Nothing says “holiday” quite like a game of travel chaos bingo. In recent years, the annual trip from our home in France to visit family in the UK has navigated strikes, delays, wildfires, cancellations and skyrocketing airfares.
This year we decided to do things differently. Having switched to an electric car in June, we decided on a 2,175-mile EV road trip from Nice to Northern Ireland and back.
Drastic? Maybe. But it turned into one of our most enjoyable trips yet – and changed how I think of family travel.
Our Audi Q4 e-tron has a maximum range of 338 miles on a full charge. Loaded with a family of four plus luggage, and with motorway speeds and air conditioning running, we reckoned on around 240 miles between charges.
France has close to 200,000 publicly accessible charging points and as many as 382 per 100,000 of the population (compared to around 122,000 in the UK and 174.9 per 100,000 of the population), with major transport corridors well served by fast chargers.
While we were new to the charging game, we quickly got to grips with the practicalities, having planned some of our stops in advance and others using the in-car GPS and Audi app.
French charging stations are clearly signposted on motorways and on some routes, digital signs provide distances to the next three closest charge points.
I was surprised how quickly we were able to charge, often taking no longer than a coffee and comfort break at a service station. Travelling with young children, we would be stopping anyway. Usually, we found an available bay straight away. Our longest wait was 20 minutes, the one exception a station near Lyon where every charger was occupied or offline, so we carried on to the next.
A French motorway sign warning electric vehicle drivers that charging may require some patience, near Lyon (Photo: Alex MARTIN / AFP via Getty Images)The beauty of this road trip was the freedom to take our time and discover new places. By EV it felt like we floated up through France. Day one we set out from Nice and drove northwest for around three hours to Coucoo Cabanes des Grands Cépages, just beyond Avignon. We stayed in a lakeside cabin with a Nordic bath and used the onsite free charger that took about four hours to top up the battery while we enjoyed a swim and dinner.
The next day we moved four hours north to Burgundy and Les Sources de Vougeot, a former Cistercian priory and château dating to the 14th century, now a boutique hotel. While the car had its battery topped up courtesy of the complimentary EV charging, we recharged our own at the spa. Win-win.
After a brief stopover in Champagne, on day four we rolled onto a P&O ferry at Calais. Once in Kent, we stayed with family and tried out a home trickle charger, which took 48 hours to reach 100 per cent across four days.
The family enjoyed the pace of life in France with an EV (Photo: Rebecca McVeigh)Between the UK and France there were noticeable charging differences. Firstly, cost. Many of the fast motorway chargers in France are funded by the French government or subsidised by the European Union. Not so on Brexit Island. Across France we paid an average of 56p per kWh for all our charges combined. Across the UK it was 71p, over a quarter more.
In the UK, we relied on phones to locate the next charging opportunity, which was less convenient than the helpful signage in France.
After Kent, we topped up during a stop at Legoland Windsor (the cheapest charge on our UK route at 54p per kWh), at rapid chargers near Birmingham and Holyhead, then sailed to Dublin on the Stena Estrid. Two dolphins swam alongside the ferry as we left Wales. You don’t get that on a plane.
Our one charger fail was in Northern Ireland where we tried a public point at a leisure centre. We downloaded the relevant apps but just couldn’t get it to work. My County Down hometown of Banbridge was also the location of our priciest charge, an eye-watering 87p per kWh, more than 2.5 times the price of the cheapest in France.
The total charging cost across our five-week road trip came to £351. From April 2028 the eVED charge means British drivers pay 3p a mile, including miles driven abroad, so a UK-registered car doing 2,000 miles, for instance, would pay a further £60. France currently has no pay-per-distance tax planned.
Château d’Ainay-le-Vieil in Centre-Val de Loire has been in the same family for more than 550 years (Photo: Rebecca McVeigh)For the return leg we took Irish Ferries’ overnight sailing from Dublin to Cherbourg. We’re still talking about this crossing as it felt like part of the holiday rather than a mode of transport. Aboard the WB Yeats our deluxe family cabin had a double bed, two bunk beds and an en suite. The kids enjoyed a magic show, and the latest family films were playing in the cinema. EV charging was available at three onboard charging points for a charge of €15, which you have to reserve in advance.
Passing through Normandy we reached Perche, north of the Loire, and spent two nights glamping in the forest at Huttopia Senonches. We rowed across the lake and rode out a dramatic thunderstorm under canvas. The children enjoyed crafts and the outdoor cinema. Although this was an unplugged getaway in nature, we did plug in the EV.
If you were to drop a pin in the centre of France, you’d hit our next discovery. Château d’Ainay-le-Vieil in Centre-Val de Loire is a beautifully restored medieval château that has remained in the same family for more than 550 years. Climbing the ancient stone spiral staircase we reached our chambre d’hôtes (B&B) in a turret overlooking the moat. We explored les chartreuses (beautiful walled gardens) and enjoyed an evening of classical music. All while the car charged for free.
They went glamping at Huttopia Senonches in Perche (Photo: Manu Reyboz)Then, with the dormant volcanoes of Auvergne on the horizon we made for Le Pays de Condrieu, south of Lyon. This mountainside Huttopia site had remarkable views of the Rhône valley. We loved the forest spa, which rejuvenated us for the final leg of our road trip, through the vineyards of Provence and home to Nice.
No airports, no cancellations. Less stress, more joy. Could we have done it with fewer stops? Sure. But taking the long way round was half the fun, making this our best adventure yet.
How to get there
The writer was a guest of DiscoverFerries.com which represents 12 ferry operators in the UK, Ireland and the British Islands and offers information on routes.
P&O Dover to Calais crossings from £96 one-way for a car and four. passengers
Stena Line Holyhead to Dublin from £197 one-way.
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