neilmac Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Excitement is building...... we have the ferry booked for 15th Feb - Dover to Calais £34.20 (just missed the 'special offer' £20 crossings) via SeaFrance. As is usual for us, we'll be using Aires for our trip down to Spain and the ones we expect to stop at are: Le Portel Honfleur Neuille Pont Pierre Nersac Mimizan Plage St Jean de Luz Then, a bit of a trek down to Daimuz, south of Valencia, to a beach side wild camping spot. Its a long drive but, the recently opened free motorway Autovia Mudejar will take care of a lot of miles. The Aires have been chosen because they mostly have EHU and the possibility of water (if not turned off because of frost). We're not in any particular hurry but it would be nice to leave the cold weather behind as soon as possible! so if we get some good days en route we may stay around a bit to make the most of it. The beauty of motorhoming eh?..... No definate plans - just a direction! And with Aires there are no booking commitments either. Along the way we'll be looking for McDonalds and the like for free wi-fi (not the burgers!) so we can update our blog and generally keep in touch. We'll be out of the UK until August so hope to see or meet some of you on the way..... :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auntyjanet1 Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Bon voyage Neil Have just followed your route via "all the aires book" and road atlas ,i will look forward to your blog en-route ,hope you have more luck with water than Berti did, will be interesed to see how you get a wi-fi connection,have a safe journey and good luck (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmac Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share Posted February 8, 2010 auntyjanet1 - 2010-02-08 3:32 PM Bon voyage Neil Have just followed your route via "all the aires book" and road atlas ,i will look forward to your blog en-route ,hope you have more luck with water than Berti did, will be interesed to see how you get a wi-fi connection,have a safe journey and good luck (lol) Thanks Cliff :-D Hope the water is better than berti's results! But we'll see. Wi-fi - sometimes we've been lucky and other times we've gone days with nothing so fingers crossed ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertandjean Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 Hi Niel Enjoy your trip and looking forward to your blog; we are not heading to France until mid March so still some time to wait! Regarding EHU then Le Portel is no longer free but 3 €/night plus 2€/4 hours electricity so aire at Cap Nature, Audinghen (1597bis in Le Guide Nationasl 2009) better bet with free overnight stay and 4.20€ for EHU. French 'vanners on Campingcar-infos web site report EHU not working on aire at Neuille Point Perre so maybe not one to bank on. Regarding St Jean de Luz then only 2 electric points and almost certainly taken, also spaces very tight. Biarritz Milady a better chance of hook-up, although is 10€/night but police municipal do not always collect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 have a great trip when you pass Berty throw him a tow rope :-D robertandjean, we are heading to Vendee, St Gilles croix de vie? have any of the Aires on the coast electricity (for e bikes) or else we will stay on a site...This is for Whitsun half term week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmac Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share Posted February 8, 2010 robertandjean - 2010-02-08 7:15 PM Hi Niel Enjoy your trip and looking forward to your blog; we are not heading to France until mid March so still some time to wait! Regarding EHU then Le Portel is no longer free but 3 €/night plus 2€/4 hours electricity so aire at Cap Nature, Audinghen (1597bis in Le Guide Nationasl 2009) better bet with free overnight stay and 4.20€ for EHU. French 'vanners on Campingcar-infos web site report EHU not working on aire at Neuille Point Perre so maybe not one to bank on. Regarding St Jean de Luz then only 2 electric points and almost certainly taken, also spaces very tight. Biarritz Milady a better chance of hook-up, although is 10€/night but police municipal do not always collect! Thanks for that info robertandjean :-D We stayed at Le Portel in December just after the new pay machines were activated so may take your advice re Cap Nature. We'll probaly take a chance on the other 2 regarding EHU - its not essential, just nice to have to save on gas etc. We noticed that the Aire at St Jean de Luz looked a bit tight for parking when we passed by in in December as well, we had a trailer on then so didn't stop - the trailer's staying in the Uk this time so we'll see ;-) Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmac Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share Posted February 8, 2010 JudgeMental - 2010-02-08 8:59 PM have a great trip when you pass Berty throw him a tow rope :-D Thank you.... and the rope is stored in the van all ready for use ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertandjean Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Eddie, regarding your trip to the Vedee coast then we do not know of any aires on this stretch of coast with EHU, sorry. Not stayed on aire at St-Giles-Croix-de-Vie but have had good reports from friends who have stayed there. One part of this coast we enjoyed, and would be great for cycling is the I'lle de Noirmoutier. We stayed on the large aire in Noirmoutier-en-L'ile. Positives: short walk into town which has a nice ambience in the evening, well signed and plenty of room (over 200 vans there when we visited in July). Downsides: It is a large car park, so may not be what you are looking for and no EHU. Cost 7€/24 hours plus 2€ for services. An aire with a nicer setting on the island, right next to beach (but little else there) is at L'Epine. Free parking but again no EHU and soon fills up. If you drop down the coast into the Charente-Maritime then there are two really nice aires, both with EHU, that we would suggest might meet your requirements Soubise and Mortagne-sur-Gironde. Hope this helps. Niel, Really would think twice about St jean-de-Luz. We just managed to squeeze in, lunch time, then decided that with main road one side and rail track other that even for great aires supports like us this was not up to much! But by now more cars had parked up so getting out took a 300 point turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmac Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 robertandjean - 2010-02-09 10:08 AM Eddie, regarding your trip to the Vedee coast then we do not know of any aires on this stretch of coast with EHU, sorry. Not stayed on aire at St-Giles-Croix-de-Vie but have had good reports from friends who have stayed there. One part of this coast we enjoyed, and would be great for cycling is the I'lle de Noirmoutier. We stayed on the large aire in Noirmoutier-en-L'ile. Positives: short walk into town which has a nice ambience in the evening, well signed and plenty of room (over 200 vans there when we visited in July). Downsides: It is a large car park, so may not be what you are looking for and no EHU. Cost 7€/24 hours plus 2€ for services. An aire with a nicer setting on the island, right next to beach (but little else there) is at L'Epine. Free parking but again no EHU and soon fills up. If you drop down the coast into the Charente-Maritime then there are two really nice aires, both with EHU, that we would suggest might meet your requirements Soubise and Mortagne-sur-Gironde. Hope this helps. Niel, Really would think twice about St jean-de-Luz. We just managed to squeeze in, lunch time, then decided that with main road one side and rail track other that even for great aires supports like us this was not up to much! But by now more cars had parked up so getting out took a 300 point turn. L'Epine certainly is a lovely spot although when we visited we were unable to get on as it was full (in August) but would definately try again at another time. I'd also recommend Mortagne-sur-Gironde, located on the side of a marina and a great viewpoint to visit up in the village. I take your point about St Jean de Luz, we'll have a couple of second choices available just in case :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Thanks! I will probably use a mixture of Aires and sites. ACSI card makes it cheap (11to15 euro a night) as it is still considered out of season until early July Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herri Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 I will be enviously following your blog as we take early retirement in June and are planning a trip very simular to yours. Bon Voyage. Herri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmac Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 Herri - 2010-02-09 11:21 AM I will be enviously following your blog as we take early retirement in June and are planning a trip very simular to yours. Bon Voyage. Herri Thank you Herri :-D Best wishes for June and your early retirement, I'm sure you'll love it - we certainly haven't looked back since we did it ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 First for me just joined to follow your blog, looking forward to seeing what happens. Bon Voyage......... Caroline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmac Posted February 10, 2010 Author Share Posted February 10, 2010 Caroline - 2010-02-09 1:12 PM First for me just joined to follow your blog, looking forward to seeing what happens. Bon Voyage......... Caroline Thank you Caroline :-D Just counting down 'til the off, won't miss this snow - although I gather there won't be much change until we get quite a bit south. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kontiki Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Only 9 days to go for us *-) it's the waiting around, seems to drag. This has been one of our longest spells in between trips & I still keep finding little jobs I meant to do. We will start to finally pack the van at the weekend & be chasing you across France. Can't wait for the first day when we can sit outside & fire the barbie up :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilmac Posted February 10, 2010 Author Share Posted February 10, 2010 kontiki - 2010-02-10 8:21 PM Only 9 days to go for us *-) it's the waiting around, seems to drag. This has been one of our longest spells in between trips & I still keep finding little jobs I meant to do. We will start to finally pack the van at the weekend & be chasing you across France. Can't wait for the first day when we can sit outside & fire the barbie up :-D Apart from the number of days to go - I could have written exactly the same myself ;-) With the weather conditions here our own extended stay in the Uk has been so frustrating (not helped by our windscreen saga documented elsewhere). Anyway, just 4 more days for us :-D . Mind you weather in france appears to be no better at the moment! C'est la vie (I think *-) ) Anyway, packing mh tomorrow and Friday, visiting family and staying on friend's drive in Essex on Saturday and Sunday then Dover on Monday - so nearly there!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kontiki Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Just hope the Euro keeps going down, about time we had a bit in our favour. Watching the http://www.forexdirectory.net/euro.html site & would be happy if it got down to 80p or less :-D we could really have a good time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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