Recommendations for 3 day trip from Great Britain to France via Ferry.

It looks like you could take the Eurostar from Ashford to Calais-or London to Paris mid-week for (currently) 34-55 GBP. That may be a more efficient use of time, unless the ferry is a specific desire. Prices go up as departure gets closer.

Calais is a pretty industrial port town that would not often be described as a charming village. You can take a ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre, then connect by bus to Honfleur (30 minutes) or train to Rouen (one hour). See www.seaview.co.uk for ferry schedules. Or, the Eurostar train can take you to Brussels for an easy train connection to Bruges (Belgium), which is certainly charming, and trains run frequently.

Calais is not a charming village, and I don't know of any in the immediate vicinity. If you follow the coast around to Dunkirk it gets even worse.

If you go southwest along the other direction it eventually improves.

P&O are the only ferry from the Dover area which allows foot passengers but be aware that the prime purpose of those ferries is to move large numbers of big trucks and cars across the water. Deck facilities are minimal.

If you are considering using a rental car on the ferry be aware that most rental agreements prohibit their cars going on ferries.

Carol, can you share why you are attracted to using a ferry?

If you go further into France or Belgium from Calais you will find quintessential small villages and towns.

Bruges is beautiful and easily reached by Eurostar train from England to Brussels then an easy short connection to Bruges, but it is Flemish - not French.

Charming places around Calais are not easy to find. I know that south of Calais downtown Boulogne-sur-Mer is nice, but small. Further south beach resort Le Touguet-Paris-Plage can be of interest.
More south-east of Calais you can consider downtown St-Omer which has nice spots. With a bit more travelling you can think about Amiens or Arras, the first mainly for it’s cathedral, the latter for the two unique main squares.
In Belgium very lovely is the main square (and the area around) of Veurne along the -E40-way to Bruges.

We were fetched by aquacars.co.uk based in Portsmouth and spent the night and one day there with all the naval history. We took the ferry over to Caen (Ouistreham actually), took the bus into Caen RR station and drove away in our hired car. Bayeux is a charming village only 15-20 miles from Caen and near the D Day beaches. We booked a B&B just outside Villers-Bocage, about 10 miles southeast of Bayeux. Send me a PM and I can recommend a fabulous rural B&B there.

I second the concept that Calais itself is not a very pretty town. But only 30km form Calais is Saint Omer. It's a cute town, with a great Saturday market. For just a couple days you can find plenty to do:

• Take a boat trip in the marais , the last cultivated marais in france and also the last place where the postman uses a boat.

• La Coupole, museum made form a V2 launch site, with 3D planetarium

• Musee Sandelin, small but some very interesting pieces

• In our library we have one of the 4 Guttenberg Bibles in France.

• In July, we will have guided nightime visits in the cathedral

In relation to English history, this was the site of the English Jesuit College, now Stonyhurst. There is a bit of good reading on the book "Saint Omer and the British Connection" by Richard Jones.

And for dining, some very good restaurants at reasonable prices. In case you can't tell, I live here and really like it :-)
Our office of tourism is at http://www.tourisme-saintomer.com/gb/home.htm. and our 'saison culturelle" info is at http://www.tourisme-saintomer.com/pdf/2014%20SaisonCulturelle.pdf (all in French though). If you need more info, let me know