Thinking of heading to France

I like to stay two nights in most places. Arrive in the afternoon, visit my chosen location the following day and head off to my next location the next day which is usually no more than a few hours drive away.

Depending on what you like to do/see, google different places of your chosen interest and make a basic itinerary. Sometimes you may find that a place is not really your cup of tea (or coffee) and will therefore move on the next morning.

Bon voyage!

The choice between aire and camping municipal really comes down to the spec of your camper. If you're fully independent (toilet, shower, electricity) then there's not much extra that a campsite will offer, they're pretty basic. Unless it's specifically prohibited, you can park a camper overnight anywhere in France (I stayed outside the gates of the Château de Versailles a few months ago). The aires just make it a little bit more convenient - decent sized parking bays and some services like water/electricity/waste.

If the budget is tight - or even if it's not - I would recommend finding a lake "resort" for swimming instead of the municipal pool. There are hundreds of them, often with an aire included, and at this time of year usually with catering and some kind of entertainment provided.

If you're not against the idea doing a loop, and if your legs are up to it, for your own interest I'd suggest heading for Dinan (south of Dinard, don't bother with that place) in Normandy - lovely town, nice aire over looking the river (small charge) then on to St. Michel (the aire there is on the inside of carpark, so you pay the daily rate and get the shuttle service out to the Mont, and maybe as far as Honfleur (another aire with a fee), then head back.

niloc1951 wrote: »

Noooooooooo. The motorhome parking within the Mt. St. Michel car park is a massive rip-off, IIRC in the region of €22 per 24 hours, 24 hours and 1 minute will cost €44.

Seek out a Municipal or Aire for about a tenner in the locality and use bikes or local bus to get to The Mt.

Oh, I agree! I wouldn't stay there, not when I can park for free on the side of the road half a kilometre away, but I've been wild-camping with my children for ten years so everyone knows the drill. The OP doesn't have that advantage ... and le Mont St. Michel is worth a visit, especially now that they've made it an island again.

niloc1951 wrote: »

The reason I mention using a Municipal camp site is your 5 year old will have somewhere to safely let of energy, Aires are usually not that safe for children to be out and about with passing traffic and they are after all public areas.

False sense of security. I wouldn't let a 5-year-old be out and about on their own in a camping municipal. They're bigger and attract more people - especially in August - compared to an aire in an out-of-the-way village where there might be just two or three other campers, but perhaps a dozen local families enjoying the playground/sportsground/boulodrome.

From where I'm sitting right now, I can see one such amenity, with about thirty children and teenagers in it, no adults in sight. If it's safe for the local children to play without supervision, then it'll be OK for a visitor; on a campsite, all you know is that you don't know anyone and neither does anyone else. (I'm assuming that at least some of the teenagers down below are supposed to be supervising the younger children)

m8 wrote: »

I have booked now .

What does everyone do for WiFI when in France, are there some options?

Apart from campsites which are usually a rip-off we usually rely on McDonalds, shopping centres and restaurants.

m8 wrote: »

Wherecan I buy some Disposable breathalizers in Ireland?

How many would I need for 2 weeks?

Not required. Proposal to make them a legal requirement never went through.

CelticRambler wrote: »

.........................You can also subscribe to a 3G/4G mobile data package, either through your own provider if you have one in Ireland, or buy a SIM card in France if you've got an unlocked 'phone, then use the phone as a portable hot-spot for other devices................

Tried this option earlier this year. I got an SFR pay as you go sim. The data package did not allow hotspotting or VOIP :mad:

That's odd. SFR made a point of unblocking VOIP over mobile to compete against Free a couple of years ago. Sounds like it might have been a device configuration problem. The French networks are fussy about some things. Were you using an unlocked mobile?

No, that doesn't make sense. All operators are aggressively rolling out 4G services, and the competition in providing all-in packages is fierce. It's the one thing that really shocked me when I thought about moving back to Ireland (or even the UK) - telecoms are so expensive compared to the options here ... and I feel hard done-by with my 0€/month 3G offer, including calls to international landlines!

However, if you're on a decent tarif in Ireland, you should be able to get a decent roaming allowance for two weeks at reasonable rates and not be bothered getting a French SIM.

Yes.

You'll hardly be doing much night-time driving, and there are so many French vehicles with dodgy lights, you'll blend right in! :pac:

CelticRambler wrote: »

That's odd. SFR made a point of unblocking VOIP over mobile to compete against Free a couple of years ago. Sounds like it might have been a device configuration problem. The French networks are fussy about some things. Were you using an unlocked mobile?

Yes, and it worked perfectly for incoming and outgoing calls and mobile internet, though very very slow.
No problems when on WiFi.

Dexter Bip wrote: »

Autoroutes are a bit expensive but are good value for money if you need get somewhere far away in a short time. The most you would pay would be 25-40 Euro for a long drive.

Those are car prices, and only for a "long" drive by Irish standards. You need to double it, or more for a camper (class 2) - about 10-15€/100km, and 100 km is nothing in France (I'd usually do 3-400 per half-day). You'll also pay more in fuel because of driving faster, especially if the wind is against you (particularly the Mistral and Tremontane, or strong coastal breezes coming off the Channel)

That said, there's very little motorway network in Brittany, and there are toll-free sections in Normandy, which is probably as much as the OP will cover in two weeks.

Speaking of fuel - for the best price, buy it in supermarket service stations or the Total Access network (not Total, just Total) but be prepared to pay by card at an automatic pump. www.prix-carburants.gouv.fr gives the day-by-day prices and also has a route planner tool that allows you see the different service stations and prices along the way. It's especially helpful if you're using S95-E10 petrol as not all départements have it. Or even E85 !

That route crosses territory I'm not particularly familiar with, but as you've got two days, I'd recommend swinging around the bottom of the Cotentin Peninsula on your first day and stopping in Dinan (again!). It'll add about 50km to your journey, but the total is only 600km, so only one day's drive and you've got three days to do it.

Depending on how close to La Rochelle and/or your final destination you want to be on Day 2, you could do 300-350km to end up in either La Rochelle itself or the town of Niort, both of which have good aires (and, like Dinan, apply a small charge for 24hrs parking).

The "aire" in La Rochelle is just part of a big carpark, but almost smack in the city centre. Very easy to get into and out of, but not always easy to get space, especially if you arrive after 16h00. I've only used it in the winter season and there could be 30-40 MHs there, a good number parked in the ordinary (car) bays. I've never had any trouble, but in August it might be a different story.

Edit: in fact, I think the camper spaces might be free in La Rochelle ... can't quite remember. Car spaces are free overnight and on Sundays, like just about everywhere in France.

Niort is a much nicer facility, but tricky to find. On my first trip, I was fortunate to be following someone else who did all the hesitating for me! Even so, I couldn't quite believe he was indicating left and about to turn into what seemed like a crack in the wall. :eek: He was and he did, and I did too. It was more of an optical illusion than a really tight squeeze.

colmll wrote: »

Hi all, as this thread is on motorhoming in France, I would appreciate some advice also. I am heading down from Cherburg to a campsite about 50km south of La Rochelle for 10 days next Wed and I am looking for any suggestions on what aires or campsites we could overnight on the way down. We don't book into the campsite until Fri so will need two overnights. I would also like to stay as close to the coast as possible and avoid motorways/toll roads. Any advice greatly appreciated.

I don't recall any tolls on that route,i use the the airs in nozay when I'm down that way only 3 hours from the ferry and just off the motorway https://www.google.ie/maps/dir/Cherbourg,+France/Nozay,+France/@47.7882001,-0.5156283,8z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m2!1m1!1s0x480c970b9d33188d:0x40c14484fb97e90!1m2!1m1!1s0x480f5ceb1c5287a1:0x40d37521e0decf0!3e0
I would drop by Mont Saint-Michel if i had a day to kill there is a nice airs on the way to it (not the new car park)

If your any way handy with the computer which I'm not you could put the pois on to your satnav http://www.archiescampings.eu very handy

Dexter Bip wrote: »

Nozay is nice and has diesel and a supermarket nearby. We usually stop off there for a break on day one heading south. Spent the night there once in November. Free electric hookup.
La Rochelle has changed. The large free car park in the centre ( Parc les Esplanades) has been reduced to about twenty places with a barrierd aire at the edge of town instead at € 15 per night. Still worth the visit though.
Lots of nice aires and towns all along the coast. All advice given is good. Take your time and enjoy. It's all about doing it at your own pace and doing what you like.

It has one of those barriers now so not free anymore but still a handy spot,good advice Dexter, don't over plan and take your time

moodrater wrote: »

Don't know why people think you have to drive so much I'm camping around Ireland 35 years and only see a fraction of it. We spent 18 days in France last summer and only drove about 350km. There is something cool at least every 5km in coastal France. Also worth cycling you see more in 10km on your bike than 1000km driving.

You don't have to drive, but one of the benefits of having a campervan is that you can cover a lot of distance and see several different aspects of the country. In many ways, if you're not going to take advantage of that mobility, you'd be better off doing a cycling (or walking) holiday.

Mind you, the walkers that come through my area are typically doing about 1-2000km en route to Santiago, or training for it. We never get any Irish though. The lazy feckers only seem to do the last little bit through Spain. :P

The point is: France is a huge country. If you've paid the fare to bring a camper over, it's a missed opportunity to park it just outside the port for two weeks.

La Rochelle has changed. The large free car park in the centre ( Parc les Esplanades) has been reduced to about twenty places with a barrierd aire at the edge of town instead at € 15 per night.

Since February this year?

I've remembered that there's another aire on the far side of the port with a lot more space, but although I found it on foot, I never figured out how to get in with the MH.

CelticRambler wrote: »

You don't have to drive, but one of the benefits of having a campervan is that you can cover a lot of distance and see several different aspects of the country. In many ways, if you're not going to take advantage of that mobility, you'd be better off doing a cycling (or walking) holiday.

The point is: France is a huge country. If you've paid the fare to bring a camper over, it's a missed opportunity to park it just outside the port for two weeks.

For many (not all) folks travelling to France this is their annual two week holiday - an extended period of leisure and recreation - not covering hundreds of kms in two weeks to pack in as much as possible. Many (not all) folks will return year after year to explore a different parts of France. Just because your not going to take advantage of the campervan mobility far from means you'd be better off doing a cycling (or walking) holiday. Some folks (not many) might like to park just outside the port for two weeks. :-)

Benbecul97 wrote: »

For many (not all) folks travelling to France this is their annual two week holiday - an extended period of leisure and recreation - not covering hundreds of kms in two weeks to pack in as much as possible.

That's a fair point, but if that's the enquiry, wouldn't it be more appropriate to the Travel forum? You kind of expect someone posting in Motoring & Transport to enjoy the driving bit!

SeamusG97 wrote: »

Here it is:

https://www.google.com/maps/@48.4542992,-2.0383269,20z/data=!3m1!1e3

It's underneath the viaduct.

That's the one - the only aire in Dinan itself. The fact that it's under the viaduct should also warn you that there's a bit of a climb to the town centre! :cool:

(But still a much shorter walk than if you stay on an aire in any of the other communes marked on the calameo link).

There's not much need to worry about whether or not an aire has "services" when your on the move. If you're sticking to the main roads, you'll pass a waste dump every half hour or so (usually well signposted). If you're dependent on mains electricty, aires are rarely satisfactory (one hour, regardless of how many Ah you need). That just leaves fresh water which can be sourced in small quantities in many areas apart from the aires (e.g. picnic spot toilet blocks).

#1 (pink) in this link http://en.calameo.com/read/001173285de6991609826
Camping Chateaubriand is down as an Aire de Services.

but here http://www.campingfrance.com/uk/find-your-campsite/brittany/cotes-d-armor/dinan/camp-municipal-chateaubriand its a Camping Municipal

So which is it? Both? Do some municipal campsites allow the use of services without staying the night?