Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

RBC Brewin Dolphin proudly supporting Afloat and Irish Boating

Space Remains for Irish Rugby Fans Heading to Paris for Six Nations Ireland vs France Fixture

29th January 2026
Irish rugby fans can travel to Paris by sea and soak up the atmosphere ahead of the France vs Ireland Six Nations game. Brittany Ferries have highlighted that there is space still available on the Rosslare to Cherbourg route connecting Normandy.
Irish rugby fans can travel to Paris by sea and soak up the atmosphere ahead of the France vs Ireland Six Nations game. Brittany Ferries have highlighted that there is space still available on the Rosslare to Cherbourg route connecting Normandy. Credit: Rosslare Europort-facebook

Brittany Ferries has confirmed it still has availability on sailings to and from France for Irish rugby fans travelling to Paris for Ireland’s Six Nations clash with France on Thursday, 5 February.

The company says space remains on sailings either side of the fixture, offering supporters a practical alternative for travelling to France, particularly for those looking to build a trip around the midweek game.

The most suitable sailings for fans attending the match are:

  • Tuesday 3 February: Depart Rosslare at 20.00, arriving in Cherbourg at 16.00 the following day
  • Friday 6 February: Depart Cherbourg at 18.30, arriving into Rosslare at 18.30 the following day

Lead-in return prices on these sailings currently start from €506 for a car and two passengers with reserved seats, or €778 for a car and four passengers sharing a four-berth ensuite cabin. 

Travelling by ferry allows supporters to bring their own car and travel as a group, making it easier to plan onward travel to Paris and other destinations in France.

It also offers flexibility around travel times for those extending their stay beyond the match itself, including fans without tickets who still want to soak up the atmosphere in the city around the fixture.

Published in Brittany Ferries
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

Email The Author

Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

Direct Donation to Afloat button

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).