Club 80-90 Forums

For anyone who may be interested or has contemplated this here's our experience of it.

You buy 'it' from here http://www.france-passion.co.uk/index.htm You receive a map, guide book, list of reccomended restaraunts, members card and window sticker, our's cost £22.50, you pay this one-off fee and can chose to stay overnight or merely visit any of the 1900-odd sites right across France free of charge. The proprietor will (sometimes ) take you on a tour of their establishment, letting you sample their wares with a no pressure to buy approach .... if you're like us you will probably want to buy something anyway

This was our first stop at a cider farm near Montargis an hour south of Paris.



the other 'pitches' at Montargis .. some farms and places have toilets, others don't.



Then we moved on to Domaine Villargeau a vineyard



A friend who came a calling ...



Then to Boudes, south of Clermont Ferrand. This was a vineyard in the mountains behind St. Tropez, looks beautiful ... almost like savannah ... but was full of mosquitos and snakes



Finally we stayed on a lovely vineyard near Vallon Pont d'Arc in the Ardeche ...



Another visitor ...



2 of the 5 places we stayed never came to see us, the others were friendly, some spoke English, others French. The goods for sale were always superb quality, the surroundings were great and the cost unbeatable bearing in mind the free accomodation. Prices were about 6 Euro for a really nice wine ... not the cheeky 1 Euro stuff from Champion or Leclerc

Any questions please feel free to ask.

Ian.

sounds superb ian, glad it all went well for you but i don't think i could stand the heat you mentioned in some of your updates

Ian,
Thanks for this info.
We are passing through France in Sept/Oct so may join.

Alternatively, you can get a large scale Michelin Atlas, a Michelin camp site book and just go! Over the past 26 years I have found the excitement of travelling and camping in France is that once you have cleared the area around Paris there are thousands of campsites to choose from. Find somewhere new to stay, where no one has gone before (treckie kicking in).

Patrick

PRD wrote:Alternatively, you can get a large scale Michelin Atlas, a Michelin camp site book and just go!

This was a specific thread about France Passion, we all know there are a million and one ways to see France.

Ian.

Ian Hulley wrote:This was a specific thread about France Passion, we all know there are a million and one ways to see France.

It's a shame that French Onion's thread hasn't really taken off yet as a way of compiling lots of other useful info about camping in France:
https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... lit=french" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not trying to take your French Passion thread off-topic again Ian, just suggesting an alternative home for French info that isn't about FP.

Great photos btw.

Tony

Ian Hulley wrote:Prices were about 6 Euro for a really nice wine ... not the cheeky 1 Euro stuff from Champion or Leclerc

Not Jeds cup of tea then???

Louey wrote:

Ian Hulley wrote:Prices were about 6 Euro for a really nice wine ... not the cheeky 1 Euro stuff from Champion or Leclerc

Not Jeds cup of tea then???

Nah, not really

The proprietors talked us through the differences in the grapes and how the way the wine was stored affects the flavour, we prefered the non-oak cask varieties because the extra flavour spoiled it, probably heresy but there ya go. They were really nice and even we could tell the difference from the cheap supermarche wines we all know and love.

The last Cote de l'Ardeche Terrier vineyard had a shop which was doing a roaring trade with the locals using exchange gallon demi-jons being filled from massive stainless tanks round the back. (I could imagine finding Jed or Gazza laid under the drip tray though ! )

Ian

Louey wrote:

Ian Hulley wrote:Prices were about 6 Euro for a really nice wine ... not the cheeky 1 Euro stuff from Champion or Leclerc

Not Jeds cup of tea then???

Red wine is red wine, no..... lets face it none of us lot on here would know the difference anyway.

jed

Not far off the truth Jed. I know the difference between white and red wine...

Louey wrote:

Not far off the truth Jed. I know the difference between white and red wine...

WHAT!!! they do wine in a white colour too

jed

jed the spread wrote: WHAT!!! they do wine in a white colour too

jed

Hightop friendly

Ian Hulley wrote:

jed the spread wrote: WHAT!!! they do wine in a white colour too

jed

Hightop friendly

We've just come back from a trip down the West Coast of France and used 4 France Passion Sites - all were very friendly and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. Only snag for us was that we don't have a toilet on board (not ideal with a pregnant wife) and many places don't have toilets! We can let you know where and how clean most of the McDonald toilets are though!

It's a great way to see some real places and meet real people away from the hustle and bustle.... also great for buying cheap wine (3 euros!! and pretty good!)

Just got back (Sat) from 6 weeks touring France & Northern Spain and used the France Passion sites a lot. They were great, the kids loved them, the diversity was amazing, one night on a vineyard, the next on a olive farm, the next in someone's field (just French motorhome owners who have some spare land!). Although you are not obliged to buy you do feel you ought to when the owner has come and opened up & shown you around, spending 30mins or more to do so. Having said this, you do wander back to the van a bit sloshed after tasting the wines on offer, and unlike a campsite you come away with something other than photographs to remember the stay by. Most of the ones we stayed on we were the only people there, the peace was great and the freedom offered by the owners to walk around the place was great.

We also bought the Spanish version (Spain Discovery), but we were dissapointed with this as all the places we tried (admittedly it was only 3 in Catalonia) were large co operative wharehouse style shops where you stayed on the car park next to a main road.....great weather though!!

All in all I would highly reccommend the FP book, this together with the All Aires France book enabled us to see a huge amount of the country for very little cost.......financial, cost on the liver was far heavier!!!!!

Vicarious Books website was where I got mine from.

Roll on next summer!!!!