AgnesTheVan
Member
This has been a very helpful thread. We’ve the crossing booked for 22nd for a loop round visit an aunt in the Dordogne area. It’s out first trip to France and first proper road trip so this has allayed some niggling worries.
2023 French road trip.
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Enjoy it. It really is a pleasure driving in France (unless in Paris, lol) and the Dordogne area is lovely.
Honestly its really stress free. Keep away from the big cities/towns and you'll be fine. Do post up some photos as you go. Oh and take plenty sun cream!!
We’ve recently done 2 weeks from Brittany down the west coast to La Rochelle and Ile de Re, and back inland to Normandy. Never touched any toll roads. Part of the pleasure of France is driving through all the towns and villages and stopping at the boulangerie and boucher to get your food for the day. It is sooo stress free driving over there. You’ll love it.
So much easier and more pleasant than the UK.
And if you are trying to get from A to B quickly (as I often do) then the toll roads, apart from when close to big cities (the A6/A7 near Lyon is always a PITA) the are great. You can travel for 100KM+ in cruise control without turning it off and never need to touch the brake. The motorway services are also reasonably priced (in comparison to the UK anyway) and clean. They all nearly have picnic areas around the car park and sometimes in separate wooded areas. They have many Aires that are just rest areas, they have loos and in the majority of times also have picnic areas. I have slept the night in a couple of those.
Our plan in August was to kip the first night in a motorway Aire after we get off the train but as my wife has pointed out, it'll be f***ing hot and we won't be able to keep the doors or windows open really. I know the chance of anything untoward happening is slimmer than a slim thing (never have believed the gas stories, lol) but I see where she is coming from.
I’d go in September all of France grinds to a halt in August …. So your going to pay for sites because you’re worried about having the windows open a smidge
1. We can't go in September, although we will be away in September too, in fact I won't be back in the UK until around a month later. (France is a filler for us as Spain is the destination, albeit we are spending longer than just passing through)
2. We are paying for a sites anyway as I don't want a holiday spent on motorway Aires. It probably won't be a smidge of open windows either. Having been in the van last June during their last heatwave, at night it was still in the 30's at times. It was unbearably hot, and as we had the awning, the door was fully open as were the windows in a (probably futile) way to circulate some air. She was just pointing out, that doing that on Aire might not be the best thing. We were only going to that as we won't arrive in France until around 2000hrs. We have a site booked for the next night as we are travelling down to Provence for 5 nights on a site before heading off eventually into Spain.
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AgnesTheVan
Member
what are peoples experience of just rocking up at a campsite in august? Always space? hit n miss?
The answer is :it depends. If a popular place on the coast ( Bretagne etc), or a large campsite with swimming pools etc that will appeal to French families then could be dodgy. Smaller campsites ( often municipal ) tend to be better. However our experience generally is that if you get there in the afternoon fairly soon after the campsite office reopens after lunch ( like about 3) then you will probably be OK, and I would run the risk - especially given that there are likely to be quite a few campsites locally, so you can go to a Plan B. Reserving on line usually commits you to a certain time period, and quite often the reservation fee is significant. One trick if you are bothered and there is an online reservation system is to go through the process and see if there is availability which gives you a clue about how busy it is. HTH
It's not very helpful to you as I've never done it but will probably find out this year. We might well be traveling through France on the way to Greece in the second half of August and plan to take the same approach as we always do and as outlined by @kipperman above. That said, we will probably only be in France for one night but the same principle will apply throughout the rest of the trip as well.
Same with us. We pre booked 5 nights in Avignon from 20/08. The rest of the trip after that, a mixture between France and Spain will probably be on the hoof as I am not sure of the route from Avignon we will be taking. Not too bad for me though, as if it doesn't work, in around 9 hours I could be at our place in Spain.
We’re heading out on Friday evening for a fortnight…not booked into sites yet, likely to free wheel it as we go, plans to aim for a first night in an Aire in Gravelines, then heading for Reims, Strasbourg, Dijon, Annecy, Chamonix, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc and make our way back up…ambitious target to get that far south, likely 2k+ miles in our T6 with wife,daughter and lab on board..first long stint in the van.
I use the search for sites app. Worked fine the other week.
Also just search on google maps for aires and loads come up.
This is also a handy site The Villages Étapes – Les Villages Étapes , although we found a few on the google search that weren’t on there, such as one in Falaise.
Sélectionnez vos Aires de Services Camping Cars depuis la Carte de France
Sélectionnez vos Aires de Services Camping Cars depuis la Carte de France
www.i-campingcar.fr
Park4night is also useful. You can filter down to what you are looking for. An Aire can also be a couple of things. Motorway service areas (both with fuel and restaurants and just basic ones with loos) are also called Aires but are different to Aires set aside for camper vans etc.
I have slept on Aires on motorways, one with a full service area but they are quite noisy with trucks running all night and I've also slept on the smaller motorway ones with no services other than a bog. Never been on a paid for one in a village.
Some motorway ones do have motorhome points for water etc.
I have slept on Aires on motorways, one with a full service area but they are quite noisy with trucks running all night and I've also slept on the smaller motorway ones with no services other than a bog. Never been on a paid for one in a village.
Some motorway ones do have motorhome points for water etc.
France/spainportugal Surfing Holiday
I am off to Europe surfing soon travelling from Plymouth-Roscoff and driving down via Hossegor and Bairitz to Peniche/Nazare then back to Spain to watch the world waveski championships at Pantin.Never done anything like this before Anyone got any good tips or hidden gems we should visit ?
Always worth having a Search as there is already a lot of info’ on Aires on the Forum.
Anyone book their return ferry while in France? I'm planning on a French trip this September (first time in the newly converted van), and considering booking the return ferry while in France instead of booking it now with the outward bound. Mainly so it gives some flexibility in choosing a route back. I am planning to go via Dublin Cherbourg on the way out as we live on Anglesey (so a ferry to Dublin first), but its not cheap, and I want the flexibility of staying longer if the sun is shining... or returning earlier if SWMBO doesn't take to it...Can't see why it would be an issue but you folk might know different...
Yeah we did in June this year. Keeping our options open. Went out on the Newhaven - Dieppe but thought I might return via the Chunnel depending on where we ended up on the way home (considered going to Belgium).
Ended up just booking Dieppe-Newhaven in the end. Just did it a couple of days before we returned.
Ended up just booking Dieppe-Newhaven in the end. Just did it a couple of days before we returned.
