France - your experience of it

[rustytop]

Long post, but hopefully of some use to folks wanting to do France for the first time. Perhaps other people could add their experiences?

Thought I’d jot down our very recent experiences of taking our 1984 Devon 1.9 WBX to France for a 10 day trip.

Instead of doing lots of driving touring around Europe, we thought we’d base ourselves in one area – this being the Loire region near to Tours.

As we live in Kent, we did the Dover - Calais route with Sea France 1hr 15mins, £72 return. 16th Sep - 25th Sep

We arrived in the town of Saumur in between Angers and Tours after 7 hours and 350 miles from Calais. This was essentially driving between 60 – 65mph down the toll motorways with a couple of breaks/stops. The motorways are relatively traffic free so although quite boring, it was an easy drive. The tolls came to around 55 Euros.

We spent the first 3 nights in Saumur, a campsite on an island in the middle of the river, 10 mins walk from the town centre. 18 euros per night without electric hook up turned out to be expensive. but the site had a nice swimming pool and was quiet in mid September. Now the bad bit. On the first night, the campsite had some unwelcomed visitor/s who broke into a number of caravans and sadly one T25 (not us though). They cut a hole in the T25’s pop top (Westfalia I think) , reached in and found keys and purse on the shelf there (how they knew they were there I don’t know). According to the owners they then used the keys to open the drivers door (still with the occupants inside). They took all money wallets etc but then left the keys to the van under the front wheel. They did this to some caravans and their awnings also (don’t know the full details though).
Putting this in perspective, yes it was unfortunate but everyone we spoke to over the holiday had never experienced this before in France (only heard rumours of it occurring like we had). It didn’t put us off though and we stayed at that campsite for two more nights.
One of the day trips we did from the site was a train ride from Saumur to Tours for the day. Oddly there were only about 3 trains per day and it was expensive 43 Euros return for two of us – a journey of about 40 mins.

We then went to Chinon (about 20 miles to the East) for 2 nights and did some cycling (great traffic free cycle ways) to Candy St Martin and Montsoreau.
Lovely town and chateaux, also.

We then moved further East (approx 60 miles) to meet up with some T25 friends at Bracieux near Chambord Chateaux for one night.

Both of us then travelled back West by 30 miles to Amboise. We stayed here for two nights. Again nice Chateaus and Leonardo Da Vinci museum. Also a fantastic cave/wine tasting place on the other side of the river directly opposite the campsite with wines going back as far as 1921. Lovely lady who spoke English and gave the four of us a great tour around.

With our friends, we decided to break the journey up on the way back to Calais and took two days instead of one day to cover the 350 miles. Their van had some serious knocking noises from the one of the drive shafts so we took it easy running between 50 and 55mph on the toll roads. We stopped at Eu, just up the coast from Dieppe. This was a lovely campsite with only us on it, it seemed! Nice town – all good for a one-nighter especially at 8 Euros! Le Treport is also worth a visit with their brand new and free cliff railway (where do the French get all of their money from??).

Final day we tracked up the coast for a while (some nice coastal towns and again excellent cycle routes which we must visit more next time) and eventually to Calais.


What was good:
The weather, one day it was 26C – and this was late September.
The campsites and their facilities were very quiet.
Cycle networks and provisions for cyclists - excellent.
French road surfaces (generally)
Plenty of campsites and good signposts to them
Municipal campsites are the best (in our opinion) one of them was 8 Euros per night and had the nicest location, grounds and cleanest facilities we’d seen.

What was bad:
Eating out was expensive in most places
Train from Saumur to Tours was expensive
Some of the Chateaus were expensive to enter (12.5 Euros per person.) I also paid 2.8 Euros for a 500ml bottle of coke.
Some campsite’s facilities were a bit below par (not so clean and tatty)
The dodgy incident in our first campsite ( a one off though we think)

Other items:
We didn’t book any of our campsites and didn’t need to. In mid September there was plenty of space at each one. Some campsites close in mid September though.
Fuel prices varied from 1.28 Euros to 1.56 Euros per litre (at the motorway service stations). A huge difference in prices. (French petrol smells funny BTW)
We didn’t take a power hook up and just used the leisure battery and gas fridge.
Some nights were cold so we bought an extra duvet from a supermarket.
We didn’t take an awning but did sit under our friends sun canopy when it was lightly raining one night.
We didn’t use any of the Aires.
We covered about 1200 miles all in – no problems with the van at all (apart from all the usual ongoing ones!)
Maps, we took a rubbish £4.99 map of France. However this was enough to get us down to the Loire where the Tourist Info places gave out free proper maps of the area – result! However my strong recommendation is that you buy a decent Michelin map of France at a decent scale.
Didn't see many other T25s but a lovely D plate bright orange tin top passed us on the way back to Calais. Took me by surprise as they shot past!

Overall
Overall our first experience of France in a T25 and a great one at that. If we did it again, I think we’d go in the first two weeks of September instead of the last two (just to get the better weather – even though ours was very good). The Loire region is very nice indeed and there is still plenty more to see there. We drove down there in a day which was no problems with two drivers.

Rustytop

[Ian Hulley]

Many of us have been to France many times ... and no-doubt will be going back again next year. I've never seen or heard of genuine trouble but have seen a few places I wouldn't stop for the night and a few people I wouldn't want to park next to and leave the van unattended.

France is beautiful, normally friendly and welcoming, the cost of living was comparable with here. Eating out was expensive, but then again it is here. The supermarkets are fantastic, selling quality artisan goods as well as their own brand goods which are WAY better than the muck we accept as 'food' in the UK.

Ian

[jed the spread]

Long post, but hopefully of some use to folks wanting to do France for the first time. Perhaps other people could add their experiences?

ANY GOOD?

Jed

[Louey]

Fab video Jed - not sure why I hadn't watched it before.

As for the folks getting broken into - its a big issue that folks leave their belongings in the easiest to find places when they sleep. You are better off buying/making a small safe or leaving your stuff under your pillow/mattress or bed - NEVER IN THE FRONT ON THE DASH OR FRONT SEATS!!

Never had any trouble ever when camping, seen a few dodgy folk but you just learn to move on or keep your wits about you.

Glad you had a good time, hoping to go to France and Spain next summer!!

[Ralf85]

I have been camping in France every summer (and other times) since 1984 the year your van was built and will continue to do so. Camp sites can vary as does the price. However, the sites are usually better and cheaper than in the UK and there are thousands of them and some of the municipal camp sites are amongst the best value.

Go to their tourist areas like the coast etc and site fees are high although usually no more so than the UK. In 26 years of camping in Europe, the only places my van has been broken into were in Spain, in San Sebastien and Barcelona (the tourist crime capital of Europe). Eating out is relatively cheap (we had various set menu 3 course meals out, for around £15.00 a head - you can't do that in the UK). Buy cokes and beers in supermarkets as these are sold at a premium price in bars. Like most of europe coke is more expensive than beer when eating out. The cost of living in France is high but so is the quality of food produced.

The other thing about it over there is if you stay on campsites, particularly with kids you will get to meet the locals. A few words of French go down very well and you will usually then find them (the younger adults at least) speaking to you in English. Lastly the weather. It is always warmer (except in the mountains) and usually dryer there. The air is cleaner too. I miss it already. I shall be returning as soon as I can. Keep exploring. France is a big country with lots to see. Bon route!
Patrick

[..lee..]

learn to say " i will give 1,000 chicken for your lovely moustache " in french really well. it goes down a treat..................

[StewnJo]

France ......... we love it. But we are somewhat biased, we have a small farmhouse there. Last year we were there from mid May to mid Sept. Went to the Vendee for a couple of weeks & the south coast of Brittany. In June this year we got married at our local village Maire with about 40 family & friends there.

Stewart

[Flibbertigibbet]

My experience of it is that I could not even tell you where I went Iet alone drove through centre of Paris and didn't know where I was , despite folk saying didn't you see the effiel tower (of course I didn't or else I would have known I was in paris )thing is it didn't matter, nor matter the names of the towns but it was fab , even my Dave Gorman moments also is great the fact that the tiny village in the middle of the countryside is waiitng for a campervan .........flots, Aires ect. It was ace

[AngeloEvs]

I have met fellow motorhomers while travelling around France and some had bad experiences, fortunately we have never had a single incident during the many years we went there. We were parked up one night in the South and had the windows open because it was so damned hot. The police woke us up and told us to close them and lock the doors as there were 'bad boys' in the area and that's about it! We heard similar accounts for Italy, Spain, etc but were never put off and the trips were all incident free.

[MacWilliam]

Lived there from 1960 to 1982 and decided it was time to bail out. Been in Scotland ever since. Miss the cheese , oysters, aperos, and the light. I dont miss the paperwork, the sarcasms, the thieves, the self important cops and johnny hallyday.

I would recommend visiting T3Zone.com,the French forum, before setting off. (I have set up a "salon" for english speaking visitors, complete with chesterfield sofas, whisky galore and big cigars.) So you can try your French, but a few of the guys are quite keen to try their English and will make you feel welcome.
We have set up a "Saint Bernard" system which, once you have registered, will give you access to hundreds of like minded vw drivers contact around the hexagone.
Very handy when you get stuck with a burst turbo oil feed pipe on the side of the road. One guy drove 200 kms to bring me the spare part free of charge last summer. I'd never met him before.
And most would be delighted to recommend a nice spot to spend a night.

On this subject, most of the guys on T3Zone have a tendency of avoiding campsites.Too busy, too organised. So another"salon"has been set up where users list a google map location and a short description of the areas.

Still want a campsite?









43° N 47.6OO' & O4° E O4.9OO'

[si macc]

Great! My fiance and I went in July for 2 weeks armed with a guide to Langedoc Rousillion and an Aire Du Camping Guide. We went from Calais around Paris and then to Beaugency (Loire valley) stayed in an Aire right on the river for the first night. Then the second was spent in a garage in the middle of nowhere (coolant pipe sprung a leak) which was fixed by a very resourceful french man for very little! Then we travelled south to Toulouse and then stopped at Carcassonne (highly recommended). Then we travelled to the Cote Vermeille and settled there for a few nights, no doubt the best place in France I've ever been. If you like wine, crystal clear water, beaches and food then you'll find it heaven too!! We then moved up the cost to Frontignan and Sete, Frontignan is famous for desert wine and Sete has an Italian influence, very bustling port town with a great vibe (its worth going for the water jousting alone). Then we moved north up to the gorge du tarn and visited Roquefort and ate way to much cheese! Then moved east under the Millau bridge (amazing) and onto Sainte Enime and I surprise my fiance with 2 nights in Chateux La Caze, a nice break from the camper ; ) where I proposed. We canoed down the Tarn one afternoon which was great fun. We then headed north and stayed in Chateuxneuf Sur Loire (best and cheapest campsite we stayed in - facility wise) before spending our last couple of nights celebrating drinking champagne in Reims and Epernay.

There's so much to do, we maybe did bite off more than we could chew but it was worth all the driving in the end. If you have facebook you can have a look at our trip, I think the link works!

http://www.facebook.com/people/Simon-Mc ... =731795402

[MacWilliam]

Then we travelled south to Toulouse and then stopped at Carcassonne (highly recommended). Then we travelled to the Cote Vermeille and settled there for a few nights, no doubt the best place in France I've ever been. If you like wine, crystal clear water, beaches and food then you'll find it heaven too!! We then moved up the cost to Frontignan and Sete, Frontignan is famous for desert wine and Sete has an Italian influence, very bustling port town with a great vibe (its worth going for the water jousting alone).

Ah well......., described in this fashion when the thermometer reads 2 c up here makes me start regretting my years in Montpellier...

[oorwullie]

hey macwill ya banff, you might like some of the offbeat places in swiss that i frequent.

[Noomo]

Yes, France has everything you'd include if you were designing a country for campervanning, and almost all of it in the right proportions too. The only downside is that you can start to wonder why you ever bother to go anywhere else.

Hi, oorwullie!

[oorwullie]

hi noom.

i thought of you a few weeks ago when i was on another obscure corner of the ain and a few other rivers too ( loue and lison)......