First time France

[Herbenny]

Well, Castellane is down the road, it's just a fairly long road.

Don't forget 8/9 hours on a route planner is probably more like 12 hours in reality, well thats if you like stopping for a brew like I do. lol

I take it you meant this Castellane?

http://goo.gl/maps/YoKMn

Yes spot on Mark ...Thats where I wanted to go but I think I am being unrealistic or stupid

and yes I too take every opportunity to have a tea stop, a photo stop and a wine stop so it will take us forever and a day.

 

[barryd]

Definitely keep that area on your list of places to go though. As has been said though travel through France on none toll roads in a motorhome can take some time. Its rare that the sat nav times relate to how long a journey really takes. If you have limited time and long distances to go toll roads are the unfortunate reality of how you need to get there. Once you get down into central France from Limousin to Provence for example and you go off the main roads your up on the Massif central and there are a lot of ups and downs and winding roads that whilst they can be stunning to drive a motorhome is not a Ferrari and journeys can seem to take longer than expected and yes, France is massive! I reckon off toll roads on a rough estimate of an average speed of 40mph tops.

The reason I spend a lot of time planning now is that on our first trip in 2009 we didnt do hardly any and in those days getting online wasnt as easy as it is now so it was hard to google things once we were away. Firstly we ping pong balled around Europe in a completely stupid and nonsensical manner and we later found out we had driven by and been near all sorts of great places we should have seen.

 

[jagmanx]

Beware diostance etc

We spent 4 weeks 2 years ago.
Lorraine
Burgundy
Haute Savoie
Central Massif/Auvergne
Dordogne
Limousin
Loire valley
Brittany and then back to Calais
Bad planning
Too much driving
Did not stay 2 or 3 (or 4) nights in places

This year we plan
Champagne
Lorraine
Vosges
Jura
Maybe Haute Savoie
AND 6 or 7 weeks
2 nights everywhere 3 or 4 sometimes

 

[witzend]

In preparation for my first France trip Thanks

Have you never thought about accompanying the ole man on his trips would give you a idea of what to expect.

 

[mark61]

Yes spot on Mark ...Thats where I wanted to go but I think I am being unrealistic or stupid

and yes I too take every opportunity to have a tea stop, a photo stop and a wine stop so it will take us forever and a day.

It's not stupid or unrealistic at all. You have to work with the time you have.
Two and a half weeks has pretty much been my max I can take off in one go. Just accept that you have to put in a couple of long days driving, and Europe is your Oyster.

 

[Herbenny]

Have you never thought about accompanying the ole man on his trips would give you a idea of what to expect.

I did used to all them years ago when our eledest was a baby and before that thing called health and safety kicked in ....Got lovely memories of trips to Barcelona driving through all the mountains ........Just cant remember the time scale though, I was too busy enjoying myself looking out the window at the gorgeous views

 

[carol]

I wouldn't even go anywhere near Rouen after Carol's tribulations last year. Made a point of staying well clear. :rolleyes2:

Wondered when it would be mentioned! Yes Jac, avoid Rouen, unless Paul has lots of experience driving there.....

 

[Herbenny]

Wondered when it would be mentioned! Yes Jac, avoid Rouen, unless Paul has lots of experience driving there.....

Carol I hope its all a distant memory for you now .... scary as it was

 

[carol]

Carol I hope its all a distant memory for you now .... scary as it was

Yes i can laugh about it but the memory still traumatises me! And I do prefer my new van!

 

[mark61]

Rouen isn't that bad. Just ignore sat nav. Can be confusing when you're alone, but a doodle with a passenger.

 

[snowbirds]

Hi mark,

We went through Rouen last year with the wife helping and remembering carols problems found the sat-nav was trying to take us under the low underpass bridges and Pat said to me as I swerved at the last minute the sat nav says straight on,it is so easy to get it wrong with traffic pushing you on and as we passed the other side of the underpass Pat said look two large camper vans were entering the ramp on the other side in the wrong lane but we don't know if they stopped in time.
It's a shame that Carol lost her van in that way but it gave a lot of us maybe a heads up to the problems of driving in Europe and thanks to people like you going out of your way to help her well done Mark we all salute you.

Snowbird.:wave:

Rouen isn't that bad. Just ignore sat nav. Can be confusing when you're alone, but a doodle with a passenger.

 

[El Veterano]

I wouldn't even go anywhere near Rouen after Carol's tribulations last year. Made a point of staying well clear. :rolleyes2:

I would dearly love not to go through Rouen, but we have only managed to by pass it once I think in all the years we have been going that way. I seem to remember it involved a ferry crossing over the river South of Rouen and the detour took an age! Fortunately we were in no rush anyway. What I would avoid though, at all costs, is Citi Europe in Calais, frankly I wouldn't even stop there during daylight these days. You do all know that there is another migrant camp set up in Calais now, but only for women and children, the men are busying themselves building their own polytunnel camp just down the road apparently.

 

[Deleted member 21686]

Enjoy France Jac it's brill.
A nice stop on the way down is the municipal site at Saumur overlooked by the chateau wich is lit up at night, a short walk into town. The site is on an.island in the middle of the Loire.

 

[Channa]

I have stopped in Calais been given significant grief by customs ....lone male out the country a bit(months with a perceived aggressive breed of dog ) .....Immigrants were not an issue my GSD gave her smile and they soon buggered off.

A hour and a half crossing with my GSD if not a welcome guest ...rather you than me !

Sadly Holly is no longer with me, I still miss her Dogs seem to have an inbuilt capacity to weed out the wrong uns

Channa

 

[carol]

Enjoy France Jac it's brill.
A nice stop on the way down is the municipal site at Saumur overlooked by the chateau wich is lit up at night, a short walk into town. The site is on an.island in the middle of the Loire.

Last year I stayed on a municipal site that had changed to an Aire, €5, but it was a good hour to walk into Saumur which is a lovely place.

 

[John H]

I would dearly love not to go through Rouen, but we have only managed to by pass it once I think in all the years we have been going that way. I seem to remember it involved a ferry crossing over the river South of Rouen and the detour took an age! Fortunately we were in no rush anyway. What I would avoid though, at all costs, is Citi Europe in Calais, frankly I wouldn't even stop there during daylight these days. You do all know that there is another migrant camp set up in Calais now, but only for women and children, the men are busying themselves building their own polytunnel camp just down the road apparently.

A few days ago, we drove from Chartres to Dieppe and managed to get round Rouen with no trouble at all (A150, I think - but I told the Satnav to find me the best non-toll road).

 

[mark61]

A few days ago, we drove from Chartres to Dieppe and managed to get round Rouen with no trouble at all (A150, I think - but I told the Satnav to find me the best non-toll road).

Sat nav won't have a problem with that route, it's linking to/from the A28 that sends it a wee bit scatty. To be fair I haven't put in dimensions of van.

 

[noarlunga]

I seem to remember it involved a ferry crossing over the river South of Rouen and the detour took an age!

Would this be the one?



It's just down from Jumiége. When we tried to board, the skipper was waving frantically at us thinking we were too high for the 3m available headroom. He didn't know we'd stopped on the riverside and measured the height to the top of the roof box and knew that it was 2.85m - a whole 150mm to spare!

 

[El Veterano]

Would this be the one?

View attachment 29687

It's just down from Jumiége. When we tried to board, the skipper was waving frantically at us thinking we were too high for the 3m available headroom. He didn't know we'd stopped on the riverside and measured the height to the top of the roof box and knew that it was 2.85m - a whole 150mm to spare!

La Bouille I think, yes the ferry looks the same. Like others are saying on here I have never really had a problem with Rouen, certainly never with satnavs sending me down tunnels, there has always been ample warning of the tunnels there. The main problem I have with the place is that it is just another city and is best avoided, mainly from the point of view that when driving a thing the size of a MH in city traffic it is just a matter of time before contact is made, and damage is done. Best avoided, and we nearly always set the GPS to avoid tolls anyway. Just don't treat what the GPS tells you as gospel. We nearly always run on the the GPS but with back up from my partner with a paper/ proper map. And not forgetting that I have the height of the MH in both feet and meters written on a piece of paper attached to the back of the sun visor.
I think the last time we came through Rouen we used the D6015 through Saint Adrien to get on to the E46/ N28 in other words, staying to the East of the city. And if you need to stop near Rouen, forget the aire in town and try the small one at Pont-de-L'Arche, just to the South.

 

[Andys]

Last year I stayed on a municipal site that had changed to an Aire, €5, but it was a good hour to walk into Saumur which is a lovely place.

Hi Carol you must walk fast
I think it took longer than that when we stayed there last year. Going again this year but staying on a camp site which looks like it's on a island in Saumur. Hopefully the only site we stay on during our trip