France in September

[Poppy]

Any sugestions of good places.

[Brian Kirby]

Top of the Eiffel tower?  Good view.

[Minstrel]

Usual questions

How long have you got?

Do you like sea, countryside, mountains?

[malc d]

Poppy - 2010-08-05 6:17 PM

 

Any sugestions of good places.

 

 

 

What is your definition of a good place ?

 

 

 

[Poppy]

Lake or sea and some sunshine.

[malc d]

In our experience to almost ( I repeat, almost ) guarantee hot weather we would go south beyond the " Bordeaux line "

This is an imaginary line drawn east / west through Bordeaux.

 

This principle has rarely let us down.

 

 

 

 

[Poppy]

Thanks.We had our other holiday in chilly Scotland.

[maggyd]

Last year we were in France along the Loire in Sept; we did find a few sites were closed so I would just check in the area you are planning to go.

[Poppy]

Will do.Was the Loire nice.Never been there.What was the weather like?

[kelly58]

We are going to France 11th Sept no motorhome this time renting a small cottage not too far from Mont St Micheal only £190 p/week we have always been lucky with the weather in France during September.

[lennyhb]

We are off to the Massif Central on Bank Holiday Monday for 3 weeks. Won't bother us if sites are closed that's why we have a Motorhome.

 

 

[greem]

Hi

we have always followed the sun in September which means we invariably head down to Grenoble area then to Perpignan for some sea air before trecking through Spain to Almeria region.

 

Campsites are quiet and many close on the 15th in France. Not an issue in Spain.

 

Have a good time

:-)

[LordThornber]

Last Sept we stayed in a tiny village near Rouen, glorious weather all week, lovely architecture nice bars and easy cycling.

 

Good value Municipal site right in town. Not too much of a drive if you only have a week or so, i.e.from Calais.

 

http://www.pontdelarche.fr/

 

Martyn

[rupert123]

We have been to France in September and October for the last two years. From about mid September on you will find sites closed but still plenty open and you can still 'slum it' on the occasional aire if you wish. I would go south as although you can have bad weather anywhere in France, we had a lot of rain for a time in the south during July, you have more chance away from the west coast and south. You can reach anywhere in France with one overnight stop so I would do the Tarn Gorge, some of central massive, if weather looks ok, especially in the volcano area. Provence should be good, may be Dordonge and the Lot. Having said all that last September we travelled down the west coast as far as the Ill de Re and had great weather the whole way. As had been said the great thing with a m/h is you can move on. You asked about the Loire, we like it in bits, some interesting places but scenery not our sort, to flat. We always seem to stop their on our way out or back for a couple of days.

[Poppy]

Thanks everyone.

[maggyd]

The Loire is not my cup of tea either :-S very overrated in our experience, but as we only pass through places and never stay long.

 

We usually pick a route taking in as any places as we can fit in, we had 5 weeks last Sept; staying first night at le-Portel, Pont. de l'Arch. then to Giverny to visit Monets Garden Chartres. Chaumont-sur-Loire. Le-Doret on a municiple Baynac-Et-Cazananc on the Dordogne . Le-Buguey Vezere then Fontclare nr Bellac Vouvray nr Tours (if my diary is correct) an aire nr Le-Mans La Suze Sur Sarthe, La-Mailleray (sp) St.Valery-Sur-Somme then Escalles

 

Phew!! not very restful but we see a ot for our money

:-D

[rapidoman]

I agree the loire in my experiance is very touristy and like over here its a recipe for being ripped of and locals being rude ( maybe its places like this that make people think the french are arrogant (^) ). I always go to more rural / mountanous areas you get to meet the real french. try the gers region ie condom, auch and surronding area climate is good close to the mountains if the urge takes you wonderful typical rural french markets and armagnac :$ had one of my worst campsite experiances in the loire ( firbois ) talk about rude and indifferent (!)

[Brian Kirby]

I guess this all depends what people mean by "the Loire".  It is difficult to generalise about the river, first because it is the longest in France, rising up in the massif just south of Le Puy en Velay, and flowing first north to Orleans before turning west to enter the sea at St Nazaire, and second because it encompasses so much variety of landscape, culture, and history.

In its upper reaches, flat it most definitely ain't!  It flows through some superb countryside and, between Orleans and Angers, is surrounded by some of the finest renaissance - and a few older - stately homes and castles in Europe.  At Briare, there is one of the 19 century engineering wonders of France, where the Briare canal crosses over the river.  The mid, and lower, reaches are, inevitably, gentler, more rolling, countryside, with the great Beauce plain to the north, and the wildlife rich wetlands and forests of the Sologne to the south, around Orleans and Blois.

For much of this part of the river, along with its various tributaries, it is bordered by vineyards, producing some of the best, but least widely-known, wines in France. 

I don't recognise the rude locals and rip-offs rapidoman describes, so I honestly think he must have caught a bad place at a bad time.  I have been visiting this part of France, on and off, for over 50 years, and have always found friendly, generous, helpful, people with a wicked sense of humour, and generally good food at reasonable prices in restaurants.  In summer the visitors flock in, as they do in many places, but I have never felt overwhelmed by them.  Out of season it goes delightfully quiet.

I would not describe it as a touristy area, in that it has its own economies, that are not generally tourist oriented.  It is a commercially vibrant area, and just gets on with its own life, at its own pace, and generally minds its own business.  All this goes on year round, with the tourists merely coming and going with the seasons.  Great area.  The "real" France.  I like it, but you'd never guess that, would you?  :-D

[mondo]

Personally I'm a Vendee man meself.. in fact all down that Western coast is nice!!The Ill de Oleron.. The Ill de Re are amongst two of the best areas of France albeit very "Touristy" and in places somewhat overpriced but on the whole very nice..We did The Ill de Re last year weather was good a lot of great sites but the toll to cross the bridge was a bit over the top.. 16 Euros if I remember rightly but worth it!! plenty of local markets to get the essentials in..and lots of great cycle routes that are safe and off the road good for the kids..great for a day out to the beach

 

Give it a go you may be pleasantly surprised

[rupert123]

Well Brian you summed up why I do not think it is great. OK some bits have a few small hills, the castles are nice enough but see one see them all, we have quite enough in Wales, not quite the same but you can get bored with them. Some of best wines, well not really, some pleasant ones but I cannot think of one really top vineyard in the Loire region. I agree though have found nothing wrong with the people, much like anywhere else, some good, some not so good.The forests are extensive but very much the same all over and if you go wandering around in them you are liable to get shot. As I said we always seem to stop on our way up or down but a couple of days at a time is always enough, would never use it as a holiday destination. Still as has been said many times we all like differant things so just my opinion. Some have raved about the Ill de Re but again we only went once and stayed for two nights, despite the great weather doubt we will ever go back.

[Brian Kirby]

Entirely agree, Henry, though I can never tire of the buildings.  I just felt some of the comments were overly dismissive about my favourite corner (corner?) of France, and might put-off other readers who may otherwise rather enjoy it.

As to the wine, I speak as a mere drinker and no, you won't generally find top rated chateaux as in Bordeaux, or the equivalent of the Burgundian "clos", but you will find excellent wines at fair prices, both red and white.  You'll even find reds that are great for drinking on hot days, because they chill well, like Cheverny.  As you say, each to his own.

[rupert123]

I to like buildings Brian but would not go see them as a main holiday destination. I agree my comments were a bit dismissive but I was really thinking in the context of spending say a couple of weeks in one area. One thing in the area has always fascinated me, the troglodyte dwellings. One of my great passions is wine, it might be interesting to start a new thread on this rather than hijacking Poppy's, but I would also agree the wines of the Loire along with the Rhone represent the best value wines in France. The region covers some one third of the Loires 635 mile length and the diversity of grapes are greater than either Burgundy or Bordeaux. The best known are probably the whites of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume. In hot weather I like the very dry sparkling stuff found in places like Vouvray, and the most underated sweet wine around found in the Coteaux du Layon. Anyway enough of the wine bore bit but I no doubt will sample a few more on my way home from our planned trip in September/October.

[rapidoman]

maybe brian is right ( bad place at bad time ) but we all have different tastes which is a good thing as life would get very boring. i still feel poppy should travel farther south this time of year, our rule of thumb has always been to have a better chance of good weather you need to travel south of the loire. one site i do like for a few days is in st emillion (domain de barbon ) a top site which takes camping cheques B-)

[rolandrat]

Try the Bay of Roses over the border, you will love it.

[Brian Kirby]

Well, there you go!  Comment wasn't aimed at you Henry, or anyone else in particular, just I've been going there for years, and have always found it agreeably civilised.

Back to Poppy.  France, September, sun and water.  Weather in most of France should be good in September - I've experienced just short of 100F on the Loire - but like everywhere, weather is weather and, sooner or later, it changes.  You need to look for calm settled weather somewhere.  Probably best to plan to be away from the Atlantic coast because, if it cracks, that is where it'll crack first.  If it is settled, the Med, at the south-eastern end of the Pyrenees, would be great.  Maybe around Collioure, even Argeles.  However, summer descends into autumn quite abruptly here, affected by the mountains, usually accompanied by sudden gusty winds and crackling thunderstorms.  So, it could disappoint, you just need to keep an eye on the forecasts.

I would have said Annecy, and its lake.  Don't know it, gather it is very attractive but also very popular, but again you have the mountains, which are not always the best place to be as autumn approaches. 

That leaves the Med coast round to the Rhone delta, which has its bits and pieces, is quite heavily developed with, mostly modern, tourist resorts interspersed with a few old interesting old towns that are attractive but, being more or less the only places that are, IMO, have heavy access restrictions and crawl with tourists. 

East of that, you have the calanques, fjord like inlets, between Ma**eilles and Cassis, that are very attractive looking if you can get to them.  After Cassis, you are really onto the Cote d'Azur where money talks in a loud voice, and the plebs all go to watch and listen, generally being hugely overcharged for the pleasure (pleasure?).  As a generalisation, if you want rudeness and bad service, combined with poor value, this area is far worse than Paris, where at least you can find fair value if you look. 

However, there is an exception I found a few years back (and doubtless there are others), at Agay, between Frejus and Cannes.  Agay is not much, but there is a great little site, Agay Soleil (N43.43298 E6.86849), privately owned, immaculately maintained, terrace restaurant/bar, superb facilities, own (narrow!) stretch of sandy beach, two small supermarkets within walking distance (one seasonal), spectacular bay, amazing coloured volcanic rocks, and footpaths into the hills behind.  Bit over 25Euro per night with elect for 2010, depending on pitch, after 4/9, which is not at all bad for the area.  If you want to just sit in the sun and watch the sea, you could do an awful lot worse.  However, you probably won't want to go in and out very often, as the site roads are tight, and the approach down from the road is a bit steep and needs care.  Perfectly negotiable, but not what you'd want to do every day in anything much bigger than a PVC.  Arrive with full fresh, and empty waste, tanks, because the dump point and tap are at the top!

Oh yes, and Agay faces west, which is nice for evening sun, but not so good if the Mistral gets up, which it can in autumn, so if you go out for the day, don't leave the awning out!  Same applies at night, unless you like tripping the light fantastic in your jim-jams!  It also chucks the sand around, so it gets into everything, but hey, if you want sun, sand, and sea in September, there has to be a downside.  Like I said, weather is weather and, down there, despite the distance from the Rhone valley, the Mistral is king, but it usually blows out after 2/3 days.