Dieppe to near perpignan!
Sorry if this is on here somewhere but i wonder if there is a route planner you can use for caravan drivers instead of just using a sat nav? We going from Dieppe to Perpignan and hoping to stop somwhere on the way for a few days but with 3 kids the rules
it has to have slides!
Then on the way back we are just doing the whole drive in one day so any advice on the best roads, i'm very nervous about being stuck on a road with a caravan that is tiny also would like to avoid some tolls if possible but not on skinny roads!
thanks, anyadvice gratefully accepted
Val
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The ViaMichelin website will give you suggested routes going south - remember to tick the box saying whether you want toll roads or not, and the one asking whether you are towing a caravan.
I am still trying to think of a word describing what I think of your plan to drive 600+ miles in one day with three children on the way home. It will come to me.
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You can use Viamichelin to plan a route. If you 'select' Caravan under the options, you can then select With tolls or not. However, it's always as well to have a good map handy too - such as the Michelin road atlas. When we came back from France last Tuesday we hit floods near Vierzon and north from there, and without a map we would have been absolutely stuck. The following morning with a map we were able to find a route west using small roads and over the Loire where it wasn't flooded.
I'm with Eurotraveller on the suggestion that you can drive home in one day. We have a house near Perpignan, and using non-toll roads there is absolutely no way I expect to do the journey in one day, even solo. With a caravan your journey is likely to take at least eighteen hours of driving on non-toll roads. I would suggest you always allow more than Viamichelin states as they quote maximum speeds on all sections of the route. This is not allowing for comfort stops, to fill up with fuel, have a meal etc. We have managed it solo with just one overnight stop, but not using a non-toll route. Last Tuesday, for instance, we set off from our house in France at 8.30 am, we stopped just south of Orleans (getting there at 7.30 pm) after the last fifty miles were through floods, and caught a 4.00 pm ferry from Calais on Wednesday afternoon, but this was using toll roads all the way as the weather was so appalling all the way north from Carcassonne.
What dates are you planning on going? This would help with recommendations for overnight sites. You might want to look at the thread about sites near to Issoire or Clermont Ferrand, where Le Clos Auroy at Orcet is recommended - it has slides - but again, even using toll roads I would reckon on at least ten hours of driving. Obviously if you're sharing the driving, and young, then this is just doable if you have an early morning arrival in Dieppe! If you like the look of it then I would suggest you book as it's a popular site for those travelling on the A75. (free autoroute).
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It has to be two hard days towing, three to be comfortable to cover that route. Unless you have at least two drivers and plan to chloroform the children, I wouldn't even think about doing it in a day.
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I am still trying to think of a word describing what I think of your plan to drive 600+ miles in one day with three children on the way home. It will come to me.
My thoughts are that the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another is called 'murder'. I think that is tantamount to what is being planned.
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Did same route in one go few years ago with 3 grandkids. My god never again took us 3days to get over it, but kids were fine.stooped a lot.took 3days on way back.
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Okay so you mean when i put into google 'perpignan to dieppe' and it says 9 hours, its mean more?!
Eurotraveller your post cracked me up!
How can i find out about staying in a hotel before the ferry but that i can leave the caravan in the carpark?
Thanks for all your help, as you can tell i'm new to this. The michelin site says 13 hours best case so may be we will stay somewhere a few hours from dieppe, lord i've booked the campsite now and can't leave before. We are travelling back 21st of August
which is probably even worse!0 -
Towing a caravan you'll be lucky to do a good average speed of 45 miles an hour (favourable roads, no major traffic hold ups) - then add on stops and you'll have a much better idea of the likely driving time. Dieppe to Perpignan is 630 miles which at your likely average speed is fourteen hours, and that's without stops. Everytime you stop, even just to go to the loo, by the time you've got on and off the autoroute, you've added fifteen minutes.
If you can set off at 6.00 am, do an average 45 miles an hour, and use an hour on comfort breaks and meals you may just get to Dieppe by 9.00 pm! Otherwise I would forget it and factor in an overnight hotel or campsite.
You can have a look on booking.com - you may be able to find a family run hotel that can accommodate your caravan, but far easier to find a campsite. I don't understand about not leaving earlier - French sites have no problem with you leaving a day before you said - or a day later or even a fortnight later if you decide to stay on, and there is room. You could leave in the afternoon on the day before you were due to leave, get three or four hours driving in before finding an overnight site - perhaps somewhere like Issoire which is near to the A75 and ideally situated and you won't need to book.
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There's a big Carrefour just off the A75 at Issoire ( big carpark) adjacent to an Ibis hotel. IIRC, there's a McDonalds too.
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