Mc Chopper Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Hello, Been reading lots of helpful advice on this forum for a couple of weeks. My mate has decided we will go to the Tour De France Alpes stages by motorhome. He was / is supposed to be sorting the trip but me & my betterhalf are looking in to things. Motorhome sorted (hired from his mate) Ferry booked - Dover to Calais Sunday 17th July, should arrive 10:30pm local time. His plan is to the head of on the route for Alpe D'Heuz, stopping after a couple of hours. So questions are is : Any sugestions for 1st night stop approx 2 hours from Calais? 2 - Do people think it best to get a Guide to the Aires (if so best place to get one?) ? 3 - Any suggestions for camping spot near Grenoble? No doubt I shall be back pestering when I remember more questions Thanks in anticipation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike B. Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Hi I would suggest you stop pretty early on the 1st night-even Calais as arriving at 10.30pm in the dark and tiresd with a hired van on unfamiliar roads is not the best way to start. Better to have a nighs sleep and travel in daylight. Re where to stop-have a look on here: http://www.campingcar-infos.com/index1.htm when you you've worked your route out and then pick the aires nearest to where you are travelling. Info about the aires will be there for you to decide on Have a good trip Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Momma Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 "All the Aires France" from www.vicarious.co.uk (or perhaps .com) www.airecampingcar.com www.france-voyage.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Momma Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 "All the Aires France" from www.vicarious.co.uk (or perhaps .com) www.airecampingcar.com www.france-voyage.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Momma Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Sorry for double post :'( is anybody else experiencing this site running particular slow (?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Hi . I think arriving at that time, go on to the aire at Calais, if there is room, then have a fresh start next day. Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mc Chopper Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 Big Momma - 2011-07-03 5:23 PM Sorry for double post :'( is anybody else experiencing this site running particular slow (?) Having a fair few sites run slow - must be the good weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mc Chopper Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 Thanks for links and help. We need to get south asap so will be travelling a bit once in france - driver will be refreshed before we get there . Probably stop at Amiens Bit of route planning to be done tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Mc Chopper - 2011-07-03 4:09 PM Hello, Been reading lots of helpful advice on this forum for a couple of weeks. My mate has decided we will go to the Tour De France Alpes stages by motorhome. He was / is supposed to be sorting the trip but me & my betterhalf are looking in to things. Motorhome sorted (hired from his mate) Ferry booked - Dover to Calais Sunday 17th July, should arrive 10:30pm local time. His plan is to the head of on the route for Alpe D'Heuz, stopping after a couple of hours. So questions are is : Any sugestions for 1st night stop approx 2 hours from Calais? 2 - Do people think it best to get a Guide to the Aires (if so best place to get one?) ? 3 - Any suggestions for camping spot near Grenoble? No doubt I shall be back pestering when I remember more questions Thanks in anticipation Your going to have to get a move on, Alp D,Heuz is on the 22 July and if you want a place on a summit you will have to arrive two days in advance. So first question are you planning to travel by autoroute or not? Best guide to aires is probably one suggested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjmike Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Agree with rupert about getting a move on as with any of the climbs space is very limited. The best aires book is Campingcar magazines "Le guide Official Aires De Services Camping-Car". OK its in French but its not too difficult to understand and is widely available at newsagents in France.Make sure you have plenty of supplies before going up the mountain as you may well be up there for quite a few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mc Chopper Posted July 4, 2011 Author Share Posted July 4, 2011 Thanks chaps Appreciate we will "have to get a move on" and will be travelling quickest route for this. Apparently we are now "having a look" at D'heuz to see how busy it is when we get there and probably then heading for Col du Galibier or nearby. May well just be a case of a few short stops and driver swaps rather than pitching up for that first night Pretty much a "suck it and see" first go at Le tour by motorhome and will no doubt be some steep learning curves for future trips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mc Chopper Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Back again Vehicle is a Cusona 700 Was just wondering what sort of distance likely to get on a tank of fuel as this will clearly affect where / when we stop on our jaunt. Can't seem to find any stats for the vehicle fuel tank size . For speed it looks like our route will be A26 ,A4 initially Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Mc Chopper - 2011-07-08 1:18 PM Back again Vehicle is a Cusona 700 Was just wondering what sort of distance likely to get on a tank of fuel as this will clearly affect where / when we stop on our jaunt. Can't seem to find any stats for the vehicle fuel tank size . For speed it looks like our route will be A26 ,A4 initially Yep, A26, A4 , A31 is fast way, by pass around Reims now. If in a hurry you can do it with one stop and as their are four of you would just have a few hours in an autoroute aire. You will get dire warnings about not doing this but for a rest stop on this route I would have no hesitation in doing this. From memory the Galibier is on the same stage but as it is not the finish and is a big climb you should find a spot OK. No idea about mileage with this van but all our vans have exceeded 400 miles on a tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mc Chopper Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 rupert123 - 2011-07-08 1:42 PM Mc Chopper - 2011-07-08 1:18 PM Back again Vehicle is a Cusona 700 Was just wondering what sort of distance likely to get on a tank of fuel as this will clearly affect where / when we stop on our jaunt. Can't seem to find any stats for the vehicle fuel tank size . For speed it looks like our route will be A26 ,A4 initially Yep, A26, A4 , A31 is fast way, by pass around Reims now. If in a hurry you can do it with one stop and as their are four of you would just have a few hours in an autoroute aire. You will get dire warnings about not doing this but for a rest stop on this route I would have no hesitation in doing this. From memory the Galibier is on the same stage but as it is not the finish and is a big climb you should find a spot OK. No idea about mileage with this van but all our vans have exceeded 400 miles on a tank. Cheers - gives us a bit of an idea Heading for Galibier as it features on 2 consecutive days , then on to Grenoble for Saturday Time Trial followed by the long drag up to Paris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mc Chopper Posted August 7, 2011 Author Share Posted August 7, 2011 Got there and back ok! Our trip was eventful! Ended up getting 22:30 ferry over to Calais Drove for on for 2 hours to an auto route service station just north of Reims - can't remember name but was nice enough. Drove on to Grenoble following day and arrived about 5pm in time to collect hire car Back to the adventure of following Le Tour for 5 days Motorhome was fine but had a couple of problems: Fridge freezer wouldn't work off gas - couldn't get it to work. Went to aire @ Vaujany that had power & water hook ups according to the guide - sadly they are doing a lot of work up there by cable car and we couldn't find such a site - there was one without power. Went back in to valley and paid 25euro for a site with hook up - no good as we then found out the leccy wouldn't work from mains ! due to reserve battery having been taken out at garage during service as it wasn't charging (owner hadn't been told) Waste of money except used showers (1 euro for 6 mins) and went to a lovely restaurant that re-opened when they saw there were 5 of us! Had slight run-in driving down Alpe D'Huez on the Tuseday ( was full so get there 5 days before) having nearly been hit by a learner bus driver coming uphill we then pranged the railing on "Dutch corner " hairpin - only a slight mark after expecting body work to have a hole in it! But nearly burnt clutch out!! Had a run in with a kerbstone at petrol station at base of D'Huez (minor damage to step on door) All this after meeting a tractor coming the other way on a back road to D'Huez, twisting my ankle whilst guiding the motorhome backwards (ligament & soft tissue damge - almost back to normal now) Went on to Galibier and parked up Mate locked keys in motorhome - no spares- luckily door not fully closed so brute force & a fat bloke (me) pulled it open whilst pulling a muscle under his arm! (not my drinking arm so not too much of a problem) Ran out of water when we couldn't really move the motorhome 9would've lost our spot on lay by on the Time trial route) so mate had to go to supermarket and buy 160 litres of bottled water!!! Paid the princley sum of 10 euros 20 cents for the water On way back up to Paris we found that we had lost the external grill cover for the access to the back of the oven! - ended up squeezing 2 cardboard boxes in the gap and that worked. Got to the only site we had pre-booked in Paris, arrived @ 01:45 and it closed at 02:00 - phew! The night-shift don't normally book in and struggled to find us a spot but did. Lovley site by the way - Camping de Paris - Bois de Boulogne 2, allée du Bord de l'Eau So eventful Cavendish won green jersey, had a great day in Paris Would I do it again ? If I'd typed this when we first got back then the answer would be a definate no ta. Ask me in June for next year's Tour and it will probably be a yes! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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