Hi, C. Days in France - which I would just have been gearing up for in April - are no more. I think I may earlier have mentioned that the French ferry-company was considering abandoning trips to my home-town area; well, that has now happened. As a result, early morning departures with late evening same-day returns are over, necessitating an overnight stay. Nothing wrong with that, except that it is not the "booze-cruise" concept as WE knew it.
You may remember that, for most Brits, a booze-cruise involved hiring a van and bringing it back from France with its axles trailing along the roadway because of the weight of alcohol bottles in it. Not for us...we went aboard as foot-passengers, intent on getting as much good French food and drink inside us as we could manage before the ferry departed on the return trip!
Wonderful, but now a thing of the past.