First Trip Abroad to France.

yorkshiregeoff

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Hi. I'm a new member and the wife and I are planning a trip to France for 2 weeks in June/ early July. We like the great outdoors and wildlife watching. plenty of waking, biking and perhaps some golf. Ideally part of the time would be spent on the coast and some inland. :idea:Any ideas for an itinery with not too much travel and enough time to enjoy and see things would be much appreciated. Also any recommendations for sites in rural locations.

many thanks
 
Have a look at the beaches of Normandy and around Bayeax there are inland waterways which are bird sancturaies and if you go in land the countryside is beautiful.
It is 240 miles from Calias.
 
when you drive off the ferry at Dunkirque just go where your nose leads you. stay off the motorways and you will have a marvelous time. Personal preference is for Northern French and Britany/Normandy but evry one has different views. def do the Calaise, Caen,St Malo, Rennes then turn right aND DO THE COAST WITH ALL THE WONDERFUL FISH EATERIES ETC.:mad1:
 
Hi Yorkshiregeof

Get yourself a copy of All the Aires. Get off the ferry and head down the coast. It really is that easy. The book will tell you where to stay and get water, dump waste etc. The beaches and countryside are fantastic. Food can be a bit expensive, Fuel is not cheap but this is balanced by drinkable wine a 2 euros and very drinkable at about 4 euros a btl.

Richard
 
join the club "french passion"(google) costs approx £24 then its free to stay at farms, vinyards, orchards etc.... sites are all over France, also use a satnav to find local baths to swim and shower. There are two nice sites nead Calias n Dunkirk. Remember Lid'l and Aldi are your friends.................enjoy
 
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yorkshiregeoff said:
Hi. I'm a new member and the wife and I are planning a trip to France for 2 weeks in June/ early July. We like the great outdoors and wildlife watching. plenty of waking, biking and perhaps some golf. Ideally part of the time would be spent on the coast and some inland. :idea:Any ideas for an itinery with not too much travel and enough time to enjoy and see things would be much appreciated. Also any recommendations for sites in rural locations.

many thanks
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Hi
As others have said Normandy is a great place to go with many little villages and towns to visit. Last year we spent 8 days in the area going to Honfluer (beautiful town) Caen and pegasus bridge (war museum and war graves), only used aires not camp sites. Avoided motorways and saw rural France in it's true beauty, If you use aires get to your chosen one early as they do get busy, in September we had no issues finding a place
Plenty of food shopping all over the area.

Rob
 
Got to agree - Honfleur is beautiful and well worth a visit. The aire has electric hook up and costs 9 euros a night pay and display

Also, the village of Embry has a lovely rural aire with shower block and is only about 50km from Calais. There is a fee of 6 euros for a night's stay, collected in the evening by the owner.

Jim
 
Fuel

Hi Yorkshire Geoff

You Will love it, we go over on light fuel and fill up over there we find it cheaper, we done the war beaches,
Pegasus bridge, Aroumarch ,mullbery harbour if you like history, a great coast and use Aires great value have a good trip.

Regards Snowbirds.



yorkshiregeoff said:
Hi. I'm a new member and the wife and I are planning a trip to France for 2 weeks in June/ early July. We like the great outdoors and wildlife watching. plenty of waking, biking and perhaps some golf. Ideally part of the time would be spent on the coast and some inland. :idea:Any ideas for an itinery with not too much travel and enough time to enjoy and see things would be much appreciated. Also any recommendations for sites in rural locations.

many thanks
Click to expand...
 
Many thanks for all this advice. What would you say was the best way to get details of the Aires? My French is not up to using the Camping Cars Info I'm afraid. I've seen some post about 'All the Aires' not being up to date but that seems like the best option. Do I need sat nav do you think?
 
we too are planning our 1st trip to France and end June. I have purchased the Aires book 3rd edition, it is the most up to date version and is loaded with Aires from what I can see. I have been told that most villages in France are MH friendly and you will find that you will be allowed to overnight on the village carparks if there is no Aire. If you use the search facility on here, look for a thread I started a while ago called, "what do I need to know about driving in France" lots of members on here posted some really great info.
Lotty
 
I would definately persist with CAMPINGCAR-INFOS this link should take you straight to the section for France and you just click on the departments you want to visit. Aires camping-cars

Also a Sat nav is a must and you can download all the campingcar infos POI from there as well for free. Telechargements GPS Its by far the biggest list of Aires across EUrope on the Internet.

You can set Google to translate the site or just copy and paste the text into google translate or highlight and right click and select Translate with Bing.

The Aires book is good but it isnt "All the Aires!"

Normandy and perhaps Brittany is a good idea. Some great wilding places as well as Aires along the coast and inland. However the weather will be similar to the south coast of England, maybe a degree or two warmer. If you want a better chance of warm sunny weather you need to get south of the Loire Valley. The Dordogne is doable in 2 weeks (just). You could be down to Bergerac or Sarlat Areas in a couple of days and its smashing down there. Or you could go the other way and head east towards the Rhone Alps of mountains are your thing. Anncey area is stunning.

Tons and tons of info on our site at Hank the Tank Motorhome website
 
yorkshiregeoff said:
Many thanks for all this advice. What would you say was the best way to get details of the Aires? My French is not up to using the Camping Cars Info I'm afraid. I've seen some post about 'All the Aires' not being up to date but that seems like the best option. Do I need sat nav do you think?
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You don't need to speak French to put the CampingCar info on to a satnav - BUT you would need a satnav !

I would strongly recommend you get one that you can put these 'POI's on (such as a tomtom of course) then you can just follow it from place to place to locate an Aire. Don't just take my word for it though.

If I can help, please let me know.

We visit France many times each year and wouldn't be without ours. A very nice route is through the Eurotunnel (or ferry to Calais/Dunkirk/Boulogne) follow the Picardy/Normandy coastline down and come back from one of the other posts (Caen/LeHavre/Cherbourg) easy and fun too!
 
Just one word of adivce however regarding the Sat Nav. Always validate the suggested route the sat nav gives you with a good map. At some stage it will try and trip you over and take you down a goat track. dont rely on it 100% but definately get one! Also if you do get one make sure it allows you to put in GPS Co-ordinates (lat and Log). Most of us share spots using lat and long and you will find thats what All the Aires books will use. Some people have been caught out lately with TomTom dropping this feature on certain models in their infinate wisdom!
 
barryd said:
Some people have been caught out lately with TomTom dropping this feature on certain models in their infinate wisdom!
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This applies to some of the latest tomtoms running on the LINUX platform. To be avoided for numerous reasons in my opinion.

If you are not sure and are thinking of buying one of these, I would recommend you ASK FIRST. :pc:
 
All good info on here me and err indoors are going over last 2 weeks in june ,we havent been for 20 years ,will have sat nav this time.Over to calais then down Normandy way, onto brittany, then visiting friends in the Loire ,we dont speak a word in french,so she's gona have to learn fast....
 
First Trip Abroad to France

The following books will help you on your French travels:- Camping Card ACSI, Caravan Club Europe, Michelin Escapades En Camping-Car, Michelin Camping France, Aires De Services Camping-Car, Vicarious Books All The Aires France and Les Routiers France. Happy travelling. It has been mentioned that Honfleur is a nice place to visit, it is true it is but the Aire can be well over full with electric leads strewn all over the place and motorhomes packed in like sardines in a can. Camping du Phare is only 5 minutes away and is far better with full facilities and very quiet at night.
 
Hmm, satnav has caused us a few problems in the past, but equally has been invaluable on occasions. On balance I would go for a good quality map every time, and it tells you more than the satnav in some situations. I suppose the obvious answer is both, but use the map first. I like maps!
 
Absolutely right! Which is why I recommend both. We managed to go right through Montpellier last month using the sat nav. Mind you Mrs Adonisito (with a map) disagreed. However, given the choice one or the other, map or sat nav, it would be map every time.
 
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