camping south of france 2012

[mrbluelights]

Hi looking to travel to the south of france in august 2012,hope to travel right through central france until we hit a beach!! probably from Roscoff or St Malo, any suggestions for campsites on the way and when we get there would be great ! nothing too quiet i.e. silence after 10.30 but not really into rowdy club houses either! taking own guitar! please help cheers

[oorwullie]

do ya mean south as in med or south as in atlantic?

[tetleysid]

You could meet up with him Wullie and have a jamming session with your banjo

[oorwullie]

naw sid, i think he'll be too loud for me. and who goes voluntarily to the med in august and plans it a year in advance? must be a nutter.

think we'll go down that way for the last week a good campsite is open end at end of september if ye fancy coming. there's a big (huge) brocante nearby every saturday. ye might find a banjo...........

[mrbluelights]

Looking at the Med! Unfortunetly due to work commitments August is our only time we can get away, If you have any better suggestions of where to go for a couple of T25 newbees then we will be glad to here it!! and yes we are nutters, but nice nutters!!!

[dash]

I've stopped at this place as a break in the journey to/from the Med more times than I can remember (most years with my family from when I was ~5 to ~16yo, and two or three times since with Mrs Dash - the most recent being in mid-July this year). It's a long but doable (on the Autoroute) day from the channel, and an easier day to the Med.

The Med coast itself is pretty long, any preference for which end?

Again, I've stopped here loads of times over the last 20 years. It's 20 minutes drive from the beach at Canet/St Cyprien, but you can swim in the lake. There's also a vineyard just up the road, so if you have pushbikes with you, you can ride up there, sample a few, and then wobble back with a few bottles of your favourite

Campsites right on the coast will almost certainly be full of screaming kids and dubious evening 'entertainment'. We stayed in one such site this year near Beziers, and the only reason we stayed past the first night was that it was about 50m from our pitch to the beach, and we figured if we drank enough wine we could sleep through the noise.

I found this site quite useful in deciding which bit of the coast to aim for this year (fancied a change from the Perpignan area). Ok so we ended up in a bit of a crap campsite, but it was on a nice beach

As a bit of a curveball, last year we went to the Atlantic coast instead. First to Biarritz, which was very much like the Med but with waves , but then moved a bit further up the coast. We actually stayed at a site on the Bassin d'Arcachon, but spent a couple of days on the beach at La Grigne. There's a campsite behind the beach there, and I've made a mental note to try it some time in the future, because it was a lovely location - feels much wilder than the Med coast, and if you're prepared to walk quarter of a mile up or down from the main beach access you can have it pretty much to yourself (although if you get upset by the sight of the occasional naked person you're probably best of sticking to the busy areas )


HTH

[mrbluelights]

Cheers for the info Dash, that is really helpful! we are quite keen to do the South of France. We did the west coast a couple of years ago where we drove from Plymouth/roscoff to Santander the ferry back to Plymouth. A fantactic trip only marred by the fact that we had to cut our holiday short due to the extremely wet weather we encountered (in August!!!)near Biaritz. (We were camping in a tent before we saw the light and got a T25).
We might head from the South of France to Santader via the Pyrenees anyway as its stunning and we didnt see much of it before as it was shrouded in mist.
Anyway cheers once again!!

[MacWilliam]

Hi there mrbluelights . There are loads of nice spots on your way to the med. I might suggest n overnight stop near the lake of Vassiviére on the plateau de Millevache in the Creuse department. Once you've experienced the madness of the med which i left 29 years ago when it became invaded by the rest of europe, you will want to go back north a bit.
Great villages to be found in the the north Languedoc.

Anyway, it would be a great idea to register on T3Zone.com, post something in the english speaking corner (http://www.t3zone.com/viewforum.php?f=53" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and register yourself as a St-Bernard in your profile. This will provide you with the help of close to 700 T3 owners ready to get you out of trouble should you need spare part, advice, somewhere to park the van if the worse should happen or somebody with whom to share a bottle of wine. You are not afraid of the locals are you?

In return you might have to help a frog in distress not too far from where you live one day!

[mrbluelights]

Thank you very much MacWilliam, that will be a useful link! Would be good to know of some help if thinks go wrong! Definately not afraid of the locals though!
Cheers

[MacWilliam]

they stink of cheese, but they dont bite!

[fairwynds]

...and maybe get yourself the France Passion site guide book for next year? Hundreds of recommended farms/winemakers etc all allowing you to stay for FREE. Met some really great people doing this this year....
FW

[Merlin Cat]

hello

En route to the UK this May we stopped for the night at this camp site about 2 hrs South of St Malo at a very pretty place called Dinan. I dont think I would want to stay ther for a full break but it is very pretty town and walk along the river into town is only about 15 mins.



following another van we hoped were heading to the camp site!



the river to town from the camp site



the view from a nice bar in the bottom of the town



our camp site spot for the night

[StiD]

Hello,

I'm from Provence, grew up in Marseille and Avignon, Bedoin ... One place I higly recommend on your way to the mediteranean coast is there: google map 44.408623,4.179289 it's not a beach it's a river but!! If you can make it I'm sure you will like it! kind of wild and far from everybody You can grill and camp directly on the riverside also no height limitation as far as my last visit.

My grandparent bought a vacation house in the 70's in the erea this is how I discovered this place...

Greg

[plymat]

Somewhere on here there is a post from me about my trips, from Plymouth to Roscoff and down the coast line. We use the aires on the way down they are good and you can find free ones!

Little tip I have sussed with Brit Ferries, book a holiday with one night stop in a hotel (cheapest the better, i.e. in Roscoff either when you get there or on way up) it works out cheaper than just booking ferry tickets straight!

[ronsrecord]

Hello,

I'm from Provence, grew up in Marseille and Avignon, Bedoin ... One place I higly recommend on your way to the mediteranean coast is there: google map 44.408623,4.179289 it's not a beach it's a river but!! If you can make it I'm sure you will like it! kind of wild and far from everybody You can grill and camp directly on the riverside also no height limitation as far as my last visit.

My grandparent bought a vacation house in the 70's in the erea this is how I discovered this place...

Greg

Looks like a great spot - just looked it up on google maps.