Tomo3090 Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Hello everyone, we're back! We have returned from our 11 week trip to France and Spain and it was fantastic! We had the best time ever. We met lots of friendly people of all nationalities, saw vans of all shapes and sizes, we saw amazing sights and visited places we would never go to on an "ordinary" holiday. If anyone out there is thinking of doing it and is hesitating, just book your ferry and go! We did not have any major problems with our new Avantgarde van or with nasty people trying to rob, maim or kill us! We stayed on aires, small sites, municipal sites and big "holiday" parks and we "free camped" in Spain on the beach at Mojacar for 12 days! I will share some tips we picked up, some on this site before we left and some we picked up on the road. Not everyone will agree, naturally, and they are not intended to be guidance or to make you overule your own "gut instinct" about something. We had our van fitted out with some extras. Re-fillable gas cylinders are magic! We heard on here that Calor is next to impossible to get when you cross the channel. And from what I have seen that is correct. France has autogas points at most service stations, Spain they are rarer but you can find them. For 10 weeks of travel we used 2 cylinders and it set us back £21-22 to re fill them. Just remember to buy the adaptors for which country you are in. They are available at most good motorhome/caravan shops in the UK. We had habitation air con fitted, though as the weather in France and Northern Spain was as bad as here, we didn't need it until we got South of Seville! We have 2 ways of running it. From a plug connected straight to our hook up point, and one connected to an inverter which we used when the engine was running. We just let the sun go down then ran it for 10 minutes before we went to bed to cool the temp down to a comfortable level. We have a satellite free view receiver. This was ideal in France and we had no problem setting it up or tuning it in manually to the Astra 2 satellite. However Spain is a different proposition! Since January 2007 The BBC and Sky have joined to stop people receiving "Freeview" channels in Spain without a Sky box. Something to do with losing money on the number of people receiving "Freeview" in Spain without paying! It is "Freeview" in the UK only. We were told this by a guy with a van who works for Sky and even he couldn't get it! Although he knew a guy who could help him sort it out once he got back to the UK. Might be a story, I don't know! France is the spiritual home of motorhoming! The country is so motorhome friendly. Cities, towns and villages seem to embrace "vans and vanners", they seem to recognise the money making potential that UK places dont. There are parking places for vans in most places, though beware that some have weight restrictions as well as limitations on size because of the narrow streets. "Aires" are where motorhomes belong when in France! Leave the big sites for caravans and those unfortunates travelling with families! Most have fresh water, grey and waste water disposal points and some have electricity. Some are free and some are chargable, but the dearest we found was 10 Euros, and that was in Biarritz 200 metres from the beach and included electric and water etc. That said the fee is collected by the local police and as we weren't in when they called we stayed for 2 nights for free! Even those without electric or water are worth using for over night stops. They are usually the free ones and are just as secure. We had a rule that if either of us felt uneasy about somewhere then we moved on. But a general rule is " if the French vanners are using it, then it's safe!" You just have to get out of your head the "space rule" used on British sites. You are basically camping on a car park so be prepared for "close encounters of the vanning kind!" Forget any stories about "gassing" not one single vanner we met of any nationionality belived this happens! The German people we tried to explain it to laughed out loud and couldn't believe Brits gave the "urban myth" any credence. The French just shook their heads! We did use "proper sites" on occassion. We stopped on them to use the laundry facilities and if we were visiting an area where we felt security might be an issue or we were staying for several days sight seeing. We then mostly used the municipal sites. Most towns have them and they have all the facilities you would expect on a commercial site but cheaper. They are more formally laid out so those of you who don't like the idea of aires will feel relaxed. In Spain be prepared for municipal sites to have some "permanent" residents. These people live in a "twilight" world where they "live" in vans but are resident in that area, have jobs and are to all intents "ex pats". Some of their vans, usually caravans are impressive. Their awnings have wooden floors and ceiling fans, we even saw some with 3 piece suites in them! Even so the people we met were friendly and a mine of info on buses and places to eat and shop cheaply. The proper commercial sites are well provisioned with all you will need and depending on when in their season you are passing through, (remember they have different nationalities staying at differing times), you can get some good prices for your stay. Especially if you are in an area for a week or more. Fuel was dearer than we thought it would be. In France it was about 90 cents a litre on average, in Spain it was about 10-15 cents cheaper. I admit I might have been a bit niave about the price of diesel before I went there, I've never been there in a van before! Food in France is not much cheaper than here in our experience. The local markets are full of fresh produce and it is tasty, but again as dear if not dearer than home. Spain is cheaper, but the produce is excellent. Bread is super fresh on the day of baking only, then it goes like rock! The lack of preservatives is to blame but it is baked 7 days a week so there is no need to keep it anyway. Most aires and sites in both countries have a delivery every morning. That and the 2 fresh "choco pains"every morning for breakfast might account for the half a stone I brought back! Have a go at either language! The locals know you are English, usually by the state of your outfit, so they won't expect word perfect, but it is nice to try. The attitude to life in both countries is wonderful. France is a little more like ours, but there is no need to rush anyway, you are there to enjoy yourself! I have a theory that the French only holiday outside France to prove to themselves just how uncivilised the rest of the World really is! And in some cases they are right! The Spanish seem to have a holiday or fiesta at every opportunity so all you can do is join in and marvel at the lack of health and safety rules or officials butting in to stop the festivities. A few civil servants from here might do well to observe things. Neither country is full of dead and maimed people! You must visit: Spain: The Alhambra Palace at Granada, Seville, Barcalona, Monfrague National Park, The Atlantic Coast beaches France : The Pyrennes, The Cathedral d' Images at Les Baux, Carnac, Milleau Bridge, Trebes, Atlantic Coast beaches and the D Day stuff in Normandy. "Free Camping" in Spain is dependant on many things, your own views on your personal safety, the local police tolerating you being there, the availability of a decent site and your location. We stayed at the beach in Mojacar for 12 days for free. Other vans used it as well and the police were happy enough just to have a daily patrol car drive through. We also stayed at other places alongside the beach and had no problems. We did stop at some only to move on as "it didn't feel quite right". Sorry but I can't be more specific than that! Your common sense is the first thing you must put in your van before leaving home! You wouldn't park in a lot of places in the UK, (even if you were allowed!) so why should "abroad" be any different. There may be other stuff you will want to know about, just ask on this site most people will have an answer. It might not be the right one but it will be an answer. But the main thing is just go there and see and do it. It's what your motorhomes for!! (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twooks Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 welcome back Stephen - glad to see you've had such a great time B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Phew , just got through reading that lot ! Sounds like you had a wonderful time and throughly enjoyed your experience . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted July 26, 2007 Author Share Posted July 26, 2007 Twooks, how do you know my name? I am undercover here you know!! (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beefy Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Tomo3090 - 2007-07-26 4:53 PM Twooks, how do you know my name? I am undercover here you know!! (lol) Click on tomo3090 and it'll give u a clue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred grant Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 you made me an alice smile tomo caus we really enjoy hearing about people who enjoy themselfs on holiday. very upbeet and should encurrage other forum member s to go to france and mix it with the frenchies in the aires and trenchies - well sum aires are a bit dubious. Me and alice has one dissappointment wus with your use of the word FREE - especially in relation to the aire on wghich you stayed two nights without payin and were sposed two pay. we do hope you left proper payment as aires that are abused in this way are startin to close down. we as proof from our french chums if you doubt us. as too diesel prices on our last visit we payed 73.9 at a carfour and 83.6 at a esso on the motorway. compaired to 97.9 ere in our nearest city (thats devon me ansums) so it pays to shop around. spain is cheaper again but tis a long way to go just for a fill up. freindlyfred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poppy Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 You really do sound as though you had a wonderful time! Can't wait to do a long trip like that myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richnliz100 Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Thanks for the great post - we are on our way to France next Friday and have booked one place to stop for 7 nights as we have 3 kids, but have 4 nights either side to find places to stay. Have started to panic about booking sites just to guarantee somewhere to stay but having read your post am going to wing it!!! (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsandywhite Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Tomo3090 - 2007-07-26 3:58 PM We have a satellite free view receiver. This was ideal in France and we had no problem setting it up or tuning it in manually to the Astra 2 satellite. However Spain is a different proposition! Since January 2007 The BBC and Sky have joined to stop people receiving "Freeview" channels in Spain without a Sky box. Something to do with losing money on the number of people receiving "Freeview" in Spain without paying! It is "Freeview" in the UK only. We were told this by a guy with a van who works for Sky and even he couldn't get it! Although he knew a guy who could help him sort it out once he got back to the UK. Might be a story, I don't know! (lol) :-D Glad you enjoyed your European trip. However, you have been mis-informed with regards to Sky & BBC joining forces to stop people watching BBC in Europe. BBC refused to pay Sky the prices they were wanting. AS a consequence, they are only transmitted on the Northern beam of Astra 2. You can still receive BBC as far as Barcelona at times on a Freeview receiver. You can view the areas that are covered by the Northern & Southern beams here:- http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/#action Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted July 28, 2007 Author Share Posted July 28, 2007 Thanks for updating us about the Sky thing. It didn't bother us too much though as we did a very novel thing and went out! Crikey there's lots out there! You can get food cooked for you, shop, (apparently you can never have too many shoes!) and even talk to other humans! We did stay for nowt on the aire but we did spend a few bob in the town. The amount of cream cakes I carried back to the van would right off the debt of a small African nation! We would have paid if it had been a ticket machine but it was the police that never turned up when we were in. We did actually feel a bit guilty at first but a French couple "next door" laughed when I told them. They left at 07.30 the next day just in case the police came early! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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