Cherbourg to Annecy & Chamonix drive

Hello all,

We are thinking about driving from cherbourg to Annecy and Chamonix in July. I am looking for any advice going! Any good/handy spots to stop off along the way? We have a young family of 3 kids.
Thank you!

Is your plan to take the time to enjoy France along the way or do you need to get down as quickly as possible

Witzend?
By your map, are you not passing Le Mans to Tours on the A10 motorway which has a lefty tolls?
I paid in the region of €35 last August for that section.
Malcolm

Thanks all.
We have 6 weeks in total in France. Last year we spent 18 nights in brittany and stayed in 11 different places. In hindsight we moved around too much. You know how it is, packing up and unpacking can take its toll. Fine if it was just me and husband but it's harder with kids. So, we were thinking of getting down to the mountains within 3-4 days and then spending approx 3 weeks there. I'm conscious that it will be busy but we may not get another window of 6 weeks. Perhaps if there was somewhere half way worth stopping for a while then we would consider that too. ???? The kids are great at entertaining themselves....cycling etc (3 under 7) so we are happy in Aires or 2 star campsites. However every now and again we will book into a site with a pool especially if it's hot

Joining https://campingcarpark.com/en/ is a very good idea, particularly as the now have http://campingdemonvillage.com/ which gives access to certain municipal campsites 24/7/365

Thank you all for your advice. I have a bit of planning to do I guess!

Rage!!! I just wrote a long reply to you here and my account logged out for some reason before I posted when I clicked preview I lost the whole thing.

Anyway here I go again, we did pretty much the same trip as this last year with two littlies, broke the drive up on the way down and then just bit the bullet and did close to a 12 hour day travelling on the way back.

Tips for the way down:

Papea Parc Le Mans this is a fantastic theme park with lots of rides for kids of different sizes. We stayed here the day before which is a lovely park with lots of cycles including bmx and mountain bike loops if you are adventurous.

Then a short hop to Noyer Sur Cher where we stayed in a nice aire on Rue du Port beside the canal. We have friend that run Experience Canoe Kayak here so we went on a really nice canoe trip on the Cher river with them the following day. The water is warm and not to deep so plenty of opportunities for swimming and splashing about with little ones.

Noyer Sur Cher is then only another short hop (10mins) from Zooparc de Beauval
This is rated as one of the top zoos in the world and I'd well believe it. They have designated free camping car parking and allow overnight parking. We only booked one day tickets but if we were to go again we get the discounted two day ticket, the place is so big that we really struggled to see everything in one day especially with small kids. The bird show here is epic.

We made a beeline to the alps from there which is about a six hour drive. if you are going to the Chamonix area I cannot recommend Les Arc 1800 resort highly enough. there are tons of child specific activities there, climbing, mini high ropes trampolines, pony rides etc etc etc along with great hiking and mountain biking and also a fantastic public swimming pool with indoor and outdoor heated pools and a couple of nice slides too.
You can park overnight either in the very queit carpark at the funicular railway at the bottom of the mountain in Bourg Saint Maurice( this is also beside a really nice park) or you can stay in a carparks up in the resort. I would definitely recommend this option as it is much cooler at night and you wake up to a cracking view of Mont Blanc, the one we parked in was right beside a lovely playground for the kids which kept them entertained while we were cooking etc. plus had a drive over drain too.

On the way home if your leaving via cherbourg there is a really nice aire beside a beach with a lovely restaurant in Hameau de la Mer that is only then 40mins from the ferry.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Having looked closer at the map I now realise that while they may be close as the crow flies they have a little thing called Mont blanc between them :0)

But if your driving 12 hours whats another 2 when you have 6 weeks.

Was just giving some options as we had been down to the Alps with kids last year. We were also down at Alp d'Huez which was nice too but didn't put that in, is that ok?

Sorry that should have read Lac Vert not Lav Vert- the C is beside the V on the keyboard and I am old with bad eyesight ha ha .

One of the most enjoyable ways to explore an Alp with kids

And back up again


The MacRide is by far the best invention for having fun with your kids that I have ever come across.

Great photos and info thanks, spatuladad.....don't know how I passed over them yesterday.

Annecy is beautiful and you won’t regret going to it. We have been there a number of times and is a great base for touring. Enjoy.

Hopefully our kids won't get stuck in any toilets TommyS! We'll maybe run some ideas by you JackTheRev. We'd like to head up into the alps as well....maybe Chamonix!