Avoiding the Crowds
If you have to visit the Continent in the peak season where would you go to avoid the crowds and what is/are the attraction/s of your choice.
peedee
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Well we did peak season this year, for the first time in many years. We had a few days in the 'Centre' of France, on a municipal site - we had a walk around a few nice towns and villages, and visited the odd chateau. Then we stayed near Rodez - no problem finding a pitch, even in high season. From there we 'toured' our favourite areas of the Aveyron, and Gorges du Tarn, did some bird-watching, some canoeing, a few mediaeval villages, watched the vultures, had some meals out. We had a look at a few alternative sites, all with free space, and decided to stay where we were.
Then we moved on to another municpal site down at Loupian near to the Med, and had a week visiting some of the seaside villages and beaches, a roman festival, a few 'Fetes', and ate out several times.
From there down to Leucate again on the Med! We had no problems finding pitches, despite the gloom-mongers on forum who say it's not possible to find sites!
I would say that wherever you want to go you will find a site, obviously not the best pitch on that site, nor a grand comfort pitch with connected services, an uninterrupted satellite signal, and a hard-standing - but we want none of those things.
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Some of the sites where we stayed in July last year included 7 caravans near Auray in inland Brittany, 4 at a site in the hills near Carcassonne, 3 on the top rim of the Tarn Gorge, 6 in an old lady's orchard in Provence, zero when we arrived at a municipal site in the Auvergne (2 more came later), about 200 at the city site at Nantes, and a similar number at a site close to the sea near Dinan.
None of those sites were booked in advance, all had electricity and full facilities, none were expensive, and all but one had free wi-fi.
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Some of the sites where we stayed in July last year included 7 caravans near Auray in inland Brittany, 4 at a site in the hills near Carcassonne, 3 on the top rim of the Tarn Gorge, 6 in an old lady's orchard in Provence, zero when we arrived at a municipal
site in the Auvergne (2 more came later), about 200 at the city site at Nantes, and a similar number at a site close to the sea near Dinan.None of those sites were booked in advance, all had electricity and full facilities, none were expensive, and all but one had free wi-fi.
..Was that before the sprogs broke up in july.
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No, I think the French schools broke up on July 4th.
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The gloom mongers say the same about UK sites but it is not normally a problem ,there will be "honey Pots"wherever you travel in what ever country it happens to be
Yes but the difference is that if a French site is full its a near certainty you will soon find a pitch close by whereas in the UK if a site is full you can be very long way from the next. In the UK I have never yet left home without a booking , on the continent hardly ever have
...As oft quoted if only the UK had the space!!! but the options are still there if you look
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I am not worried about finding somewhere to pitch without a booking. Having a fully contained motorhome, I will pitch anywhere if there is access and space. Recommendations/suggestions of where I might find places of interest and space especially in France will however be gratefully received.
peedee
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I think it perfectly acceptable and sensible to suggest a site be booked in advance if its the sort of site (with lots of facilities) that do tend to get booked. Not everyone has the confidence or the experience to fly by the seat of their pants. That experience
comes from years of travelling around Europe. I think it a bit much to expect newcomers to touring, especially with kids, to take a laissez-faire attitude to their main summer break which might only be two weeks. As they learn no
doubt they will become more independent.David
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We have almost gone the opposite way, David. We never used to book any of of our sites, but in certain areas we found ourselves having to try one or two sites, or being left with the 'less desirable' pitches - for the most part we were confined to going
during the main UK summer school holidays. In 2014 we booked most pitches, and for us, it felt a lot more relaxed in the knowledge that we had a pitch. This year, as we ae going earlier, it remains to be seem what I'll do.David
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The gloom mongers say the same about UK sites but it is not normally a problem ,there will be "honey Pots"wherever you travel in what ever country it happens to be
Yes but the difference is that if a French site is full its a near certainty you will soon find a pitch close by whereas in the UK if a site is full you can be very long way from the next. In the UK I have never yet left home without a booking , on
the continent hardly ever haveWrite your comments here...We never use any Uk sites other than CL's. Yes, sometimes we need to book but often we are either on our own or just one or two others.
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Our holiday was from the 25th July until the 24th August - and the last two week in July and first two weeks in August are considered peak period. Although French schools break up in early July the French, en masse, tend not to go away until after the end of the second week in July.
Peedee - perhaps it's too much of an open ended question - and you'll get more helpful replies if you state some areas you'd like to visit (like your Luxembourg question) and ask how busy they are. Our experience indicated that nowhere is as busy as you think it might be, even within a few miles of the Med.
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We have almost gone the opposite way, David. We never used to book any of of our sites, but in certain areas we found ourselves having to try one or two sites, or being left with the 'less desirable' pitches - for the most part we were confined to going during the main UK summer school holidays. In 2014 we booked most pitches, and for us, it felt a lot more relaxed in the knowledge that we had a pitch. This year, as we ae going earlier, it remains to be seem what I'll do.
David
...We used to be the same but as we have got "older"we find it reasuring that where we are going,we will not have to "hope" there is space, in the UK( we do not do "overthere"now), we always book a cc sites for a set period and have never found a problem if the itinery needs "tweeking" on route
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Hi Peedee, I can suggest places of interest in many parts of France and Italy if you say what your interests are - our own list includes gardens, gastronomy, wine tasting, mountains, history, art and shopping. Others say their own list is surfing, bird watching, beaches, chateaux , canoeing, and wild swimming. But I don't know yours.
Equally I can tell you of quiet camp sites almost everywhere that we have been, but they will mostly be rural and isolated, therefore unattractive to most motorhome owners because of the transport problem.
But Luxembourg I know very little about. We spent a day in the city, shrugged and left. Sorry for that.
We sometimes phone ahead to European campsites in summer, but never book, and never commit ourselves to any set length of time to stay.
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Hi Peedee, I can suggest places of interest in many parts of France and Italy if you say what your interests are - our own list includes gardens, gastronomy, wine tasting, mountains, history, art and shopping. Others say their own list is surfing, bird watching, beaches, chateaux , canoeing, and wild swimming. But I don't know yours.
I'm more of a lover of country side than cities and large towns Eurotraveller and I have visited most of the more famous French chateaux. Shopping is definitely out.
I like cycling and walking. I intend to leave the Costa Brava at the start of the peak season and would ideally like to spend a couple of weeks meadering back to Calais. A route is beginning to gel working our way back off the autoroutes via Clermont Ferrand, Nancy Luxembourg and Belgium. I've visited the Gorge du Tarn on more than one occasion so I've not got a great deal of interest in visiting again.peedee
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