gmcclin Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 We are going to France this year for the first time in our motorhome. We intend touring the Brittany region and would be interested in hearing about good Aires,campsites and historic places of interest to see. I am looking forward to it whilst also being a bit nervous regarding driving on the opposite side of the road. Any advice would be gratefully received (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 gmcclin - 2009-05-16 5:16 PM We are going to France this year for the first time in our motorhome. We intend touring the Brittany region and would be interested in hearing about good Aires,campsites and historic places of interest to see. I am looking forward to it whilst also being a bit nervous regarding driving on the opposite side of the road. Any advice would be gratefully received (lol) Plenty of advice can be given but it is mostly common sense. Driving on the right is easy just remember drive right look left. If you do a search you will come up with a lot of tips as this subject has been covered many times before. Welcome to the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmcclin Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 Thanks for the reply Rupert123. Hope its as easy as you say. Do you have any recomendations with regards to Aires in the Brittany region Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 gmcclin Brittany has many overnight halts for motorhomes, but which ones are 'best' is very much down to personal taste. We stay quite often at the aire at St Thegonnec (to the west of Morlaix) which is normally pretty quiet, has free services, a pretty good Relais Routiers restaurant (Mondays to Friday mid-days) and a magnificently restored church nearby. It does need highlighting that the aires and campsites near the coast can get very crowded during July/August. Probably your best bet would be to obtain the following publication: http://www.vicarious-shop.co.uk/view_product.php?c_id=4&sc_id=&p_id=39 There's also a French website that carries a huge amount of current aires-related information: http://campingcar-infos.com/index1.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianR Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 If you are interested in historic places as well as the coast, try Fougères where there is a magnificent castle and a very good Camping Municipal de Paron on the D17, route de la Chapelle Janson. Only about 7€ for 'van and 2 people + 3€ electricity. Plenty of shade and in easy walking distance of the town centre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyreman Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 Just come back from 3 weeks in Belgium & France,hardly saw a british van over there,very expensive now if you want to eat out,at least the fuel is cheap (cheapest i found was 90cents for diesel) as someone else has said get a copy of "all the aires" and Europe 1 from the caravan club and that will cover all the sites that you need,we spent some time in Brittany but found Normandy much nicer (just our personal taste)..have a good time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyreman Posted May 16, 2009 Share Posted May 16, 2009 And if you do intend to use Aires make sure you get there early,they do fill up quickly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W3526602 Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Hi, How are you crossing the channel? Drive down from Calais to Britanny. and every few km you will see a sign post telling you there is an Aire 1000m ahead. Presumably other routes are the same. Note, those aires with fuel stations attached usualy have a cafe as well, and the toilet facilities are more UK in nature. I doubt that your wife will want to be introduced to the "Cubicle Turque" when her needs are great. These are also known as "The Squat", and the British army have their own name. It can be difficult finding a manned fuel station during the night, or even during the two hour lunch break. So keep your fuel tank half full, at least until you know how to serve yourself, and KNOW that your plastic card will be accepted by the machine. Agree with your wife that normal rules of marriage will be suspended, and that she can scream at you when you start to drive on the wrong side of the road. Or even remind you not to, even when you had no intention to. And vice-versa when she is driving. A STOP sign means stop .... for three seconds. And do not start to move at a toll-booth until the passenger has re-donned their seat belt. 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 gmcclin It's always difficult to advise usefully on 'touring' questions without a good deal of background - beginning, in your case, with when you are going to France, how long your stay there will be and your port(s) of entry and exit. (As you live in Belfast I'd guess you will enter France via Roscoff, which is why I mentioned St Thegonnec). Then there are personal preferences like whether you are keen on water-sports, cycling, history, etc. I think your best bet would be to contact the Brittany tourist board via e-mail http://www.brittanytourism.com/ and ask them to send you a load of information on the region. Then you can plan an itinerary that will match the duration of your trip and take in places that particularly attract you. You could do much the same thing using a travel guidebook, but the Brittany tourist board's material will be more current and (if you ask for it) should include reasonably accurate details of campsites. A GOOGLE-search using "Brittany tourism" will retrieve lots more useful stuff. We've regularly visited Brittany for 25 years or so and I guess I could give you a list of places that you might find interesting (historically, Carnac, Concarneau, Fougeres, Josselin, Vannes, etc.) Similarly, I could mention overnight halts ('aires') and campsites that we've used. However, I don't think that would assist you greatly as there's no guarantee that the aires/campsites we've enjoyed staying at in the past will be as pleasant nowadays (or even still exist!) As this will be your first experience of driving on the right, I suggest you plan a leisurely holiday and take your time. It's generally easy to get around Brittany as there is a network of good quality toll-free 'express-ways', but there's little point driving long distances just for the sake of it. There is still a need to beware of the French Priority-to-the-Right driving rule, particularly in built-up areas, and French drivers as a species don't take prisoners. Potentially the riskiest driving manoeuvre for a new visitor to the Continent is joining a main road from a narrow road, or leaving a petrol-station or supermarket car-park, as there is a natural tendency to move into the wrong lane. As 602 advises, make sure that the passenger keeps an eagle-eye on the driver at all times, as being confronted by oncoming traffic is a chastening experience. You also need to be particularly careful when you get back home until your brain re-acclimatises to driving on the left. As tyreman advises, the Caravan Club's "Europe 1- Sites Guide and Touring Handbook" is a mine of information about driving in France as well as about French campsites and I strongly suggest you put it on your shopping list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 gmcclin - 2009-05-16 5:16 PM We are going to France this year for the first time in our motorhome. We intend touring the Brittany region and would be interested in hearing about good Aires,campsites and historic places of interest to see. I am looking forward to it whilst also being a bit nervous regarding driving on the opposite side of the road. Any advice would be gratefully received (lol) Someone mentioned the 'aires' on motorways but these are not the same as the aires in villages and towns. It is not recommended to stay overnight on motorway aires, which are just picnic / rest ares with or without fuel stations and restaurants. The village aires are purpose built for motorhomes to stay overnight and usually have facilities for obtaining fresh water, and disposing of grey and black waste. Some of these are free, others charge a few euros. As far as driving 'on the other side' is concerned I've always found that the only dodgy time is when I come out of a car park onto an empty road when it's a bit automatic to drive on the left. When there is other traffic about it's obvious where to go. Enjoy your trip - I'm sure you will find it a lot easier than you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Dwight Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Surely theres no problem driving on the right, if you are using a British van the Driver sits nearest the side of the road. The only time I found it a problem was when a friend and I went to France/Belgium and Germany in the early 60s on our Motorcycles, then mostly coming out of Camp sites and Car parks. Care is needed when overtaking, ie lorries, though. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyreman Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 As soon as you`ve gone around your first roundabout you`ll be wondering what all the fuss was about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmcclin Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 I have to say i have been very surprised by the replys i have received. I must thank you all for the advice you have given it was very useful. I am looking forward to it with a bit more confidence. Just hope the wife enjoys her job keeping me on the right side of the road and we dont end up in the divorce court. Thanks again. Bon Voyage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Just a thought, have you considered security?. Do you have an alarm which enables you to sleep in camper with all the exterior doors armed? Have you dead locks/secondary door locks on cab doors and habitation doors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunbeam Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Hi gmcclin im not far from you in Coleraine and the first time i went to france about the second weekend there i left a camp site down at the loire and drove about a 100 yrds to the end of the road to find the stop sign on the other side ipulled over to the right side left the juntion and pulled in down the road a bit got the tool box out and tapped a 3 inch band on the top of my steering wheel so as every time i got in and saw it i felt a little ill to think of what could have happened with a wife and 4 kids on board But go and you wont regret it im going for three weeks in July if you like peace and quiet take a look at the Passion sites Yours on the road Edgar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Edgar mentions the France Passion scheme http://www.france-passion.com http://www.france-passion.co.uk I'm not sure that it would be financially worthwhile joining the scheme for an initial (perhaps one-off) trip round Brittany as the number of France Passion sites in that region is quite limited. There is one very close to Roscoff at Santec (Méchouroux) at the Bistrot a Crepes, but this is also an aire de services that accepts non-France Passion motorcaravanners. It's within walking distance of attractive beaches and details are on the campingcar-infos.com website, with other Santec-related photos on http://perso.inooi.com/v2/en/bretagne-france/brs.php France Passion sites aren't always quiet and peaceful - we overnighted on one next to a restaurant where a singing/dancing/stamping-on-the floor party went on to 3am and on another where the neighbouring motorhome (British) decided to run a generator until 10pm. Then there was the FP site where the farm-dog bit me (my own fault) and several visits to cattle/goat farms where it took days to evict the flies afterwards. Still lots of fun, though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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