Time: Leave plenty rushing for the ferry wasn't an enjoyable experience for both of us, pushing the engine to the limit hoping that the fan belt would hold up and the weather did get worse. I suggest one day from Germany to get into France for about five hours driving. It was nine hours for us to cover France including stop offs, I would suggest getting close to the ferry the night before. So my advice 3 days each way to have a bit of comfort and do a bit of sight seeing. I will post up a picture of a part of France that takes 4 hours to cover and it is only 250KM or so,