France booked excited but nervous

Hey Guys & Girls Im new on here and this is my first post so be gentle lol

Well I have just booked the ferries for my first trip to France in July for 3 weeks me the good lady and my 4 yr old daughter.

Plan is to head from Roscoff to Vendee stay there in a good site for 1 week ie swimming pools parks etc and with easy walking distance to the beach town and bars resturants etc.(Dont want to move the motorhome for our first week)

Week 2 head north towards Paris in order to go to euro disney for a few days.

Week 3 head some where after that that will keep us in the direction of our ferry home which is via Cherbourg to Rosslare.

All advise welcome on sites aries etc but most of all I have never taken my motorhome to France and need as much advice as possible on what I should take for a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Gary

Gary

welcome, we going at Easter and again in July both out of Rosslare, we have 2 daughters, 5 &7,

will dig out some good sites we stayed at later, on your way back to Cherbourg we stayed at a great tidy little site near Mont St Michel, you could either take your van to it or cycle from the campsite along the river on a designated cycle path, take your bikes and maybe a trailer for the little one, it will be very useful.

make sure you have all the usual stuff required for France: hi-vis jackets for all occupants, 2 x warning triangles etc etc, and warn the missus to look out for gendarmes when exiting the toll booths if she has taken her seatbelt off to pay a toll, sometimes they just stand in the middle of the road waiting until you start moving away and pull you in!! and rape you of some euros.

any questions, ask away and i will be glad to help

also, check the prices for Euro Disney for booking into one of their hotels, sometimes it works out at the same price to stay in the hotel for 2 x nights as opposed to staying in the motorhome carpark and paying seperate entrance tickets, the hotel price includes tickets for 3 days if staying 2 nights. we have done both. if you stay in the hotel, just park to motorhome in the hotel carpark.

Pointy

here is the site we stayed at, prior to heading for the boat at Cherbourg

although we stayed a couple of nights, fantastic tidy little site with a sperate fun farm with goats/rabbits etc for the little ones, plus a great play park and boucny castle. MH service point and if you prefer that sort of thing there are 5 or 6 Delux pitches which have their own WC/Shower facilities within a little wooden pod.

they also have carnival-like games near to the fun farm which were amusing.

2 hrs from Cherbourg


Camping Mont-Saint-Michel HALIOTIS, Pontorson

Hi Gary

Camping la-trevilliere in Bretignolles-sur-mer was always a nice site. We haven't been for a few years but is part of a family run group so should be the same.

There is a good beach on the south side of town called Le Dunes which has a sea water lake on the land side of the Dunes which means you still have a beach with water if the beach is too windy.
Don't take the motorhome to the carpark at the end of the road to the beach as there is a height restriction.

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Les Sables d'Olonne is the nearest large town. Plenty of shopping and sea front cafes

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If you are not wanting to stay in Disney we used to stay at Château Chambonnières in Le plessis-feu-aussoux. It is only about 30 minutes drive.

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If you are traveling back towards Cherboug another nice place is Bayeux. In 2010 we stayed on a campsite in Martragny whic is about 10 minutes drive away. If I remember correctly there are 3 sites in Martragny, one is a Chateau. We stayed in Manoir de L' Abbaye..

mark, we stayed at that too, Chateau De Martragny, wide entrance lane if i remember, they pitched us in the garden in front of the chateau nr the swimming pool, we used it for 2 x nights.

i think they are part of the Castel Group? i may be wrong.

Gary, you can also check out the Castel Camping website, all their sites are based on Chateau,s , although they are expensive and some better than others.

honfleur and bayeux are 2 good suggestions although i would not use the aire its not very child friendly campsite further up the river is reasonably cheap and the munisiple site in bayeux is close to town and tapestry aldi and mc donalds (free wi-fi) is across the road plus its not too far to invasion beaches etc....

Thanks for all the replies guys looks like yous have given me lots to think about regards areas and sites.

Regards electric hook up I take it it is a different style hook up plug in Europe,also when travelling on the ferries what do yous do regards your fridge as I know on any of the local sailings you are not allowed to use your gas which isn't a problem when its only a 2 hr crossing but it certainly is a different story going to Roscoff.

Aires sound great in principle but are they safe, is there a book or phone app people are aware of or is there a satnav you recommend buying that they show on ?
I have a mio mitec satnav that is universal and can take any sd card format mapping so what mapping software do you recommend or would I be better buying a complete new system just don't want any discussions (arguments ) with my wife regards directions lol.

Road tolls are they everywhere you go on main roads and what is the average cost ?

Motorhome safety when its unattended is there any thing I should consider regards additional security ?

Gary

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Gary, yes you need an eu adapter for hook up tho some will be same as Uk, go to any dealer/ accessory shop and they will have them, also take an extra 25m lead or extension lead as some campsite hookup points will be nowhere near ur van.

Don't confuse the Aire De Service on the motorways with Camping Car Aires , don't stay on the motorway Aires. If you don't feel safe then move on.you get bar stewards everywhere. Don't let this put you off. Just go, you will wonder what you were fussing about. Stick a small safe in the van for your passports, log book, etc and secure it to the van with screws or gripfill or both.
,
No different to the tools you will find here at home, capable of ruining your break

try this website it has a shedload of infos not only france but pretty much of europe

its in french but with a little playing around and using translator you get a lot of info



http://www.campingcar-infos.com/index1.htm

http://www.i-campingcar.fr/accueil.htm

i-campingcar you can download a google earth location map and a PDF list for france (telechargement is french for download) just register and work it out

happy aires

frenchmick

We stayed at Camping de l'Ile des 3 Rois which is about an hour north west of Paris, and three hours from Calais.

It's a fairly small camp site on a nice spot on the river Seine, overlooked by a chateau on a hill. We stayed with two teenage boys and a younger daughter and they enjoyed the swimming pool and facilities there. If memory serves it wasn't that expensive and we just turned up in the summer to get a space easily. The small town within walking distance is ok, too.

[edit] Oops, forgot to add website: http://www.camping-troisrois.com/ (seems to only be in French - but you can translate it with google normally).

Steve

Just in case you hadn't noticed the previous post was 6 years old.