Mers Les Bains.

We stopped at a seafront friterie and enjoyed a round of drinks in the sunshine on their deck before sauntering down the sea front looking for somewhere to eat. There weren’t too many options to go at opposite the water but we ended up in Face à la Mer for a round of crêpes, so all was good.

Standard orders were given, but not only did the crêpes arrive on wooden boards, the ruddy complête had tomato in it. Which was not an auspicious addition.

The little mester was very attentive and offered to photograph us for posterity, hence the expressions. He was v. nice and we had a lovely chat about learning other people’s languages. We both agreed that speaking Spanish was great.

Due to having a leg lifted for food and drink elsewhere we decided to amble back along the shingle beach and across the harbour in search of ice creams.  We did have to console a small child first though,  who we accidentally abandoned whilst we looked at the water.

On crossing the harbour bridge we stopped to admire a small boat using the complicated lock system to get out of the inner harbour, but it took so long that we abandoned the effort and went for afternoon snack. Mrs Woman at the ice creamery feared for her flavour selection with it being the end of the season, but children were appeased with waffles and grown ups stuck to liquids.

Another amble by the water had us back at camp after a great day.

Friday was home time, via Dieppe again. We didn’t have to check in for the ferry until 2 but had to be off the camp by 12 so we headed back to Dieppe to see a bit more of the town and kill some time.

KB was feeling a bit subpar so he stayed in the van on the seafront for 2 lovely hours and I took the nippers off to explore. We bought knick-knacks and churros, admiring the small French Halloween fun and then against my better judgement I agreed to take them on the big wheel. Lovely view from the top. If your eyes are open.

Just as we were sampling the churros I got a text asking me to head back to the van, KB had had a visit from the Gendarmes requiring him to remove the vehicle from the seafront, so we adjourned to the ferry port instead.

We waited patiently for check in, apart from Madame deciding to go and park her breakfast just as the queue started to move, but we made it through, no customs inspection despite the large gang of officials, and on the boat by 4. Food was fish and chips that were frankly horrid, no drink included in the evening meal, which seems daft as breakfast came with juice and a hot drink. We won’t be pre-buying food on this route again.

The road works were still in place just off Newhaven so it was a diversion through Brighton again and a long drive home, but we still had Saturday and Sunday before going back to work, which I think works really well. It was long enough to feel like a proper break but still with enough time to rest and catch up on things before going back to the day job.

So would we do this trip again? The ferry is not really enough to switch from Dover – Calais every time. The timetable doesn’t give so many options and the crossing is longer. I daresay in high season the overnight parking on the dockside is less certain too. The only thing it saves is mileage in France, so depending on the destination it could be a consideration, if the price is right like it was this time.

And talking of prices, since being able to track what we spent in August, I worked out what we spent on this trip too.

We spent £1347.11 all in, which worked out at £336.78 per person, £56.13 per person per day.

It seems OK, but compare it to Ireland, which was £639.10 per person, which seems steeper but it was a longer trip and it worked out at  £42.60 per person per day.

France is getting expensive.

Where to next and when?

This is pretty much 12 months on from our year of half-century celebrations, no plans to get away for the long weekend this year, so maybe it’s time to reflect and look back?