It then travels overnight, while you catch a TGV train, which can cover the 430 miles to Avignon in two hours 40 minutes. You stay in a hotel in Avignon (at your expense) and await the arrival of your car.The fare is £120 each way for the car, which can be set against the cost of fuel, wear and tear and autoroute tolls (€41/£25 for the one-way journey). The driver and passengers pay £45 each way or £68 return.You can buy through Rail Europe (08702 415 415, ), though as with other French trains bookings open only 60 days before the date of departure.A PLANEGatwick to Murmansk is likely to be the strangest flight of the year. A new series of charter flights in early summer will link the Sussex airport with one of the northernmost cities in the world.

Murmansk is a port on the Barents Sea, well inside the Arctic Circle, and boasts some of the ugliest buildings and grimmest hotels and restaurants in the world. So why would anyone want to go there? The main attraction is the wild Kola Peninsula, and in particular the fly-fishing on its rivers.The seven flights begin on 9 May and end on 20 June. They are being organised by the fishing specialist tour operator Roxton Bailey Robinson Worldwide (01488 689701 ), which first led fishing groups to the Kola Peninsula a decade ago. A week’s all-inclusive package costs £4,300; the company is also selling seats aboard the flights for £810. That might sound a lot, but it does save you flying to St Petersburg and making a 28-hour train ride north to Murmansk.A BUSFor only a little more than the cost of single day’s motoring within the capital’s congestion charge zone, you could buy 10 London bus rides. The Saver Ticket carnet costs £6.50 for 10 journeys of any length, including those within the central zone where the normal fare is £1.Annoyingly, these tickets are not sold on the buses themselves, nor from Underground stations; buy them in advance from a newsagent with a Bus Pass sticker in the window.If you are in town only for a day, a £2 day pass allows unlimited travel on London’s buses, from Heathrow airport to Dagenham, and from Croydon to Enfield. Again, it is tricky to buy; your best hope is from one of the automatic machines that are being installed at stops on routes served by the new “bendy-buses”, for which all passengers require a ticket before boarding..

WHY GO NOW?

WHY GO NOW?
France is our most popular overseas destination, but relatively few people make it to the glorious south-west of the country. This weekend, from 10am on Friday, Bordeaux’s Parc des Expositions plays host to the spring Foire ?a Brocante – a large bric-a-brac market that attracts about 25,000 bargain-hunters and traders from all over Europe. At any time of year, the former English stronghold and French capital is a wealthy maritime city with an abundance of history and culture within easy reach, along with superior red wines and superb food.DOWN PAYMENTBritish Airways (0845 77 333 77; ) flies from Gatwick, and Buzz (0870 240 7070; buzzaway ) from Stansted, though the latter will be be grounded from the end of March. Travelling this Friday, returning on Monday, the lowest fare on BA is £151, and £162 on Buzz. The fare is €5.80 (£3.60) single, €9.40 (£6) return. The trip should take around 30 minutes to the main stop for the city centre, Place Gambetta, where the city’s guillotine once stood.INSTANT BRIEFINGThe Romans established Bordeaux’s original settlement around what is now Place Camille- Jullian.