Help with our first trip to France
We have just purchased our first motor home and are wanting to go to France in September this year. Do they have good public transport in France what is worrying me is that we want to get about but do not want to use the motor home once it is on site. What area is best to visit we can’t get away until the middle of September distance is not a problem. We love walking so are prepared to walk into nearby towns/villages.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
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the beauty of having a MH in france is that just about every town/village has a parking area/aire which will be pretty central.
you can use these for overnighting (cost €0-€10) in lieu of sites, perhaps using a site every few days to put your feet up and do a bit of washing etc..
FWIW, we have electric bikes which give us a comfortable 20km radius of our van....when weve seen all we want to, we move on another 50km and explore from there.
good luck.
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Hello RElsie, Mid September sounds to me sounds like Provence - where the grape harvest will be in full swing, with little lizards still basking on hot stones in the villages. Have you time to get down there and back?
There still are a few motorhomers on here who prefer campsites to Aires and with a bit of careful thought you can find campsites which are close to town/ village centres. So please decide where you would like to go and I will try to think of ideas for you. Everyone else will suggest Aires !
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France is not like the Uk ,it has far more space to cater for motor caravans and normaly places to park near all towns and villages,so there is not the need, as in the Uk, to find sites as it seems more often with motor caravan owners, to drive to a site then not travel or use sites in more rural areas because of lack of alternative mean of transport
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dont get me wrong, we love continental campsites, pools, bars, restaurants where we can get comfy for a bit and explore the local area.
but we 'join the dots' of 'destination sites' with short discovery stays and, as JVB says, there really isnt a need (for us) to visit a site just to get your head down after a days sightseeing.
when youre away for months all those €20 site nights add up and could be used for fuel, meals and little extras once settled on the next 'stop'
the destination stops are likely known to us, but the impromptu one/two nighters are chosen on the day from the scores in the area reflecting the difference in provision 'over there'.
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If you’re new to motorhoming in Europe then get the CamperContact App for your phone. It gives details of thousands of Motorhome Aires and campsites in Europe and you can plan your trip at home before you go. In practice you will probably find that you will rarely stay at the planned stopover because you decided to travel further than expected on the day. However, part of the fun is in the planning. The important thing is not to pre-book any sites in France in September. There will be plenty of spaces available.
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Hello RElsie, Mid September sounds to me sounds like Provence - where the grape harvest will be in full swing, with little lizards still basking on hot stones in the villages. Have you time to get down there and back?
I would agree. If you like fairly basic sites the municipal at Beaumes de Venise is worth a few days stop. Just on the edge of the village, easy walk in. Several restaurants, bread shops, butcher, mini market. Plus several wine caves and a very good weekly market. Wonderful walks in the hills around, very good marked tracks. Also of course, in September you get to watch them harvesting the grapes.
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Only stating the facts as posted in the past that if there is space there is less of a problem with parking
Only since retirement have used UK sites when sprogs were older, we now let others take us overland into Europe, if we want to go?
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A number of French camp sites will be starting to close down at the latter end of September, particularly the further north you are. There will always be aires though.
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Yes, that's cool village and in a lovely area. Such sweet wine there too.
A complete contrast for a motorhomer who wants a campsite base in the south and then use public transport would be the big city campsite at Nimes - ignore all early reviews because a commercial company has been spending big sums to smarten it up. It's now big and bold.
There's a bus from the campsite gate into the city centre - an amazing place to wander around - and then buses from there in all directions -such as Avignon, Arles, Pont du Gard, Uzes, Montpellier and south to the coast.
But French motorhomers don't stay for long on a single site and use buses in that way - they take their morhomes to all those places.
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Even further south in the Ardeche and Massif Central sites close as early as the middle of September. Even those shown as open in the ACSI guide. One shown as open until the 31/10, both in last and this years guide, was closed when we arrived on the 1/10. There was however a nearby very good Aire which we used instead.
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End of September can often see us on the med near Agde, the sites there are plentiful and almost all of them are open until the end of the first week in October.
The weather is still nice and warm, mid 20s and there is plenty there to do. We first started going there when we had a MH and used our bikes to get around but many folk just walk, its fairly flat so easy walking.
If you use the sites on the river (there are 3) then you can walk one way into the village and beach, go the other way is an easy walk along the river into town and then along the canal du midi.
If time permits then after that hop over the boarder to Spain or go the other way up into Provence the weather will still be good and the sites open.
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Sites in Provence specifically for motorhomers who don't have a car...
Camping Pont d'Avignon -not a perfect campsite, but it's location is so good with a free ferry across the river to visit the city.
Any of the four campsites at St Remy de Provence which are within walking distance of that picturesque village - choose the nearest.
Camping les Cedres at Apt - within walking distance of that old town - the Saturday market is well worth seeing.
Camping les Oliviers at Eygalieres - cramped and old fashioned, but right in the heart of the smartest village of them all.
Only that last is on our list of favourite Provençal campsites, but the others we like really need a car to get around.
I hope that helps.
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Rural France is not well served with public transport, larger cities are usually good. Motorhomers will advise aires but if this is your first trip to France personally I would suggest you will feel more comfortable on sites where you will feel safer until you gain more experience. France is a big country so you really need to indicate a region you are thinking of. As an earlier post pointed out many sites are beginning to close towards the end of September I would recommend the ACSI Book sold in the Club Shop on the website it is a cheaper way of touring and gives a wide choice of sites, if you google campingcard.uk you can search for sites from the book on-line.
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Hi, we often spend September in France. It is easy to check public transport online or through tourist information office. We use buses a lot. Smaller towns will only have 2 or 3 a day, but in our experience they run much better than the UK and are cheap. Bus drivers often do not speak much English ,but normal very helpful. There is another app for aires and other sites Park4night.
Have a good trip.
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We went to France from the middle of September until the middle of October last year and headed down towards the Dordogne river and we stayed on Aires alongside the river.
It was mainly warm, t-shirt and shorts weather, until October when it became a bit cooler and some rain as we headed back north towards Eurotunnel.
If you have your own facilities (toilet, shower), Solar panel and refillable gas system then the World is your lobster - although many of the Aires we've used have toilets on site.
There are videos of the Aires we used last year on this Youtube channel - www.youtube.com/user/keithchesterfield
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Just my view but Provence is a long way to drive as part of just a two week break.
Calais to Aix is either 10 or 15 hrs drive in a car (a tad slower in a MH) depending on toll or non toll....thats 2 or 3 days driving each way depending on your comfort zone in the driving seat...
same on the return, so 4-6 days (with no interim, en route, exploring) of your 14 gone in travelling...
that leaves 8-10 days to visit all those interesting places....for me it would be spent with my feet up at a really nice site recharging before the return trip...
im not being a killjoy but folk can easily underestimate the travelling aspect of large countires like France or Spain....it takes determination to get on with the trip when you just want to pull in and spend a few hours exploring that interesting village...
and if you try to visit four or five sites in those 8-10 days you'll be forever behind the wheel..
i wish you luck but we are fortunate and have very many weeks to potter about those interesting places en route yet still have time to linger at those restful destination sites with your feet in the pool or the Med.
good luck, youll enjoy france but make enough time for chilling...
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