France for 3 weeks

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Hi

We're heading to France for our summer holidays at the end of May family of four (2+2)

Definitely starting in the vendee region but open to any other suggestions and recommendations. I'd love to see the beaches of Normandie!

Anyone tour around France? Any advice/ recommendations?

Thanks

piuswal

Beaches of Normandie;

Assuming your arriving in Cherbourg the first beach would be Utah.

It is well signposted and about 60km from port.

The Museum in St Mere Eglise, 45 km from Port is worth considering and from there you can go onto Utah.

There are 3 Aires in St Mere Eglise, one right by the Airborne Museum

http://www.campingfrance.com/uk/our-themes/tourist-sites/d-day-beaches


Will give you most campsites in Normandy that are close to the various D Day beaches


See http://wikitravel.org/en/D-Day_beaches for a useful travel guide.

Bayeux is worth seeing, museums and British and Commonwealth Cemetery.

Of course there is a beautiful American Cemetery at Omaha

and a very sombre but highly informative German Cemetery at La Cambe -

which is on the main road N13 to Bayeux.

You can still see some of the wrecks of the Mulberry Harbours at Arromanches


Then at the far end you have Sword beach where the Free French came ashore and a little bit further on is Pegasus Bridge.

So, there is a vast amount to see, you'll probably need to be very selective but a bit of online research will help you enormously.

The wikitravel looks very promising but I'm sure there are many other sources.

Run a google map

Cherbourg - St Mere Eglise - Utah Beach - La Cambr - Pointe du Hoc - Arromanches - Bayeux - Sword Beach and Pegasus Memorial and you'll get a very good idea of the Distances involved;

This should work - c 200km

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Port+de+Cherbourg,+Quai+de+Normandie,+50100+Cherbourg-Octeville,+France/Sainte-M%C3%A8re-%C3%89glise,+France/Utah+Beach/La+Cambe+German+war+cemetery,+Route+nationale,+La+Cambe,+France/Pointe+du+Hoc/Arromanches-les-Bains,+France/Bayeux,+France/Sword+Beach/Mus%C3%A9e+M%C3%A9morial+P%C3%A9gasus,+Ranville,+France/@49.4479442,-1.2222825,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m56!4m55!1m5!1m1!1s0x480c9786f34e3d2f:0x1bdcfe7aa77d6566!2m2!1d-1.6115128!2d49.6443998!1m5!1m1!1s0x480b79330fb87139:0x40c14484fb96760!2m2!1d-1.318183!2d49.409904!1m5!1m1!1s0x480b76ebe89d3e27:0xe53e63a911e7f4e2!2m2!1d-1.1745367!2d49.4164985!1m5!1m1!1s0x480b0ab59c4ac25f:0x906c81cd37549291!2m2!1d-1.026389!2d49.341944!1m5!1m1!1s0x480b0a35f1069ef9:0x7636a3776c92f0cb!2m2!1d-0.9892703!2d49.3971886!1m5!1m1!1s0x480a55dae15101c5:0x40c14484fbcfd00!2m2!1d-0.622415!2d49.339021!1m5!1m1!1s0x480bacaab8e20a89:0xd64bc55fc9c3f294!2m2!1d-0.70314!2d49.276437!1m5!1m1!1s0x480a60ee7a781641:0xcdb3cb7e646c2ec1!2m2!1d-0.3286228!2d49.310013!1m5!1m1!1s0x480a6662628a9c89:0xa60c8cb8478ae88d!2m2!1d-0.2717667!2d49.2423273!3e0

I went there first, on our first trip to France in 1982, just did Omaha and Bayeux but have been back about 5 times since, to new parts and old parts, there are developments on going.

Best of luck

ps

what age are the children?

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Thanking you once doesn't seem enough, after that very detailed post! So thanks again!

My kids are 8 and 9 and very good for travelling. They too enjoy seeing new places and learning about history etc.

We've been to La grangegoire quite a few times (5 hour drive) and they love it. Looking forward to seeing a bit of France this time now that they are a little older!

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Just to add we're travelling Cork to Roscoff

piuswal

Was in

La Grangegoire in 2012 with grandson. Lovely site, can see how kids enjoy it.

Roscoff adds about 300km to the full D Day coast line but there's plenty of choice. A 5+ year project.

Moomat

There's loads to see in that area, you'll have a ball!

I'd really reccommend a visit to this place> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre There's a vistors centre and you can walk around the old town. It was never rebuilt after a massacre and instead preserved as a war memorial.

The largest sand dune in Europe is pretty close too. Well worth a visit, I'm sure the kids would love it. Great spot to catch a nice sunset if you climb over it. No picture will ever do it justice.
http://www.the-french-atlantic-coast.com/dune-du-pilat/

You should consider staying is some France Passion locations. They're basically small farmers, wine growers etc that will allow you come and park your van at their place for a few nights. Many of them will be happy to show you around their farm, sell you some produce etc. It's a great way to see a nice bit of rural France. The only cost is a sign up fee of around €25 for a years membership and then you get a guidebook with 1000's of these places around France.
https://www.france-passion.com/en/

One of our best investments for France was this book. http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/wild-swimming-france/
Absolutely loads of fantastic swimming/relaxation spots that you would otherwise drive by or spend an age trying to find.

piuswal

I'd heartily agree with Oradour and Dune du Pilat and you also have Futuroscope near Poitiers; fascinating for kids (and adults).

Al Murray's Road to Berlin re-started tonight on the Discovery Channel and it featured various shots of the D Day beaches, including the Merville Battery close to Pegasus Bridge. All the casemates are still there and some are used to illustrate what it was like there during the invasion, film and soundtracks. The guy that lead the capture of it was a Lt Col Otway (Anglo Irish, I think) who actually lived in Rushbrooke Cork from 1918 to 1921.

Have you visited Puy du Foy?

I believe it too is terrific for kids.

TheQuietFella

now online wrote: »

Just to add we're travelling Cork to Roscoff

Roscoff is a beautiful town so have a look around it.

Carnac is also another beautiful area and depending how far south you want

to travel, Noirmoutier in another beautiful spot but where ever you go

in France you won't be disappointed. Enjoy!

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Once again thanks to all of you for your very informative replies. We haven't been to puy de for but it is on our top do list this year. We were thinking of starting in carcassonne and working our way north,hopefully we'll have a better chance with the weather.

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The largest sand dune in Europe is pretty close too. Well worth a visit, I'm sure the kids would love it. Great spot to catch a nice sunset if you climb over it. No picture will ever do it justice.
http://www.the-french-atlantic-coast.com/dune-du-pilat/

You should consider staying is some France Passion locations. They're basically small farmers, wine growers etc that will allow you come and park your van at their place for a few nights. Many of them will be happy to show you around their farm, sell you some produce etc. It's a great way to see a nice bit of rural France. The only cost is a sign up fee of around €25 for a years membership and then you get a guidebook with 1000's of these places around France.
https://www.france-passion.com/en/

One of our best investments for France was this book. http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/wild-swimming-france/
Absolutely loads of fantastic swimming/relaxation spots that you would otherwise drive by or spend an age trying to find.[/quote]

Can I ask how does the passion France work? It sounds right up our street but as we don't have our own water supply in wondering can we still avail of it?

Definitely putting the sand dune on the list, I'm so looking forward to it!

We'll Try squeeze in as much as possible and I promise I'll report back!

piuswal

https://www.france-passion.com/en

Have a look- it is all there - I've just signed up myself

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piuswal wrote: »

https://www.france-passion.com/en

Have a look- it is all there - I've just signed up myself

Had a good look at it this morning, unfortunately won't work for us as we have a trailer tent and would need hook up water and toilets.

Love the idea though

Moomat

now online wrote: »

Had a good look at it this morning, unfortunately won't work for us as we have a trailer tent and would need hook up water and toilets.

Love the idea though

That's a pity, perhaps a porta potti and some 5 gallon drums could get you sorted? It really is a great scheme and a fantastic way of getting off the beaten track. I'm not sure whether trailer tents are allowed but if you could always ring ahead and ask would it be ok to come down. We stayed at 3 of them years ago. At all them we were the only campers staying and usually given a fantastic place to park.

The whole family will love the Dune, no doubt the kids will be worn out running up and down it!

Carawaystick

now online wrote: »

Once again thanks to all of you for your very informative replies. We haven't been to puy de for but it is on our top do list this year. We were thinking of starting in carcassonne and working our way north,hopefully we'll have a better chance with the weather.

Carcassonne is magic for Children, the walls and Turrets are class, proper fairy tale stuff.

A Good day out from there is to head south to the Gorge de Galamus and the Chateau de Queribus

You also have Cite de l'Espace in Tolouse, a space theme park. you might see the Ariane5 rocket as you drive past Tolouse.

Coming back up, the Normandy beaches and not far west f there is Mont St Michel, which is pretty special for adults as well as children.

There's a good campsite St Avit Loisirs near Le Bugue, near Brive. There's loads of caves in the region around there, people lived in them until a hundred years ago or so, but they go waay back to prehistoric cave paintings too.

Theres' campstes near Royan with big beaches nearby, or on the Ille de Re beside la Rochelle, which is another great place to go looking at the castles/forts in the harbour.

Roscoff and the villages in Britanny are very pretty, but in a grown up sense, I'd say children would get bored of the buildings quickly, but it'd while away a an afternoon waiting for the Ferry home.

Moomat

piuswal wrote: »

https://www.france-passion.com/en

Have a look- it is all there - I've just signed up myself

I'm jealous now! It'll be a couple of years before we get back over.

We loved it. Got some fantastic fresh food at some of the places we stayed. It's a few years since we went but at the time they had just launched a GPS download for the sites. Some of them were spectacularly wrong We shocked a French family by arrival by arriving in their wonderfully manicured garden and asking with a mixture of handsignals and a phrase book, where could we set up camp! It didn't take long before we realised the mistake and they very kindly took us to the right location about 10minutes away. All part of the fun

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Here I am again!

Total change of plan our ferry tomorrow is cancelled so instead we're going Tuesday into cherbourg,we've taken the plunge and bought a camper in so excited! !!!

I went to sign up to passion France but we've left it too late need at least 5 days to get everything posted to us,ah well there's always next year.

As we're so near we're gonna head to Normandy first after that it's wherever the road takes us.

piuswal

Ye will really enjoy it all.

My biggest regret over the years is that I did not keep a good log of the various places we went.

I'm now wondering how much I could reconstruct with the various bits and pieces I have kept.

Anyway , have a great time and safe travelling.

Moomat

now online wrote: »

Here I am again!

Total change of plan our ferry tomorrow is cancelled so instead we're going Tuesday into cherbourg,we've taken the plunge and bought a camper in so excited! !!!

I went to sign up to passion France but we've left it too late need at least 5 days to get everything posted to us,ah well there's always next year.

As we're so near we're gonna head to Normandy first after that it's wherever the road takes us.

Congratulations! I hope you have many happy holidays with it.

That's a pity about France Passion. Perhaps you could contact them and ask could it be collected at a hosts site or send some other way of getting a guide and confirmation to you? I've found them super friendly so might be worth a try.

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Bonjour from amazing france! We have covered some distance in such a short time. We've been to Carcassonne, utah beach, cite de espace and here we are now at dune du pilat!

We got the wild swimming france app but it's not the best for directions, tomorrow we are heading to puy du foy and then onto la grangegoire. If anyone could recommend some wild swimming spots between here and there I'll have a glass of vino for you!

Merci!

Nekarsulm

If you are in the vicinity of Liseaux, and interested in architecture the cathedral is worth a visit.
Monet's gardens etc also within striking distance.
We also spent a week pottering along the coast between Arromanches and Honfleur.
I thought the 360degree D Day cinema was good at Arromanches.
Honfleur very pretty, but crowded. There is a large camp ground right on the edge of the town, but booking ahead would be advised. We ended up in a campsite a couple of miles inland from Honfleur, which was good in fairness. Lots of kids to play with our ones, pool , slides etc.

Camdec

Hope this advice is not too late for you . . . If you are going to Puy de Fuy, try and take in the night show, it's fantastic, but it's only on weekends (Saturday). The kids will absolutely love this, even the grown ups will too!! An "out of this world show"), seriously. Most people just go in for the series of daylight shows. But REMEMBER to book in advance, or you won't get admittance to it, just don't turn up on the night.
There's also an aire there beside the venue, and some of the emplacements there even have electric hook-up.
A show not to be missed!!

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We tried to find a wild swimming location today but the coordinates took us to the middle of nowhere. We stopped and looked at some amazing churches en route. On way to ordaru now so wild camping tonight and heading to La grangegoire tomorrow we'll gold out for puy du fuy till the weekend so! SOS for wild swimming in way please the app is crap!

Moomat

Great to hear you are enjoying it!

That's a pity about the wild swimming app. We only ever used the book and found the directions spot on. If I can find the book tomorrow I'll try send you a few locations.

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Camdec wrote: »

Hope this advice is not too late for you . . . If you are going to Puy de Fuy, try and take in the night show, it's fantastic, but it's only on weekends (Saturday). The kids will absolutely love this, even the grown ups will too!! An "out of this world show"), seriously. Most people just go in for the series of daylight shows. But REMEMBER to book in advance, or you won't get admittance to it, just don't turn up on the night.
There's also an aire there beside the venue, and some of the emplacements there even have electric hook-up.
A show not to be missed!!

We've booked puy du fou,no nighttime shows available till July! We went to ordaru sur glane what an amazing experience even the kids loved it! We've covered some distance in the week we've been here plan on staying put for a few days here in la garangeoire. Thanks to everyone for the fabulous recommendations.

( Still hoping for wild swimming though wink wink)

piuswal

Great to hear about the reaction to Oradour sur Glane.

We were coming up from near Alcaniz last year, temps 45 deg and MH out of service over weekend and planned stops along the west coast, St Jean de Luz, Arcachon etc with and agreement that we would detour inland for 1 day to see Oradour.

My wife was getting a bit uneasy due the heat as we headed back inland and asked, "do you really want to go there?", "I've been waiting 20 years to see it" says I.

She was totally overwhelmed by the place and talked about it to many many people when we came home.

Mountainsandh

OP you are not too far from le marais poitevin (est of Niort), lovely quiet camp site there, beautiful peaceful "green Venice", and a little village with local produce market, traditional costume dancers... Camping des Conches.
Lovely spot well worth a visite. Little canals separate fields, cows are often dropped in by boat. You can hire boat from camp site.

piuswal

Very handy Aire in Niort for anyone interested

16 locations in the heart of Niort

The area of ​​motorhomes is done in the heart of the city on the Pre-Leroy site along the Sèvre, near the Halles de Niort, cultural facilities (National Scene, library) and recreation (pool pre-Leroy, pre-Leroy park and green Belt).

https://www.vivre-a-niort.com/fr/services-publics/les-equipements/aire-de-camping-cars/

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Puiswal is there wild swimming spots there? That's all my husband wants to do! It appears there's better weather at home than here at the moment. We've done everything we can we the app to locate even one during our journey but it's finding nothing. We've searched for one within a 50 mile radius (max) of here and getting nothing.

Nekarsulm

http://www.connexionfrance.com/Frances-secret-pools-news-article.html

Tigerandahalf

This book is about wild swimming in France.

http://www.wildthingspublishing.com/product/wild-swimming-france-digital-book/

piuswal

now online wrote: »

Puiswal is there wild swimming spots there? That's all my husband wants to do! It appears there's better weather at home than here at the moment. We've done everything we can we the app to locate even one during our journey but it's finding nothing. We've searched for one within a 50 mile radius (max) of here and getting nothing.

Unfortunately the one thing I'm least interested in is swimming. Hopefully the 2 other posts will help.

There is a river running close to the Aire in Niort.

Mountainsandh

Sorry I can't help at all, not really into that.
I'm French so if that's any use, in French I would search for "baignade sauvage", "baignade non surveillée", "nage en riviere/en eau vive" although that last one will link to the actual sport that is river swimming mostly.

I'm a photographer myself and would simply use google map/satellite to scour areas I'm interested in before I head off. When Google maps satellite view is too poor (as it often is for Ireland) I use Bing maps.
Hope you find some nice spots.

Here's a link to a little video about whatever river is near Niort and La Sevre for kayakers. You might just spot spots !

http://www.blog-marais-poitevin.fr/video-exoudun-a-niort-la-sevre-niortaise-en-kayak/

piuswal

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/79000+Niort,+France/@46.3297422,-0.4649605,390m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m21!1m15!4m14!1m6!1m2!1s0x4807302ed9d55117:0x82caa58331288fc6!2sRue+de+Bessac,+79000+Niort,+France!2m2!1d-0.465247!2d46.330196!1m6!1m2!1s0x4807303211d686f5:0x405d39260e82ac0!2s79000+Niort,+France!2m2!1d-0.464777!2d46.323716!3m4!1s0x4807303211d686f5:0x405d39260e82ac0!8m2!3d46.323716!4d-0.464777

should give you the Aire with the river close by -and Piscine du Pre Leroy

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Once again thanks so much! We're heading to puy du fou tomorrow morning and a quick look in Google maps says we're only an hour and a half away from noirt so I guess that's where we'll heading before finally heading home Friday evening. I betaking some amazing memories of the wonderful places we've been too a big tumbs up to everyone for all the recommendations

_Brian

Puy du fou is a great day out and your kids will just love it. Make sure and bring some baseball caps if he have them as shade is at a premium. In many ways my kids prefer it and Futurescope than Eurodisney.

Looking forward to traveling to France ourselves in August, we're staying in Normandy for a change this time, we've been for maybe 13 French holidays and can see many more on the horizon. We've done the 3 week trip a few times but it's getting harder for both of us to get the dates together.

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Well we're back we had the most amazing time! For our final few days we decided to head to carnac to see the rue des alignment, well worth the trip!
Did I mention we took in Mt Saint Micheal? It was stunning!

Our highlights of the entire trip were:

Dune de pilat
Puy de Fou
Beaches of Normandy
Wine tasting in (think St Mairget,I'll check)
A week in la garangeoire
Carcassonne castle
and last but no least Orandu sur glane

We must have covered 3000k !!!

Looking forward to planning next year's trip, but we'll definitely sign up to passion France in plenty of time before we go and also but the wild swimming book, we never got to go wild swimming (combination of weather, time and the app being crap!)

I'm jealous of those of you that still have it to look forward to still.

If anyone is looking for some wine recommendations I'll happily recommend some icice tried and tested. Even brought home one or two.

Last thanks to everyone for all the recommendations!

pommers

So looking forward to heading to France for our 5th time end of July after reading this post !! Have covered a lot of these places but also got a few extra tips so thank you all��