Southern France Camper Route?

[si macc]

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend and I are taking our camper on his first proper outing. We've booked off 2 weeks to explore the Southern France. We want to visit the Ardeche to do some white water rafting and the area around Perpignan (for a bit of the Pyrenees and Mediterranean).

Does anyone have any recommended routes around this area of France (or anywhere in the south of France!) for a 2 week holiday? We want to visit lots of places but don't want to spend all the time driving.

[AngeloEvs]

White water canooing along the Ardeche is fantastic but there are one or two sections that are tricky but great fun! If you approach from West to East then you will have long steep climb at the start and just befor that there is very large campsite which ferrys you to the start point where you collect and Hire the canoo, etc. Spectacular views and another fantastic campsite at the end with a few more campsites along the way. We went East to West. I tend to avoid using the 'Peage' but there are long sections to the south coast via Lyon that are free given that you have just two weeks. French A roads (N routes) are lot faster with less traffic and you can stop virtually anywhere that there is a place to park for an over night stop or just look for the camping Municipal signs (which almost every Village seems to have in France) if you need showers, toilets, washing machine facilities, etc. The best route depends on where you disembark. The South of France is pretty hectic and the least favourable for wild camping compared to the rest of France but there are many spots and Aires to be found. If you plan on going to the beach......get up at 6 oclock.......otherwise you won't have a cat in hells chance of parking close to it in the summer. That's the good news, the bad news is don't plan on leaving the beach before tea time as you will find cars and huge motorhomes have blocked you in..... . ....It's mayhem down there in July August but you will love it!

[Ian Hulley]

Watch out for snakes if canoeing in the Ardeche, there are loads down in the gorge itself (including some nasty ones) and plenty more in the long grass and ditches at the side of the country lanes.

Ian

[andisnewsyncro]

Vallon Pont d'Arc is a nice town on a good bit of the river and the descent to the arc is quite good. There's loads of riverside camp sites & kit hire places. We had a week there a couple of years back when my bro in law was over there with a college course - he's an instructor and raft guide.

[happy camper]

Theres a southern france guide in this months volksworld camper and bus

[Ian Hulley]

Vallon Pont d'Arc is a nice town on a good bit of the river and the descent to the arc is quite good.

Agreed, I was there when I was 16 ( and yes it had been built then ! ) Vallon Pont d'Arc is beautifull, IIRC the Arc itself is about 2 miles upstream from the town ... it seemed like it in a canoe.

Ian

[Ralf85]

I have been camping all over France since 1984 and I suggest that you should not try to cover too much ground.

Dover to the Ardeche is about 600 miles each way. That is at least two days each way by motorway, or up to three days each way by slower N and D roads (our A and B roads). What has made these roads so slow now is they have introduced very slow speed restrictions through every town and village. If you have only two weeks, that is a lot of time to be driving. Trips to the Pyrenees and the Med will add another few hundred miles of driving. I recommend that you work out the mileage with a route planner before you go, otherwise you could find that you do not have time to do anything else but drive. I would recommend limiting the driving and come back to see more next year. You also you need to know that even French N routes (our A roads) can be very slow for VW vans as they can be both steep and very windey the further that you go south.

Next year try to do what I have always done. Take three weeks off. That gives you the time to do so much more and really escape from reality! bon voyage Patrick

[john]

I agrea with patrick top notch Advice.
you must take travelling time in to consideration.
Take your time and enjoy france as it has alot to offer us camper people.
I am off to south west france in july and cant wait.

good look and ENJOY

john

[andisnewsyncro]

Valid points raised about travelling time, if you're not used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road it can take a bit of time to get into the swing of it too. I'd recommend a short hop the other side side and park up for the night. Then you can give it a good push down South the next day. It's good to have a destination in mind, but you can always stop if you pass through somewhere that looks interesting.

On our extended trip round Europe, we eventually realised that it was a good idea to limit it to a couple of hours driving a day; after the initial flurry of 900km a day for 3 days which does take it out of you.

Personally I think the toll roads in France are pretty good value, decent surfaces, good rest stops and not too busy, allowing you to make good speed, but I know others prefer to stick to the more scenic routes.

The one tip I would give anyone is use an up to date sat nav to get round the Paris ring roads

Enjoy yourselves

[robert26]

have a look at the aire de service sites, almost free in France and great for one night stop overs

http://www.motorcaravanning.com/travel/aires.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ambivert]

The one tip I would give anyone is use an up to date sat nav to get round the Paris ring roads

yeah, what he said... last year I made the mistake of turning up in Calais with only a crap atlas thinking I would somehow magically find my way to the Camargue via Paris without having to go on any motorways... Unfortunately all the road signs to far away places direct you to the motorways... and only about 1% of the roads in Paris are shown in an atlas. I am now the proud owner of a French sat nav...

[Ian Hulley]

We've used a TomTom One with Western Europe on for 3 years now ... extra downloads are on the Club wiki site ... using the lpg/GPL stations, aires and Wohnmobile/Camperstop POIs we've only run about 200 miles on petrol (mostly in Switzerland last year) and only paid around £20 in tolls (to save more money mileage wise) and £10 in tunnel tolls (again to save a huge and expensive detour).

The Peage are great to eat up the miles .. think the evening/night-time drive to Bashtie but there can be long(and sudden ) queues at the booths and you lose the 'feel' of France. Good for on the way back in my opinion

Ian

[woodmonkey]

argeles, collioure, banyuls are on the rousillon coast and all good for a beach day, ceret is nice if you like art(colliourre too) la perthus is good for duty free(it's between france and spain) but get there early. there are campsites all over the area but the ones right on the coast get real busy. i spent a lot of time down that way, it's real nice