1) Cross Channel Ports to use are St Malo, Caen, Le Havre or Cherbourg. St Malo is the easiest and involves only a short drive of some three hours on good roads. The drive from Calais can take up to eight hours and is not recommended. The best route generally is to get onto the N137 as soon as possible, heading south signposted Nantes then La Rochelle until you reach the village of St Hermine where you take the N148 signposted Fontenay Le Comte. After about 10km there will be a sign for the village, from here it is only about 3km off the main road. (Can now use new Motorway from Nantes to Fontenay).

2) Flying with Ryanair or Flybe is very quick, easy and usually cheap, though prices vary a lot.

Ryanair fly daily from Stansted to La Rochelle, Poitiers, and Tours. La Rochelle is 50 minute drive to Thué, Poitiers about 70 minutes and Tours about 2 hours.

Flybe fly daily (except Tuesday & Thursday) from Southampton and Birmingham to La Rochelle.

Flights are only a little over an hour and the airports have car hire booths for all the main hire companies. Car hire is fairly cheap but need to remember cost of parking at UK airports when planning.

Parking and care hire are cheaper if booked in advance. The French airports are very small and quick to get through.

The site below has a facility where you can search for cheap flights, i.e. When are flights to La Rochelle less then £10 for example and it will give you all the dates. Quick and easy to use.(also has some other good stuff)