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Normandy/France recommendations


LordThornber

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Hello, we have 10 days "over there" coming up and are looking for any recommends from you. We dont want to travel much more than say 400 mile round trip from Calais.

 

We like Municipals, easy cycling, quiet pretty villages, decent bar or 3, decent architecture any period, good walks, happy to stay in one location or have 2 x 5 days.

 

No thankyou to, Aires or busy tourist honeypots.

 

Any suggestions very welcome and thankyou for reading.

 

Martyn

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municipal site at Bernay Eure

nice town - lovely gardens

 

lots around there - just south of Rouen

 

down side - it can look a lot like Caravan Club site if you time it wrong

 

or - you could try heading east - towards Verdun / Sedan

 

or - the coast - St Valery en Caux used to have nice basic site up the hillside on the opposite side to the over popular Aire

 

have fun

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Martyn

 

We are off to Germany / France at about the same time as yourself and quite like Bayeux, which is not as touristy and busy as you might think.

 

As excellent site in the town itself and within easy walking distance of the tapestry and the other attractions of the centre is:

 

Camp Municipal

Blvd Peripherique d'Eindhoven

Bayeux 14400

 

Tel: 02 31 92 08 43

 

GPS: N 49.2840 E 0.6977

 

It is open until the end of September.

 

 

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LordThornber - 2010-09-09 10:20 AM

 

duffers - 2010-09-08 3:25 PM

 

B-)

 

 

can I come too :D

 

You may as well Ray, 80 views on this posting and just one suggestion from your good self indicates no bugger goes to France, so yes, come along and make up the numbers :D

 

Martyn

 

 

perhaps they're reluctant to let you in on the really good ones

or

perhaps they just blat along through the North in their desire to spend as much money as possible on Peages on the headlong flight south

 

:D

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Perhaps the vast majority are happy using aires, which LordThornbur obviously isn't.

 

Spent a very interesting morning at the US Cemetary at Omaha Beach.

 

This evening we walked along the causeway to Le Mont St Michel and back.

 

It's high tide today so no overnight parking on the causeway.

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Perhaps the vast majority are happy using aires, which LordThornber obviously isn't.

 

Spent a very interesting morning at the US Cemetary at Omaha Beach.

 

This evening we walked along the causeway to Le Mont St Michel and back.

 

It's high tide today so no overnight parking on the causeway.

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The aire shortcircuit suggets is one that we have stayed on and mentioned on here before. It should be O.K. even for none aires people like his Lordship as is a campsite that becomes an aire out of season. It is called Municipal Les Ilots on D301 towards Cancale (N48.68056, W1.96277) and costs 3.70 Euors/night inc hook-up and services but no toilet block. A great base for 3 or 4 days.

A similar set-up can, if his Lordship fancies a little more driving be found at Bouere (Dept 52). not far from Chateau-Gontier. This is an old camp site which is now just for motorhomes. Hedged pitches, some with nice views towards church, very quite no charge to stay. Services 2 Euros.

So why so no to all aires when there are many real gems, some which used to be camp sites but now available for little or no cost?

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sshortcircuit - 2010-09-09 11:42 PM

 

Derek, I'm with you on this one although I prefer to stay in the aires in town at Le Mont St Michel as it is cheaper with a hookup, water ,individual bays, etc. just like a camp site

 

Very nice. We stayed there last night. 9.10€ inc. tourist tax.

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derek500 - 2010-09-10 7:13 PM

 

sshortcircuit - 2010-09-09 11:42 PM

 

Derek, I'm with you on this one although I prefer to stay in the aires in town at Le Mont St Michel as it is cheaper with a hookup, water ,individual bays, etc. just like a camp site

 

Very nice. We stayed there last night. 9.10€ inc. tourist tax.

 

I should have mentioned that you can stay on the site behind the hotel, who also run the aires, and it has showers etc but slightly more expensive.

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Alan D - 2010-09-10 11:29 AM

 

The aires book shows 3 aires in St Malo, which is the best?

We are off tomorrow and asked for recommended aires and sites in Brittany a few days ago and as his Lordship states few replies . In fact we got only 1 and that was from John.

Alan.

 

 

Went to St Malo today, the aire by the racecourse was full and we ended up parking with a dozen or so others in front of the station.

 

It's about 15-20 minutes walk to the old city.

 

Tonight we're overnighting at the aire (no services) at Saint-Gast-Le-Guildo. Absolutely stunning views. When we arrived the tide was out and they were collecting oysters from the sea bed.

 

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Martyn,

I go to france :D but i like some Aires :D .The person who said about St vallery on cau or what ever sorry about the spellings .. Its a good Aire it has electric plug in its cheap and you are really left alone so to speak with the company of other M?homes if you need it .

 

Have you ever tried all the villages from Calais up to Le Touquet if you go through all the villages there are some lovely places seaside fronts and lots to take up 10 days worth . Failing that normandy coast with St Michaels mount is beautiful plenty of cycling there .

In feb we went to Paris parked for the week and cycled everywhere lots of big parks on the outskirts and hubby is a serious Tour De France cyclist he found plenty to check out .but i especially like the ladt suggestion Brugge easy to cycle in Brugge :D

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st valery en caux

great spot

aire has always been cramped when we've been - which is why we've used the little camp site opposite

have also noticed a steady reduction in parking options for Mhomes in St Valery over the years

presumably because motorhomes not wanting to stay in the sardine can which has been the aire have spread to other car parks in the town / on the front

 

not been for a few years

may be very different now . . . . . . . .

 

but I doubt it

motorhomes have invaded many great coastal spots

and - unsurprisingly - totally p*ssed off the locals

 

the aire in St V is in a fabulous spot - and it's clear why it is popular

but that doesn't give motorhomers the right to take the place over and cram in more vans than they should

 

 

despite the condescending attitude of the posters implying that staying on Aires is somehow superior to staying on common or garden municipal sites

[re-read some of the comments before you object]

we use both -

we like municipal sites for their proximity to town, - want to contribute to the local economy

aires are fine - but frequently cramped

 

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there is a nice site beside Honfleur , La Briquerue, Equemaville. It has 10/16 amp hookup, large pitches, bars, restaurant, takeaway, swimming pools, gym, spa. Bus stop outside the main gate, large supermarket with filling station about 10 mins walk from site, popualr with Brits. It is in the Acsi book. We stopped there for 3 nights in June on the way back to Tunnel. www.campinglabriquerie.com for website.
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duffers - 2010-09-10 9:20 PM

 

st valery en caux

great spot

aire has always been cramped when we've been - which is why we've used the little camp site opposite

have also noticed a steady reduction in parking options for Mhomes in St Valery over the years

presumably because motorhomes not wanting to stay in the sardine can which has been the aire have spread to other car parks in the town / on the front

 

not been for a few years

may be very different now . . . . . . . .

 

but I doubt it

motorhomes have invaded many great coastal spots

and - unsurprisingly - totally p*ssed off the locals

 

the aire in St V is in a fabulous spot - and it's clear why it is popular

but that doesn't give motorhomers the right to take the place over and cram in more vans than they should

 

 

despite the condescending attitude of the posters implying that staying on Aires is somehow superior to staying on common or garden municipal sites

[re-read some of the comments before you object]

we use both -

we like municipal sites for their proximity to town, - want to contribute to the local economy

aires are fine - but frequently cramped

In our response, which assume is one Duffer refers to, we had or never have, any intention to be condescending, or upset those who like using sites. Our only intention was, and always is in all of our many posts re aires, to indicate how much we enjoy using them and give info that might help others do likewise. If aires are not for you then fine. One aire we would not use again is the one at St Valery en Caux. The vans there park very, very close (last time the Belgian van next to us was able to borrow our salt without hardly opening the window!) and the road up is very narrow if you meet a van coming the other way; so not one of our favourite aires,

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robertandjean - 2010-09-12 8:41 PM One aire we would not use again is the one at St Valery en Caux. The vans there park very, very close (last time the Belgian van next to us was able to borrow our salt without hardly opening the window!) and the road up is very narrow if you meet a van coming the other way; so not one of our favourite aires,

 

We didn't even get on it last Monday. Totally packed and a bit of tricky reversing to get out!!

 

This trip we've found the best option is to stop at an aire de service en route to do the ablutions and then go to a 'parking aire' from the Campingcar-Info site for overnighting.

 

 

 

 

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