GTW
I agree. That's why I choose to not do night flights, unless I have to. The 100nm FAA PPL night x/c requirement is one unavoidable example of a long night flight.
The privilege is handy to get back in the early evening.
jayemm
The problem you describe is much more of a problem (and probably much more common) the other way round: low cloud hangs near the western French coast, anywhere along that super coastline from La Rochelle to San Sebastian. When present, it tends to be OVC006-008 and it can hang in there for days. When arriving, you can do a DIY descent offshore (through a hole in the cloud, of course
) but they will never let you depart VFR and if that doesn't make you want an IR, nothing will.