2. General information

1. WHO ORGANISES WHAT?

The first and most important thing to know at this stage is who organises what! As the Chateau is a centre working between different countries, there is a clear define between the duties of the French team and the UK team.

• The Chateau (France) is in charge of all accommodation arrangements, program settings (excursions and activities), dietary and medical requirements and any queries related to the centre. To get in touch with the team, you can call them on 0033 233 604 695 or email them at darren@the-chateau.com

• For Normandy Experience programs, please email bene@the-chateau.com who is solely in charge of these bookings, organising programs, rooming and anything related to the stay.

• The UK office (Brighton) is in charge of all the promotion, the numbers, financial and general administration and transport aspect of your trip for ALL bookings. To get in touch with the team, you can call them on 01273 202 999 or email them on debs@the-chateau.com, carole@the-chateau.com or nick@the-chateau.com.

2. WHAT’S INCLUDED? NOT INCLUDED?

INCLUDED:

All accommodation, meals, activities, lessons, evening programs, staff and transport are included in the price (unless arranged otherwise at your booking stage).

NOT INCLUDED:

• Journey meals on arrival and departure day. You will have cold buffet or snack (depending on the time of arrival) and packed breakfast on departure, but meals on the ferry are not included.

• Pocket money (for market trips for example)

• Excursions entrance fees. For a price guideline of excursions, please click here. What do you think? However, you can easily choose excursions that do not have entrance fees (eg. Mt St Michel, Dinard, markets..

• Travel insurance is not included in the price.

IMPORTANT: All aspects of operations and transport are liability insured. Details of policies can be found in the ‘Safety and Security’ tab of our website. Your school and union should provide general liability insurance to cover you and your colleagues. These days in Western Europe, we do not necessarily consider that travel insurance is a necessity and this is not included in the price. The important practical issue is that you have E111 medical cards to cover any medical requirements and that parents are clearly informed that lost property is their responsibility (often these days, this is covered by home insurance or credit cards perks). In any case, please make sure parents understand clearly they check they’re covered/ get cover/ take their own risks!

Having said that, many schools decide to take out travel insurance. We can organise this for £5 per pupil for Normandy Experience and £6 per pupil for the Chateau program.

3.TRANSPORT:

Our standard format of travelling is coach + ferry. We usually arrange the transport between 3 to 6 months prior to your departure. Every group is transferred in different ways and this varies according to party size, distance travelled etc..

1. Full-time coach:

A coach picks you up at school and transfers you all the way to the Chateau via Brittany Ferries. Depending on numbers, it is likely this group will share the coach with another group, either from their school or from port. A group normally needs to have 50+ pupils in order to have this facility.

2. Shuttles + ferry:

A coach will pick up the group from school and transfer them to port where they will cross as foot passengers (with luggage trailers on main crossings). On the French side, our Chateau coach will pick up the group and transfer them to the Chateau/ Normandy Experience accommodation. As much as possible, we try to put these groups on a Fast Ferry to shorten their journey.

Note on coaches: The coaches we use are from very experienced companies and we have been in partnership with them for many years.

Note on ferries: We work in partnership with Brittany Ferries. Here is general information:

• Routes: We usually use Portsmouth-Caen or Portsmouth-Cherbourg crossings since there are more frequent and they provide more assistance than any other crossings (these routes are the only ones providing luggage trailers). Other crossings are Poole-Cherbourg and Plymouth-Roscoff (used for groups around Plymouth)

• Crossings: There are 2 types of crossings.

Standard sailing: This crossing lasts 6 hours and usually leads to a steady crossing since the ferry is larger. This crossing supplies hot food and Brittany usually try to allocate a room to each group as courtesy, but this is NOT guaranteed! (It is possible to guarantee it for £150 each way). For foot passengers, luggage trailers are not provided and need to be paid for, which we do at our expense. These luggage trailers are available on certain crossings and we always try our best to guarantee it to your group.

Fast cat: This crossing lasts less than 3 hours. It has friendlier timings but crossing can be choppy depending on the weather. Hot food is not available on these crossings and the seating arrangements are airline style. This crossing automatically has luggage assistance for foot passengers, that’s why we try our best to prioritise foot passenger groups on these crossing to facilitate their journey.

Eurotunnel: A rarer option but convenient to certain groups close to Folkestone. Use of Eurotunnel is only possible if you have a Full-time coach. There are no choppy crossing, but the time on the road is considerably more than the other options. However, timings are friendlier and the total journey time is usually 5 hours on the French side and most of the time 3 hours less than the ferry.

Flights: Very rare option but becoming increasingly popular due to the range of UK airports who fly to Dinard or Rennes. Certain groups arrange their own flights, in which case we supply the transfer from the airport (in Brittany) to the accommodation. Please discuss options with us.

3. After your first payment