sandalwood Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Anyone used these sites this year? Looking fir cheese and chocolate making, plus wines of course. Starting Cherbourg and travelling south? S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Not this year but have on many occasions. When you get the book It'll tell you what each producer has to offer so You'll have no problem finding the stops you request Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aultymer Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Just be careful with these free parking spots. We used a few about 6 or 7 years ago and it worked out about €100 per night! We just could not resist the goods on offer and since we had a homecoming party to cater for on our return, our night in a champagne estate cost about €300 ! Would love to do it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matrix Meanderer Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 sandalwood - 2018-07-21 4:31 PM Anyone used these sites this year? Looking fir cheese and chocolate making, plus wines of course. Starting Cherbourg and travelling south? S Why not buy the handbook and find out *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 sandalwood - 2018-07-21 4:31 PM Anyone used these sites this year? Looking fir cheese and chocolate making, plus wines of course. Starting Cherbourg and travelling south? S The France Passion (FP) scheme is described in this Vicarious Books advert https://www.vicarious-shop.com/products/france-passion-2018?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqJ_Mto-y3AIVT5PtCh382AiZEAAYASAAEgJeaPD_BwE (FP membership runs (roughly) from Easter to Easter.) As you like cheese, this link may be of interest: https://cheeseweb.eu/2016/05/13-incredible-farm-stays-with-france-passion/ Although (as witzend says) each entry in the FP book states what a ’host’ may offer (milk, eggs, vegetables, meals, wine, etc.) the book has no product-index that lists hosts that provide particular products. I’m doubtful that you’d find a host that’s involved in chocolate-making (though biscuit-making is not that rare) and there will be plenty of cheesemakers, with soft goat-cheese production being pretty common. You need to be aware that the quality (and the asking-price) of wine offered by FP vignerons varies significantly. If you think that every FP vigneron in the Bordeaux region will be offering Château Pétrus-quality wine for half-a-dozen euros, you’ll be well out of luck. Try before you buy and if you don’t like the wine, or it seems overly expensive, don’t buy it. There’s no obligation to buy anything from a host (though ‘commercial’ hosts will hope that you do) and you will already have forked out some £25 to join the FP scheme. Having read your earlier “Touring France” enquiry, if you took the ‘logical’ route from Cherbourg to La Rochelle (via Rennes and Nantes) you’d be avoiding French wine-producing areas. If you wanted to have a good choice of FP vignerons, you’d either need to travel more eastwards (into the Loire Valley) and/or continue further south into the Bordeaux area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandalwood Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 Looked at your link, was fascinating! Some sites out in the wild but great. I wonder if all safe? Ordered my book and am trying to get OH interested, she says, are they safe? A worrier, but I think looks great. A chance to see the REAL France. Shall enjoy reading the book. The people on cheeseweb.eu have wonderful tales to tell. Many many thanks. Ian and worried wife! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zydeco Joe Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 We have used FP for a few years now stayed at over 50 different places in that time including stays at cheese , chocolate and many many wine places. Lots of them are way off the beaten track so you need to be a bit brave some times driving down very narrow country lanes. One farm we stayed at ended up with "travellers" next to us overnight but no problem just made sure all doors locked and alarm set. Just back two weeks ago from the Cherbourg area, well worth a visit using aires , campsites and FP. B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 sandalwood - 2018-07-22 11:50 AM ...I wonder if all safe?... Depends what you mean by “safe”. If you are concerned about encountering a situation like in Hitchcock’s “Psycho” film, that’s most unlikely to happen, but many FP sites will be agricultural and such locations have inherent risks. Walking blithlely into a field with cows in it is not the greatest of ideas and farm-dogs can be intimidating. As Zydeco Joe says, some FP sites are in the back of beyond (the FP book does provide infomation if reaching a site is potentially tricky) and large farm machines moving around need to be watched out for. But all of this is no different to where I live in rural Herefordshire. Ignoring ‘accident risk’, you should be safer staying on an FP site than on an aire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 sandalwood - 2018-07-22 11:50 AM I wonder if all safe? Ordered my book and am trying to get OH interested, she says, are they safe? A worrier, but I think looks great. Ian and worried wife! You've no need to feel unsafe they are private stops no one other than visitors like your selves has reason to be there. I sometimes may not stop in a built up area but never felt any problems at FP stops most are family run concerns who are happy to see you arrive other larger stops like wine co op's may be busier but not any different to any other aire Go an Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan k Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 We've used the FP sites extensively when we've been touring France. Most stopover places are good, some are stunning and one or two we've passed on. Not because we don't feel safe but usually because the parking area isn't suitable. Not all stops have anything to sell, we've been miffed a couple of times on beef or sheep farms to find that they didn't have any meat. However never had that problem with wine or cider. Yes we've spent lots of money at a couple of places, but we would be saving money on aires or campsites and I like supporting the local economy. One producer gave us an extra bottle of wine for stopping. Our favourite Cider maker is at St Aubin de Scellion near Liseux N49.16859 E0.49393, its a fabulous place hidden away in the countryside and Pascal and his wife are desperate to practice their English, their cider and brandy isn't bad either Enjoy alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 And, for wine if you are in the area near Ancenis, you might consider visiting Domaine des Galloires https://galloires.com/ that produces a wide variety of good quality, well-priced wines. https://galloires.com/vins (Domaine des Galloires was in the 2017 FP booklet, so I’m assuming it is in the 2018 one as well.) There’s also a small attractive campsite close by that I believe is open from start-May to end-September https://www.loirevalley-france.co.uk/organise-your-stay/accommodation/campsites/camping-municipal-de-drain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 Derek Uzzell - 2018-07-23 6:54 PM And, for wine if you are in the area near Ancenis, you might consider visiting Domaine des Galloires https://galloires.com/ There’s also a small attractive campsite close by that I believe is open from start-May to end-September https://www.loirevalley-france.co.uk/organise-your-stay/accommodation/campsites/camping-municipal-de-drain Seconded. The municipal in the village of Drain is a very nice quiet little site with plenty of shade. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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