anthony Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Want to go to France first time with motorhome can anyone recomend company who we could contact to arrange campsites etc B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEEANDEM Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Hi. A good place to start is ALAN ROGERS site directory & if you go out of season you can use his camping cheque site deals. In France you will find lots of free or low cost places to park.Have a great time its a big country to visit and lots of great places to see. Buy the M M M Mag. Lots of good reading and helpfull advice. Take your time and have a good trip. Try the Eurotunnel if you book early you can get a good deal and you will find it easy loading & unloading. With lots of crossing times. Derrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Having "done" France & Spain for the first time this year, could I suggest the following. Book your ferry crossing through one of the clubs. We booked ours through the C&CC. £26.70 for our van and 2 people Dover to Calais, (1 way) an £36.50 when we returned 9 weeks later. We booked over the phone from France to come back 'cos we were away for so long and didn't want to give ourselves a "deadline". Buy or borrow the Caravan Club Europe 1 Book and you can sort out your own itinerary. The site descriptions are excellent, and we found it has more sites and info than Alan Rodgers, (but that book is handy for back up references and directions). You must use aires when ever you can! They are where motorhomes belong! They are usually quite safe, but just have a look round the area first to get your own idea and go off your "gut instinct". If it feels unsafe you probably won't settle. Don't give another thought to the gas attack stories! No one with a modicum of sense believes them. Most " vanners" you will meet will tell you the same. Remember a lot of France shuts on Sundays so re-fuel on Saturday! Same with gas! If you have time, change to a refillable gas bottle system. There is loads of it in France and it is SO cheap!! If you are going South to the Camargue, I can reccommend a visit to Millau to the "Air Bridge" and to Les Baux for the Cathedral d' Image. It is mind blowing!! It is a fantastic country and very picturesque. Have a good safe trip and keep a look out for a 2007 Compass Avantegarde van, cos hopefully we will be there then too!! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooper Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 I agree with tomo but plus one thing, we go every year and mostly use municipal sites, some of these have very good fac's and are often near a town or village, O and they are very reasonably priced, £3 upwards. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Have a look at "select sites", I've used them a couple of times are they are really good, give you maps of local area if you are stopping more than a few days, also very competitve with breakdown cover if required, I'll try and find their web page and attach it. http://www.select-site.com/ Stew (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ike Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 TOMO We usually use Motorhome Ticket Club for great deals but your deal sounds even better. What size of van do you have? Ours is 7m and our last crossing, booked well in advance, was £62 return. MTC now charge an admin fee for changes but last trip we simply changed direct with SeaFrance at minimal cost. Did you have to book much in advance? does anyone know can one buy camping cheques without buying a ferry crossing? Any info would be much appreciated. For the new "explorers" the official French Aires guide is very good and can be bought in France at good newsagents. From memory it can also be bought via C&CC. DIYing it will be much cheaper than pre-booking or doing it through a company and France is so motorhome friendly you won't have any problems Thanks ike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Ike, our van is 6.5m, or just over! But to be honest I couldn't work out what difference that made anyway, no one was measuring any of the vans on either crossing! Another tip I have been reminded of. Go straight to the booking on booth and not to the ticket office. WE were early for our crossing and got onto an earlier boat for nothing. Another guy in the queue I spoke to went to the ticket office, with his paperwork and he had to pay £15.00 extra for the "upgrade". Good point about the municipal sites too. I can reccommend Bayeaux municipal site at 10 Euros a night inc electric. Very nice and fresh bread is delivered everyday too at 08.30! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Get hold of a copy of the ACSI campsite book, it's available here along with other publications: http://www.vicarious-shop.co.uk/index.php It lists lots of campsites where you can stay for either 10, 12, or 14 euros including electricity at anytime except the high season so your trip should fall into the low season. Lots of the sites are absolutely top class and would cost a heck of a lot more. The aires are great - on our first trip to France we didn't know about aires but now we do we don't use campsites at all! Just make sure you use the proper overnight aires and not the parking ones which are not usually as safe such as those on the motorways, near to the large main roads etc. You could also consider going on one of the GB Privaledge guided tours for your first trip, they organised everything for you but it is at a price, however, we have friends who do these trips and they really enjoy them as they have the company of other motorhoming companions in case they need help which, as a first-timer, might give you a bit of reassurance on your first foray. The operators include things like coach trips, meals etc included in the package price so if that's your idea of fun it could turn out to be just what you need. http://www.gbprivilege.com/ Ferry - we've used MTC (formerly knows as motorhome ticket club) and Caravan Club, they are both fairly close as regards price so if you're not in the CC you shouldn't do too bad with MTC. We've found both to be very helpful. Just a thought - are you intending to take a dog? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogmad Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Hi Anthony We've just come back from France (see Chatterbox Forum "Our first Big Adventure). It's really easy, honest. We didn't book anything in advance except our crossing via Eurotunnel (using Tesco vouchers). We took several site books including the Alan Rogers guide but found the Caravan Club book best for touring as it lists sites in alphabetical order of the nearest town/village. We found this handy when driving from east to west France, stopped at a town to buy food and decided we'd had enough driving for the day. I just looked up the town in the Caravan Club book and found 2 municipal sites listed, picked one and we were there within minutes. It was a great site too. We also used 2 aires, one to stay overnight and we felt completely safe and one just as a convenient parking place to visit the town nearby. Hope you have as much fun as we and our dogs did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jen's Grumpy Git Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Hi We have travelled the length and breadth of France without any problems whatsoever, and in most cases we used the municipal sites, most towns have them and they are of a good standard. One site I WOULD NOT recommend is the municpal site at Cognac. It is surrounded by 10ft high fencing and the gates are locked at night to keep the vagrants out. You will also find that you do not need to pre-book sites in France. Just turn up even in high season and you should almost certainly get a pitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest caraprof Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 First of all, you needn't worry about booking in advance. We go in June and early July and have never found a site that's full, so April will be no problem. Many members of this forum, me included, swear by the Caravan Club's Europe books, which are superb and list every type of site. They're available to non-members by the way.As for aires I totally disagree with the comment above. The odd aire is OK for one night, unless of course you actually enjoy staying on a car park that may be next to the gasworks or local shopping centre.If you also enjoy having a motorhome six feet away on either side of you, totally destroying any privacy, then go for aires by all means. Aires have no shower blocks or other facilities, which may be OK by you but my wife much prefers a large spacious shower on a good site occasionally.Some aires are actually in nice places but for every pretty one, there's one next to the recycling centre and the local Aldi.In my opinion, aires have only one advantage over a decent site and that's price. If you want to save money then use aires, but in April, camp sites, especially municipal ones, won't be expensive and you'll have a secure, civilised and spacious pitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Hi Anthony, and welcome. If you're really nervous because it's your first time, you could do what we did around 20yrs ago, and use Eurocamp (I'm told they're still operating). Their core business is ready-erected tent camping, but under the "Eurocamp Independent" brand they offer site bookings packaged with a ferry crossing for those who have their own 'van. We liked it then, because it was the first time we'd taken the kids abroad and didn't want too many surprises. From then on though we've only ever booked ferries - everything else we make up as we go along, and if you're reasonably confident that's what I'd recommend. The only exception was Venice and Florence in August '03 - we knew they'd be crowded so we booked ahead. As for the "aires v sites" question, that's been aired (sorry!) many times on here, and in the end it depends what you're looking for. If you're likely to be staying somwhere a couple of nights or more, and passing the day there, you're usually better with a site, but if you just need somewhere to cook a meal and go to bed en route from one day's visits to another, why pay good money when you don't need to? Best of all (IMHO) is the France Passion network of farms, vineyards etc, which we've used fro two years now. Have a look at http://www.france-passion.com/indexeng.php3?prov= and see what I mean. But however you do it, have a great time! Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Don't want to overburden you with suggestions but I'd like to second Mel's idea of getting the ACSI book. We used them for the first time in June this year and it really does do what it says on the tin. As for aires, as you will have seen from above, people either love 'em or loathe 'em. Personally I love 'em but they're not for everybody. Give a couple a go and make up your own mind. But do bear in mind that we're not talking about motorway service aires. You'll find a lot of info if you do a search through the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catinou Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Hi - good choice French sites are among our favourites. We use camping cheques as we go outside "peak times" and they cost just £10-30 per night for motorhome and 2 people and electric on quality sites with good facilities. We booked our ferry just before Christmas, via camping cheques and the cost for our MH plus Smart car on trailer (total length just over 37 feet) plus 10 camping cheques was under £300 and they gave us an extra 5 cheques for booking through them. The trailer went free as we had booked at "Autumn rates" - available up to Christmas. When you join the scheme you get an annual site book and map detailing where in Europe the sites are and they are very simple to use. On several sites this year we were asked what we thought of the prices for a pitch and found that other campers were paying up to 40% more than us by not using the cheques. On one site in Belgium because we paid by C/Chqs we did not have to pay the "local tax" either as there was a 1 euro charge for the showers for all campers. The sites are all vetted and are always of a high grade with good facilities ( if they slip they are removed from the scheme) and often appear in other site books such as the Caravan club one, so you can compare value. We travelled to Lake Garda in Italy and spent 8 days at a first class site literally overlooking the Lake (30 feet from our van) - for the cost of £82-40 for the pitch (which incidentally accomodated our van, bikes and Smart car plus trailer - still with room to sit out under the awning - real value for money! I would also agree with "just turning up" for an earlier ferry than booked - we came back 3 hours earlier on Monday as the weather turned lousy - no charge for change with P & O - last year we tried it one hour earlier with Sea France - 40 euros demanded or we had to wait and not get out of our vehicle - no problem with a MH!! Have fun and enjoy..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony Posted September 20, 2007 Author Share Posted September 20, 2007 yep taking the dog and her indoors as wll if she promises to behave herself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony Posted September 20, 2007 Author Share Posted September 20, 2007 thanks for all of your thoughts and suggestions so far its given us lots to do and ideas to think about (?) B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wesleyT Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Hi Anthony: We have set up a new group named 'ItchyFeet' with the sole idea of touring with others who like the safety and social aspects of touring with a small group of motor-homers. Why not join us? Our fist rally is on Sept.27 where we are visiting Cheltenham, Oxford, Devizes and Salsibury. 5 days at each site. Possibly Portugal in Jan/Feb and a trip to Bavaria in the Spring. We have been all over France, Belgium on our own but the Group should be good fun and very much more interesting. Why not join us?WesleyT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 I'd go along with much of what others have written. We have had several Easters in France, including the last two. I have never booked a site in France (you're then flexible to stay or go as you please, with the weather and the ambience being our main parameters). Be aware, however, that many sites in France do not open until Paques (Easter), and even then they can be a bit unpredictable. You will always find somwhere, but just be careful you've not selected a site that is closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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