Advice on first trip to France...?

[GTturbo]

Dear All,

We've had lots of UK trips in our lovely 2011 Olympic Blue Cali but next month plan to head to France for 3 weeks. Nothing other than the annual leave booked. I want ot play it safe and go to Brittany but my wife craves some sunshine and wants to go all the way south. We have 2 small boys (18 months and 4) so I don't want to spend hours on end driving. Do you have any suggestions on destination, route, places to stay, whether you need to book in advance, wild camping, general advice??

Also, we plan to deposit the boys together upstairs....I plan to stich an additional section onto the standard safety net to make it full height for teh young'un, I assume there is nothing comercially available??

Thanks in advance, GT

 

[Martin]

Hi and welcome to the forum, you will probably get a few good replies on this post, first bit of advice is to avoid travel on Black Saturday, which is 4th August this year especially if you are heading to the med

 

[andys495]

If you travel the auto routes it is faster to get to your destination but can get quite expensive in tolls. The south of France would be in the region of at least £100 one way. If you stop over on route don't stay over night on the auto route aires as they have a reputation for being targeted by thieves who can burgle your van, caravan etc even whilst you're sleeping it it. This again seems to be more of an issue further south around Toulouse area. Instead pull off and use local campervan aires or a campsite. The latter however may insist on minimum nights stay, 6 days for example which is no good for an overnight stop.
We're traveling down to the Perpignan area at the end of August for two weeks with our 6 and 13 yr old. From Calais were driving to the La Rochelle area mid way down on the West Coast (8 hrs) for a few days then further South.

 

[Stu]

We traveled south in early June this year and had a great time, our little boy is a bit under two and he was fine in the child seat behind the drivers seat and my iPad on the headrest although I really am tired of the Gruffalo now.

We broke the trip up into manageable stints and also had regular stops to stretch legs etc. We have the ASCII DVD on the laptop which comes with us and that was invaluable for a planning stops etc.

Fuel is much more expensive on the main routes as it is in the UK but step off, even just a couple of miles, and you'll save a fortune. The RNS510 was especially useful for this as it'll give you the locations of nearby filling stations. I also had a SD car with Camera locations on which was also very handy

We used the automatic toll tag, SANEF, which was very useful but as above you'll do a fair few quid in tolls getting there and back.

We used a couple of aires without any problems at all including a service station one but we were sure to pick out a proper service station as opposed to a layby.

 

[GTturbo]

That's great advice thanks. Forgive my ignorance, what's ASCII? I have copilot on my iPhone and was going to use that or google maps...is that free overseas (now u know I'm new to this!!). Alternatively, my wife rates her navigation skills!!!

Do u reckon we should book sites in advance or just bimble around until we find somewhere nice? If booking is required, any suggestions around Montpellier?

Wish we'd splashed out a bit more for the sat nav and cruise control!!

Cheers again, GT

 

[Iain&Shani]

You could always splash out for a TomTom Live or similar. Ours did the job in Portugal at Easter as far as locating fuel as well as points of interest and car parks! btw.....rental car not the Cali
We are also heading to France at the end of July for 3 weeks. Doing Portsmouth - St Malo then heading down towards La Rochelle for a week, then up to southern Brittany for another week before final week just south of St Malo. We have pre booked sites which is a throw back to our caravanning days..... we really should have been a little more daring and just booked the ferry and left the rest to chance!
The one thing you will need is a breathalyser kit. It is mandatory for travel in France now.

As far as sunshine is concerned you could comprimise and head for the southern Vendee from Les Sables-d'Ollone down towards La Tranche -sur Mer. There is a bit of a micro climate here with weather similar to the Med. You would also have access to Brittany should you choose.

 

[Stu]

The ASCII card is a discount card, mainly for off peak, but it also comes with a couple of good books and there is a DVD available.

http://www.campingcard.co.uk/gb/en/europe/

Using a phone based Nav could be expensive if it draws the map data from over the air.

We didn't book in advance but we were at an off peak time so it didn't matter so much.

We stayed in two nice sites in Grand Motte which were very nice but it's a little further on than Montpellier.

I posted these comments recently - viewtopic.php?f=49&t=1618&p=12516

You could fit OEM Nav (RNS510) for around £500 and you can also add Cruise Control. So not the end of the world

 

[Stu]

In terms of Tolls we use -

https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/

I've just checked our account and below is our spend for the trip (there was also about 40 euro setup including a 20 euro refundable deposit)

 

[Graham]

Stu, you've spent too much time round computers. ACSI is the card. ASCII is pretty geeky iirc! Lol

 

[Stu]

Stu, you've spent too much time round computers. ACSI is the card. ASCII is pretty geeky iirc! Lol

:laugh2 I realised that after I'd written it. I'm in a hotel that has possibly the worst internet connection ever and it's really quite difficult to open pages although the club site opens ok it really didn't like ASCI.

 

[Graham]

Seriously though, we've used ACSI card, books and listed sites - all good. The lat/long listed for each site in the book is spot on. Plug into tomtom and off you go.

 

[andys495]

GT,
I've downloaded the Tom Tom app (about £50) on my iPhone and used it all over Europe to good effect. It's doesn't cost you anything unless you start using traffic updates which uses data. Dont forget to turn data roaming off on your phone when abroad otherwise it'll get expensive. The problem with google maps would be that the phone would need to update the map as you move. Without wifi or 3G this would take a while.
Andy

 

[DavidofHook]

No has mentioned that if you use a satnav then you should disable the speed camera warning. Apparently now illegal in France and if caught they can take the satnav as well as fining you.

 

[Martin]

Good point David, and it is a upto €1,500 fine !! Same situation in Switzerland aswell I think

 

[Stu]

Hence why I had mine on an SD card

 

[5dr]

Don't forget your breathalyser
:doh David

 

[DavidofHook]

Hi Gt,
A further thought.
We found that travel on autoroutes was the best because you get there so much more quickly. Reduces the agravation factor with the kids! But we pick a place , leave the motorway and take the N road to find a campsite for the night. We have never had trouble finding a site or for staying for just 1 night. We never book but we do use the Caravan Club French sites book which is very good . Also we buy our fuel while off the motorway.

And an important thought, when first in France I did not believe the speed limit signs on the motorway and nearly dumped us all in a ditch. You can be travelling at 130 kmp and then when you reach the slip road the limit reduces to 50 kmp and they mean it. The bends on some of the exit roads can be very very tight, you do need to slow down. This actually applies to all roads in France, even the N roads.
You will also find that some road numbers may have changed according to your map. .for example the N86 is now the D2086 , the D86 etc etc , because the local authorities have taken over responsibility for theses roads.
Back to speed limits, the gendarmes are now very hot on people who don't stick to the limit. All villages in France are 50kpm unless otherwise stated. As you leave the village the name board by the side of the road is crossed though and you can then go back to the original speed limit.

 

[campbellious]

Hi Gt,

Not far how far south you will need to travel to find this apparent 'sun thing' if it actually exists but if youre thinking of going to the far south then the Ferries to Bilbau or Santander might be a good option. Im planning on doing Plymouth-Santander in Aug, the journey is 20 hrs and if the Bay of Biscay is kind should be a doddle. We have a 4 and 6 year old and we figured we'd rather pay a bit extra and not have apocolypse calli style for the long haul road trip. In regard to booking camp sites i like to have at least a few nights booked in my intended destination, especially when you have little ones you dont want to be trudging from site to site after a long drive looking for a vacancy. I know it doesn't really fit in with the easygoing nature of callis where you just stop wherever and rough it when necessary but i think having kids with you demands a little more planning and going it safe. Ive found in the past during holiday seasons that the more commercial and coastal sites are usually quite full and if you can get a pitch its usually for 7 nights.

Bon voyage!!

 

[jts46]

Let me put my penny worth in:
1, You do need a breathalyser kit from 1st July 2012, no action will be taken by the police until November 2012, then it will be a 90€ fine. They cost about 1€ each in pharmacies in France, but £5 in UK for 2, and you need 2 (in case you use one and you get stopped you still have one)
2, Auto routes are expensive but quicker, if you are travelling to SW France use the A20 which is FREE until just after Brive.
3, We have used the service aires with facilities, i.e. fuel, food, etc for sleeping on and had no problems for 6 years, try and mix in with the truckers.
4, Stick to speed limits and no problem. I have a TomTom with speed cameras and an old Garmin that i just use for my current speed. Had no problems with police.
5, I travel to my 2nd home in SW France 4 or 5 times a year for the last 6 years, and have been stopped twice for a vehicle check, both times for ANPR check, via swansea which to me is a good idea.
6, Enjoy your visit to France, I am going back next week via Dunkirk. Hopefully for the sun and relaxation

 

[jts46]

Forgot to mention that a lot of villages, towns, have "aires du camping car" which can be free or a couple of euros per night, but please if you use these use local shops for food.

 

[ChrisandPenney52]

http://www.xcweather.co.uk is a good weather site. It covers all of France, Spain italy and Germany as well as the bits between them. You can get temperature, pressure, wind and general weather maps for up to a week ahead by country and get localised forecasts for any town. We used it very successfully in May to follow the good weather around Europe.

It could be especially handy to see whether the North or South coast of Brittany is having better weather, or what advantage you get by going a bit further south.

I'd also add that French driving standards are reassuringly high, so driving is not stressful.

I've stuck a small convex mirror on the passenger wing mirror, which helps with negotiating lane changes and roundabouts (post here: viewtopic.php?f=83&t=1775 )