Central France with kids ?

[Wayno]

I'll be travelling via tunnel Calais, down to sarlat in France to meet some family in August. We have a 11 days to kill in between so I'm looking for advice on a site seeing route/places to visit.

We have 2 kids 9/11 so. We know the south and west coast well but never travelled through central or north east.

Thanks in advance

 

[Julie and Archie]

St jean de cole has little aire and its a 'most beautiful' village. Very small. Nice bar, church does musical evenings. Brantome - lovely restaurants/village. Not sure abut camp sites. May be too far south.

I too intend to do similar trips. Been looking at just south of Calias such as aires at wimereaux and baie de Somme. Former - nice little resort, car park type aire. Latter is big bird watching sanctuary. I travel from north west so need a break in north France

 

[mrcheesbrough]

Burgundy is very nice. Good wine as you'd expect and your kids might enjoy seeing how a real mediaeval castle is built - here - it's taken them something like 15 years to get this far using traditional techniques. Fascinating stuff.

 

[Wayno]

St jean de cole has little aire and its a 'most beautiful' village. Very small. Nice bar, church does musical evenings. Brantome - lovely restaurants/village. Not sure abut camp sites. May be too far south.

I too intend to do similar trips. Been looking at just south of Calias such as aires at wimereaux and baie de Somme. Former - nice little resort, car park type aire. Latter is big bird watching sanctuary. I travel from north west so need a break in north France

Thanks for the info I too will need a break in the north as I intend to travel from Newcastle to tunnel and over on a day so maybe 100 miles or so south of Calais

 

[Wayno]

Burgundy is very nice. Good wine as you'd expect and your kids might enjoy seeing how a real mediaeval castle is built - here - it's taken them something like 15 years to get this far using traditional techniques. Fascinating stuff.

Looks like a great place I'll
Look through the website

 

[larrylamb]

If you want somewhere to stay not too far from Calais I can recommend this campsites in Ypres http://www.jeugdstadion.be/E/ a little to the east but great for a stopover. Loads to see in Ypres especially if your kids are into history WWII etc. A nice 15 min walk from the site into town, lots of bars, restaurants, museums, etc

 

[Wayno]

If you want somewhere to stay not too far from Calais I can recommend this campsites in Ypres http://www.jeugdstadion.be/E/ a little to the east but great for a stopover. Loads to see in Ypres especially if your kids are into history WWII etc. A nice 15 min walk from the site into town, lots of bars, restaurants, museums, etc

Thanks !

 

[fido]

Le Puy Mary. Wonderfull place. Think of an old old volcano very round, like typical Central French mountains, but with 6-7 valleys in star around it. Those valleys are beautiful and calm. Hiking, lakes, rivers and paragliding in this place makes it a paradise. A lot of local cheeses and the famous salers beef meat are waiting for you. People are close to the nature and adopt a rhythm close to the sun's.
It's South of Clermont Ferrand.
Trust me. There is tons of thinks to do and see.

Envoyé de mon SM-N910F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[MKRW]

If you don't mind crowds I highly recommend a visit to Puy de fou, it's not like a normal theme park lots of shows and whilst I have not used it there is a ' campsite'

http://www.puydufou.com/

 

[Dottie]

Le Puy Mary. Wonderfull place. Think of an old old volcano very round, like typical Central French mountains, but with 6-7 valleys in star around it. Those valleys are beautiful and calm. Hiking, lakes, rivers and paragliding in this place makes it a paradise. A lot of local cheeses and the famous salers beef meat are waiting for you. People are close to the nature and adopt a rhythm close to the sun's.
It's South of Clermont Ferrand.
Trust me. There is tons of thinks to do and see.

Envoyé de mon SM-N910F en utilisant Tapatalk

Hi Fido, I sadly left the area due to advancing storms but will return. It was lovely and loads of walking to do.

but I was trying to find out about parking my van…it appears that campervans can’t park in the normal car park for the climb. What do you do?

 

[jMacdent]

Hi Fido, I sadly left the area due to advancing storms but will return. It was lovely and loads of walking to do.

but I was trying to find out about parking my van…it appears that campervans can’t park in the normal car park for the climb. What do you do?

Dottie, Fido posted over 6 years ago

 

[NoviceCaliOwner]

Also heading to France with my 2013 Cali ocean, wife and 2 kids 12 & 10 years - travelling from Portsmouth to St Malo and then travelling down all the way south and then into the north of Spain and finally coming back from Bilbao back up.

Debating whether to take our bikes with us or not?! Is it worth it? Obviously having it on the tailgate is a bit of a pain and worrying about getting under the 2m toll road height for smaller vehicles etc?

We are going to try and “wing it” not book any campsites and just use Aires and car parks by the beaches etc….. which is against my normal campsite planning OCD so I’m a little anxious

Travelling on the 31st July for two weeks

Any advice or tips would be appreciated

 

[AJQ]

That can be a very busy time on the roads in France, you might want to check out the traffic predictions for the 'bison fute' as it's known, Google that expression and you'll find lots of information about the likely busy times. The Aires etc might also be busy, it's the peak time for French holiday makers.
Hope you have a great trip.

 

[Lambeth Cali]

Also heading to France with my 2013 Cali ocean, wife and 2 kids 12 & 10 years - travelling from Portsmouth to St Malo and then travelling down all the way south and then into the north of Spain and finally coming back from Bilbao back up.

Debating whether to take our bikes with us or not?! Is it worth it? Obviously having it on the tailgate is a bit of a pain and worrying about getting under the 2m toll road height for smaller vehicles etc?

We are going to try and “wing it” not book any campsites and just use Aires and car parks by the beaches etc….. which is against my normal campsite planning OCD so I’m a little anxious

Travelling on the 31st July for two weeks

Any advice or tips would be appreciated

The opposite of what we are doing. I’ve booked 3 sites so far. Kids same ages. 17 nights total.

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