Graham
VIP Member
- Messages
- 194
Having owned our cali for a year, we took it abroad to France for the first time last week. Normandy and Picardie, nothing too adventurous but fun even though the weather was iffy.
Turned up to the Eurotunnel a day early (d'oh) and got on no problem with no excess fare.
Downloaded the Tomtom France maps, which worked well throughout.
On wildcamping.co.uk site found links to downloadable (free) POIs for all French campsites and Aires (worked brilliantly).
So Tomtom plus ACSI books and Michelin campsite guide made finding a site easy.
Still early season, so ACSI discounts apply (though some sites don't open until May).
Loved driving the cali in France - nice roads by comparison to UK and in much better condition. That said, we collected one cracked windscreen, 2 additional windscreen chips and one smashed front foglight lens while there (boo).
With lots of rain during the week and inevitable dampness setting in, we did notice that with the vanorak and taylormade screen, it was the back windows that fogged up overnight (anyone else had this problem?)
900 miles over the week with an overall average of 36.7mpg. Mainly driving to the posted limits except on autoroutes where I stuck to 105/110 kph rather than 130.
Diesel is 1.41 euro per litre, so arrive in France sucking fumes!
Lots of lessons learnt from this first foreign foray.
Turned up to the Eurotunnel a day early (d'oh) and got on no problem with no excess fare.
Downloaded the Tomtom France maps, which worked well throughout.
On wildcamping.co.uk site found links to downloadable (free) POIs for all French campsites and Aires (worked brilliantly).
So Tomtom plus ACSI books and Michelin campsite guide made finding a site easy.
Still early season, so ACSI discounts apply (though some sites don't open until May).
Loved driving the cali in France - nice roads by comparison to UK and in much better condition. That said, we collected one cracked windscreen, 2 additional windscreen chips and one smashed front foglight lens while there (boo).
With lots of rain during the week and inevitable dampness setting in, we did notice that with the vanorak and taylormade screen, it was the back windows that fogged up overnight (anyone else had this problem?)
900 miles over the week with an overall average of 36.7mpg. Mainly driving to the posted limits except on autoroutes where I stuck to 105/110 kph rather than 130.
Diesel is 1.41 euro per litre, so arrive in France sucking fumes!
Lots of lessons learnt from this first foreign foray.
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