Most of our visitors from the UK arrive by ferry, and a huge advantage that we have at Le Rhun is that we are only an hour and a quarter from the Brittany Ferries terminal at Roscoff.
Brittany Ferries started back in 1973 when farmers and local businesses in north west France started their own service to access the lucrative vegetable markets in the UK. The UK had at that time just joined the Common Market which over time became the European Union of today. They had already had the foresight to dredge the channel and create the Roscoff berth in 1970-72.
Nowadays, Brittany Ferries is the preferred carrier for the majority of our guests from not only the UK, but Ireland too, since Roscoff also connects with Cork.
The Plymouth-Roscoff and Cork-Roscoff routes are served by two ships – the Pont-Aven and the Armorique, and in keeping with Brittany Ferries’ tradition, both are named after the local area. Armorique is the ancient name for the coastal north-western region of France meaning “the country which faces the sea”, whilst Pont-Aven is the name of a commune in the Finistere department of Brittany.
Further along the coast, the ship ‘Barfleur’ links Cherbourg to Poole, ‘Bretagne’ sails between Portsmouth and St Malo and two ferries, the ‘Mont St Michel’ and ‘Normandie’ work the Portsmouth-Caen crossing. Finally the ‘Cotentin’, named after the Cherbourg Peninsula, connects Portsmouth with Le Havre. Despite being named Brittany Ferries, only two of its French ports are in Brittany, the other three being in neighbouring Normandy!
Every one of these ferries is different, and each has a feel and atmosphere of its own. But, which is your favourite? There’s a page with lots of information about all the Brittany Ferries ships here.