Sometimes you have lots of time to devote to road trips. Other times, life gets in the way. This is a great route for a quick getaway – you leave Portsmouth on Friday evening and get back to Folkestone on Sunday evening. Either do this route ‘as it is’, or extend and adjust to your needs.
This route is built around France’s most rewarding driving roads; smooth coastal D-routes along the Normandy cliffs, a working fishing harbour barely anyone visits, and enough drama in the granite gorges of the Alpes Mancelles to make the whole thing feel properly earned. Saint-Léonard-des-Bois is your secret weapon: a forgotten corner of rolling hills and river gorges barely an hour from the coast, almost entirely tourist-free.
Outward leg: Overnight ferry from Portsmouth, arrive St Malo at dawn. Return: Calais on LeShuttle, Sunday evening. Sleep on the ferry on the way out — sleep in your own bed Sunday night.
| ~700 miles Driving distance | 48 hours In France | 4 stops Unmissable sights | 1 hidden gem Off the radar |
Friday Night — Departure
Portsmouth → St Malo (overnight ferry)
🚢 20:00 – Board the Ferry at Portsmouth Harbour
Brittany Ferries’ overnight service to St Malo departs around 20:00–21:00 (check exact schedule when booking – it varies by season). Arrive 2–3 hours before departure to load the car and grab dinner on board. The ship has restaurants, bars and cabins – book a cabin to actually sleep. You’ll arrive St Malo around 08:00–09:00 Saturday morning.
🚗 Driver’s note: Book a cabin — you’ll want to arrive fresh and ready to drive.
Saturday — The Big Day
St Malo → Port-en-Bessin → Alpes Mancelles → Chartres
☕ 09:00 – Breakfast in St Malo’s Walled City
Don’t just drive off the ferry. Walk into the old walled town (intra-muros), grab a café crème and a croissant from one of the boulangeries inside the ramparts, and spend 30 minutes on the walls watching the tide. St Malo is genuinely spectacular in the morning light – granite towers, big skies, cold Atlantic air. It earns its own visit one day.
🚗 Park near the ‘Pont de Saint Malo’, just outside the walls. Follow signs for Centre Historique from the ferry terminal — it’s five minutes.
⚓ 11:30 — Port-en-Bessin
Port-en-Bessin-Huppain, Calvados
Almost nobody in a sports car stops here. That is precisely why you should.
Port-en-Bessin is a working fishing harbour, tucked between chalk cliffs at the western edge of the D-Day coast. There is no spectacle laid on for visitors — just boats, nets, salt air, and a quayside that has barely changed in fifty years. It is genuinely charming, entirely authentic, and a perfect lunch stop.
The seafood is the thing. The catch comes off the boats in the morning and onto the plate by noon — crab, sole, coquilles Saint-Jacques. Find a table at one of the small harbour restaurants, order whatever’s fresh, and take your time. Classic cars look exceptional parked on the quayside against the chalk cliff backdrop.
The town also has a quiet piece of history: liberated in the days immediately following D-Day, there is a Royal Marines memorial bunker on the western headland above the harbour entrance — worth five minutes of your time.
| Drive from St Malo: ~2 hours via Normandy coastal D-roads |
|---|
| Time here: 60–90 minutes including lunch |
| Fuel: Fill up here or at Bayeux before heading inland — critical stop before the Alpes Mancelles |
🚗 Don’t cut straight inland from St Malo to get here. Take the coastal D514 east from Arromanches — a clifftop road, directly above the Channel, almost no traffic on a Saturday morning. It adds fifteen minutes and is completely worth it.
⭐ 15:00 — Les Alpes Mancelles (Hidden Gem)
Saint-Léonard-des-Bois, Sarthe
From the coast, the route turns inland and south — and this is where the day gets interesting.
The Alpes Mancelles is a compact area of rolling green hills, granite gorges, and half-timbered hamlets that feels utterly unlike the flat farmland surrounding it. A geological accident that has produced some of the best D-roads in northern France, and almost nobody knows about them. The village of Saint-Léonard-des-Bois sits in the gorge of the River Sarthe like something from a film set. The D-road loops from Fresnay-sur-Sarthe through Assé-le-Boisne and back are narrow, twisty, and completely tourist-free.
Almost nobody drives here except locals. That is not an accident — it is the point.
| Drive from Port-en-Bessin: ~1.5 hours via Bayeux and Flers |
|---|
| Key village: Saint-Léonard-des-Bois, Sarthe |
| Route length: ~50km of D-road loops |
| Fuel: Fill up in Flers or Alençon before entering — limited stations in the Alpes Mancelles |
Stop in Saint-Léonard itself — park in the village square and walk to the river bridge. The view upstream into the gorge is exceptional. There is a café on the square that opens on Saturday afternoons. Then pick up the D15 or D38 east through Assé-le-Boisne — these are the real driving roads. Narrow, twisting, and entirely empty on a Saturday afternoon.
🚗 Hood down if you have one. This is exactly the kind of road these cars were made for — third and fourth gear, no traffic, great surface, proper countryside. This is the driving highlight of the whole weekend.
🌙 20:00 — Overnight in Chartres
Chartres, Eure-et-Loir
Chartres makes the perfect overnight. It’s approximately 1.5 hours from the Alpes Mancelles, perfectly positioned for Sunday’s run to Calais, and the cathedral — lit up at night, visible for miles across the flat Beauce plain — is one of the great free sights in France. Dinner on Rue des Changes, a glass of Muscadet, an early night. The cathedral is better in the morning anyway.
Hotel: Campanile PRIME Chartres Centre Gare Cathédrale, 6-8 Av. Jehan de Beauce, 28000 Chartres. Right by the cathedral, private parking on site — confirm a ground-floor space when booking if your car is low. More information and booking here.
🚗 The approach into Chartres from the south on the D935 is one of the great motoring arrivals in France — the cathedral rises out of the flat Beauce plain on the horizon and grows slowly as you close in. Time it for dusk.
Sunday — The Run Home
Chartres → Calais → Folkestone
🕍 09:30 – Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres
One of the finest Gothic cathedrals in existence, and if you’re sleeping in Chartres you have no excuse to skip it. On a Sunday morning it’s a working church — which makes it feel entirely different to a tourist attraction. Services, candles, real acoustics. The medieval stained glass is the finest surviving collection in the world; the famous ‘Chartres blue’ in the rose windows is an almost fluorescent cobalt. Allow 45–60 minutes. Opens 08:30, free entry.
🚗 The cathedral is three minutes’ walk from the hotel. Don’t try to drive to the front door — the streets are extremely narrow. Walk from the hotel or use Place Châtelet.
🛣️ 11:00 — Chartres to Calais: The Fast Road Home
The direct run to Calais via the A10 and A1 is around 300km — approximately 4 hours at touring pace. This is motorway, deliberately. You’ve had your driving. Stop once, somewhere north of Paris, for fuel and an espresso (Aire de Ressons-sur-Matz on the A1 is good). Time your arrival at Coquelles (Eurotunnel terminal) for a 15:00–17:00 train, giving you flexibility and getting you back in the UK by early evening.
🚗 Average speed cameras operate on the A10 south of Paris. Assume every vehicle is being monitored. The limit is 130 km/h in dry conditions, 110 km/h in rain — fines begin at €68 and rise sharply.
🏠 17:00 — Folkestone: Back in the UK
LeShuttle runs every 30–60 minutes — book a flex ticket and turn up when you turn up. 35 minutes under the Channel and you’re back on British soil. The M20 back to the M25 is yours. Aim to be home by 20:00.
The car will smell faintly of French petrol for at least two days. Consider it a compliment.
Practical Information
Booking Essentials
- Brittany Ferries Portsmouth–St Malo + cabin (book 6–8 weeks ahead for weekend summer departures)
- LeShuttle flex ticket, Calais–Folkestone
- Hotel in Chartres, Saturday night
Total Driving
Approximately 700 miles across Saturday and Sunday. Entirely manageable — the ferry handles Friday night and the tunnel handles Sunday evening.
Best Roads for a Sports Car
- D514 Normandy clifftop coast road between Arromanches and Port-en-Bessin
- Alpes Mancelles loops around Saint-Léonard-des-Bois (D15 / D38 / Assé-le-Boisne)
- D935 approach into Chartres from the south
All well-surfaced. French gendarmerie are active on D and N roads — leave the licence points at home.
Time to get touring!
