The fare from my local station in Hampshire to London, 2 adults 4 children
is
£51.50.
How can I get to Paris for less?

Bloody hell, that's very reasonable. Is that with a Family Railcard (or
whatever the latest incarnation of that is called) or just standard fares?

I do like driving places, but I'm all for travelling by the best method for
the situation. "Best" being defined as the best compromise of time, running
costs, the need for sleep, etc. etc. A while back when I bought my van from
a bloke up in Glasgow, I briefly considered driving up, but only very
briefly. I looked up flight prices on all the budget airlines, and got an
early flight from Stansted to Glasgow for around the £35 mark including
taxes. Plus £15 for petrol for my mate to drop me off there, it came to
around £50 anyway (certainly within £5 anyway).

Left the house (Berkshire) at 4:30am, walked out the front of Glasgow
airport (no luggage, so walked straight out) at 8:00am, then aobut two quid
and half an hour later I walked through the front door of the co-op bank in
Glasgow at 8:30am. Not bad at all. I could almost commute it :-)

Booking in for the flight was easy enough, and hanging around time was 30-45
minutes at the most, and I must say the way the handle the checking in
queues at Stansted was excellent (a few people calling out "all people for
5:50 check-in" etc., enabling them to skip the queue and go straight
through). Got to read a paper and have a kip on the plane, and overall a
very relaxing journey, and one that would have taken at least 1.5x the time
driving up, not to mention having to put a friend through a very long day,
driving wise.

Peter