France Ferry & Campsite info (use Search function) mod warning post 1

We used to drive to les charmettes, 6 hours from ferry, it will suit your kids needs but hit and miss with the weather.

We now fly to toulouse and 1 hour drive then to vias. Weather is stunning, 30-37 degrees each day.

Agreed. Les Charmettes is a fantastic site in a fantastic location. It was washed-out in ~2018 (?) but even then there is indoor entertainment.

Weather-wise, many of the sites on the Med would also suit 10/16 yo's, I recommend Hippocampe/La Sirene but I have also seen Le Sérignan Plage. All fantastic, but the location of Hippocampe/La Sirene beside the Pyrenees is a massive draw for us.

I just tried to buy that cover and, as usual, I was asked to tick a box to say I had read the terms and conditions. But when I clicked the link to the T&Cs I was taken to a 404 error page. I wanted to glance through them to make sure there's nothing sneaky like only being valid if that car has been serviced at a main dealer. Do you know if that's a condition?

We don't. The car is supposedly covered by manufacturer's breakdown assistance in Europe as long as we've had it serviced on schedule in the main dealer (which we have). In reality, all it would probably cover would be to tow us to the nearest dealer, who'll then bend us over the counter. But at least that will happen in the comfort of a dealership and not at the time the tow-truck arrives to take us off the motorway 😀

But even if you have cover, you may still have to pay the motorway agency in that country to remove your car using whatever company they are in cahoots with. And may not be able to claim it back against your own insurance.

We always get the car serviced in May/June to at least minimise the chances of mechanical failure. That being said, we ended up one year driving back across Europe with a malfunctioning water pump. The only way we could keep the engine out of limp mode and do 125, was to have the heat turned up to full and fan on 4 🤤

Just had a bit of a head scratcher with car hire, I was sorting out my collection documents etc, and noticed that there was a balance apparently owing of 124 euros - for fuel.

it was sold as Full-full, which has been pretty much a standard experience over the years - you leave with a full tank, and return with a full tank.

I'm just wondering, if i'm paying for a tank up front, surely I can bring it back on fumes if I want, cause they'll be getting the next renter to buy a tank of fuel anyway?

Centauro is the hire company if that makes any difference.

A tyre sensor! That must have been infuriating for you.

Correct though - the service for the motorways is simply just to get you off at the next exit (for EUR 127 daytime/weekday, EUR 190 night & weekends, https://www.autoroutes.fr/en/breakdown-service.htm), what happens after that is between you and your breakdown cover provider - if you have one. In your case you were lucky that it was repairable at the roadside.

As you alluded to, on the flip-side - if you suffer a more serious mechanical failure while you're transiting a fully-loaded vehicle between campsite and ferry, then that's where the coverage should come into it's own. You should then be covered for (limits apply)...

• A replacement vehicle - try getting a hire-car just now in France... it's EUR ~700/week for a small vehicle, if you can get one.
• Alternate ferry bookings
• Garage fees
• Accommodation, if needed.
• Alternative driver
• etc.

Anyway, it seems I'm talking myself into getting coverage. 😂

Thanks for spotting that. The Irish policy booklet is now up on their site:

With luck, none of us will need roadside recovery!

[double post]

Question about buying a Crit'Air sticker for an upcoming trip to France (early July).

The website at https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/ wants to know the Euro standard of the car, but I don't see anything on the registration certificate to say what it is. There's an option for "no Euro standard indicated on the registration certificate", and then it just asks for date of first registration instead - is this the way to go?

Thanks.

Yeah, I believe from looking at guides like those that my car is Euro 5 (it's a diesel that was first registered in July 2014). However, I don't see this stated anywhere on the registration certificate. Question is really should I make an esimated guess at it on the French goverment site, or take the "no Euro standard indicated" option, and let them figure it out?

I didn't know mine either as not on log book so I put in euro 5 for a 171. When I tried to submit it told me to check my euro standard and car reg date again as obviously they weren't compatible.

I changed it to euro 6 and it went through.

So it'll basically tell you it's not right.

Thanks folks. I'll put in Euro 5, as all indications are that's what it actually is. If there's un problème along the way, I'm sure they'll tell me....

No, it's Paris and a number of other high-traffic/industrial areas:

Les villes concernées par les ZFE-m

Low emission zones have been set up in 8 agglomerations :

• l’agglomération parisienne (40 communes dont Paris) ;
• la Métropole de Grenoble (27 communes dont Grenoble) ;
• la Métropole de Lyon ;
• Rouen-Normandie ;
• Reims ;
• Nice-Côte d'Azur ;
• Toulouse ;
• Saint-Etienne.

New areas with low mobility emissions will be created in the metropolises of :

• Aix-Marseille-Provence ;
• Toulon-Provence-Méditerranée ;
• Montpellier-Méditerranée ;
• Strasbourg.

Have you looked at Le Littoral too? We're going Le Pin Parasol this year, having done a couple of years at Le Littoral - it's definitely aimed more at that age group (the only reason we're moving on now with 2 teens).

These links which I have accumulated might be handy for some of the long-distance travellers.

Fuel prices:

https://www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr - French Government site for fuel prices.

https://www.carburants.org/prix-carburants/ - Crowd-sourced fuel prices.

Route planning on the day of travel:

https://www.autoroutes.fr/en/Realtime-traffic-information.htm - French Autoroutes traffic info. They also provide a journey planner, weather, toll-rates and traffic forecast based on date/time.

https://www.autoroutes.fr/en/key-rates.htm - From this page you can be brought to the webpage of the individual regional autoroute service-provider (there are 6 or more). From their webpages you should then be able to explore the autoroute service-areas as some have very few services, while others can have lake-side restaurants or charging facilities.

https://about-france.com/motorway-services.htm - This site can have good info, but in terms of routing across France it is very British-traveller centric.

https://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/index,langen.html - The "Bison Fute" in French motoring terms is based around the concept of a herd who charge down to the South of France (or any holiday destination) en-masse and cause massive traffic-jams, etc. The "Bison Fute" on the other hand is the smart bison who uses their intelect to avoid the log-jam by selecting less travelled routes or travel-times to avoid being part of the herd. As such this site provides you with a coloured map of the regions on the basis of departures and returns (journeys) on a particular day. For example, if you were to select Saturday the 9th of July as a travel-day, the whole of France is marked as red or black for people departing for other locations, hence the overall traffic-load will be "exceptionnel". It's handy

Emission zones (ZFE-m):

https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/ - Official site for purchasing Crit'Air vehicle passes for any of the 8 affected areas:

• l’agglomération parisienne (40 communes dont Paris) ;
• la Métropole de Grenoble (27 communes dont Grenoble) ;
• la Métropole de Lyon ;
• Rouen-Normandie ;
• Reims ;
• Nice-Côte d'Azur ;
• Toulouse ;
• Saint-Etienne.

Looking for recommendations for a throwaway sim to use in an old phone as a hotspot for kids. Best I can see is Vodafone x for €20 which was 30gb of roaming data. All others seem to have less than half that data. Anyone any experience with this?

The ones I looked at are dearer though and don’t have as much gigs. They have good deals on bill pay but that wouldn’t be any use. Wanted it for the car journey too

4g seems to be non existent in most tourist areas for Irish Sims. Service is functional I have found. Gonna get a French SIM this yr and see is there a difference. That's if I can find 1 with good data. 3 yrs since I last looked.

Post here if you do, please! With two 'kids' on phones for 2.5 weeks, that's a real unknown.

Not going till beginning of August, but if it's still an option I'll post up the info👍🏼

No chance, the logistics alone in turning away vehicles would make it a non runner.

I have to say, in light of the current DAA situation, its making me really miss the ease of hopping on the Pont Aven in Cork. (we're fly/drive this year)

Which runs the risk of having a 'Dublin Airport' experience in an English port instead?