LOST IN FRANCE!
Hello,
First time motorhomers here!
We're off to France for two weeks, starting at Caen next month - With the rough plan to travel down the w.coast and then work our way along the France/Spain boarder towards the Cote D'Azur before turning back and through the centre of the country and back
to the ferry in Caen. We're thinking at staying between 1 and 3 nights at each stop.
I think we may have a route down there sorted, taking in La Rochelle and Biarritz - but I was hoping that someone somewhere might have a good interesting route plan back from S.France that will use up our final 5 days.
Sorry to burden you - I dont know central france at all!
Any suggestion appreciated
Steve
Comments
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Not sure of your route, but Carcassonne is well worth a visit if it's close enough...as is Rocamadour. Avignon/Mont Ventoux/Aigues Mortes - all worthwhile.
More centrally try Perigueux and Bergerac. Too many others to mention, but leave some for the next time!! Bon voyage!!
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Again, not sure exactly where you are travelling from, but I can recommend a drive up Mt Ventoux just north of Carpentras. We usually stay at Le Bregoux at Aubignan. Next year they will have a swimming pool there too.
Why not take a look at our visit in 2014 for some ideas. See HERE.
David
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Hi David I seen that you have stayed at Camping La Belle Etoile in Melun, was this a good campsite. We plan on staying here and visiting Chateau Vaux le Vicomte. Any feedback would be great. Cheers
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Hi, We are caravanners but looking at your post the thing that struck me was the length of your holiday. If you are only there two weeks it may be a bit ambitious even if only stopping for uo to three nights per site.
In regard to the route back I would probably take the A75,from wherever you end up on the South coast, which will take you over the Millau Viaduct and up to Clermont Ferrand. From there, depending upon what type of roads you prefer, I would head for Chateauroux-Loches-Tours-Le Mans and onto Caen.
It is a scenic route and not all on toll roads so cost effective as well.
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I was hoping that someone somewhere might have a good interesting route plan back from S.France that will use up our final 5 days.
Sorry to burden you - I dont know central france at all!
What are your interests?
Possibilities on your way home include great cities (Lyon and Rouen), stunning scenery (coming back either via Grenoble or the Auvergne) remarkable buildings (the hospice at Beaune or the Palais Ideal), incredible cathedrals (Bourges, Chartres) , impressive
gardens (Apremont sur Allier, Villandry, Giverny) world famous museums and art galleries (Paris of course). And you are struggling to fill five days?Or why not relax after a typically relentless motor home tour - and go for lunch on a sunny terrace?
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just driving (on tolls) from Caen to Bayonne, to Perpignan, to Nice, to Caen....(your rough route) is over 2000km...
the trip back to Caen (direct, non toll) is nearly 16 hours, 12 using tolls.
without trying to put you off, i think this is a big ask in two weeks for a first timer....france is a very large country and trips seem to take far longer thsn one might seem....
last year we did an anti-clockwise version of your trip via (amongst other places) Parks, Annecy, Aix, St Tropez, Carcassonne, Ile de re (La Rochelle), Mont st Michel, Caen.
we took 15 weeks....got 'stuck' in a couple of places...
however, there will be many hours behind the wheel, which might be better enjoyed relaxing?
you will find that, with an ambitious agenda, you might put yourself under time pressure early in your holiday....
ok, you can change plans, thats one of the great beauties of touring in France..except that youre going in August which will see it at its busiest.
If i only had two weeks, i would trim the trip, possibly have a four day (or so) stop in La Rochelle area, with at least a couple of days cycling on the ile de re, then perhaps push on down to Biarritz area for a few days, again to relaz in the sunshine....
at that point, you could decide of you need/want to push on..
as i say, not trying to put you off your trip but just sit down with Google maps or Via Michelin (and a pen/paper) and check out the time/distances involved in your proposed itinerary, it might shock you.
good luck, i hope you have a wonderful break...dont exnaust yourselves, france cant be 'done' in one trip....enjoy
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bps?
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We agree with eurotraveller, the places suggested are certainly worth a visit. Are you really thinking of all this in 2 weeks! Maybe edit the trip a little for this year and enjoy France, not race through it. Just our opinion, of course.
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I echo the others who say it is a bit far.You are not going to see much of the real France racing along motorways to get to your next stop, but by wandering around little towns and villages and absorbing the atmosphere, and you are going to miss so much
on the long days driving between your four or five stops.If you do decide on Carcassonne or Millau and the A75 there is a lot of information about both of them in my blog jennyandjohngocaravanning.wordpress.com
We also visited Mount Ventoux on our trip to Provence.
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Hi David I seen that you have stayed at Camping La Belle Etoile in Melun, was this a good campsite. We plan on staying here and visiting Chateau Vaux le Vicomte. Any feedback would be great. Cheers
Hi Aussie Mick. The site at Melun was OK for a few nights but I wouldn't go out of my way to visit it. Toilet facilities were old/ well used, but clean. The site is flat and the grass is kept cut (at least it was when we visited). The site lacked a bit
of atmosphere - but that was just my perception, I guess. It was just across the road from the Seine, but not particularly picturesque - in fact the immediate surround as a bit 'industrial'. It worked for us for a few nights, but it's not one of those sites
where I would make a point of visiting, but it served it's purpose - it was OK. One of the reasons for our visit is that the wife and daughter wanted to go into Paris, which they did by train, but we didn't particularly want to go too close to the city, as
we wanted to go from there to Chalon en Champagne.I don't know if that helps at all, Mick, and it is, of course, just my opinion. No doubt others will have different opinions.
Best wishes
David
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Rather ambitious you might find it more enjoyable and see more if you stick to one area or the other. A trip down the West Coast will easily fill your two weeks visiting such places as La Rochelle, Il de Re, Royan, down to Arachon area SW of Bordeaux visiting
the numerous seaside resorts and cities.0 -
By 'eck Lad, unless you like seeing mile after mile of tarmac whizzing beneath your wheels I'd have a total rethink.
I would suggest you aim for one specific region and tour in that part of France for this holiday before venturing far and wide
It takes us about two weeks to travel from Calais to the West coast and even then we've missed seeing a lot of what France has to offer.
As a first timer you need to get into the French way of life and then, when you have, go back next year and explore regions a bit more.
Rise between 8 and 10, fetch baguettes, pain au chocolats and croissants and have a relaxed breakfast, move a few miles to the next Aire (not the Motorway ones but proper Aires), set up your table and chairs and have dinner, move on a few
miles if you weren't too keen on the first Aire and find another, have a small beer or cuppa and a quick nap, do a bit of shopping for the evening meal, have a walk round the town or village you've stopped at, cook the evening meal or go to the nearest restaurant
if you can't be bothered cooking and then relax with a glass or two of what you fancy.Don't worry you'll soon get the hang of it.
Rushing round France is not for the faint hearted because travelling long distances, either on Motorways (don't forget the Tolls) or normal roads will not get you relaxing - and you're supposed to be on holiday!
The French love their roundabouts and going around towns and cities on normal roads gets harder and harder each year as they put in more and more roundabouts – getting your 6/7/8 metres MH round each and every roundabout soon becomes hard
work.It's supposed to be a holiday - not a challenging marathon.
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We drove down through France to the Spanish border at Henday / Urrugne. It is about 600 miles from Ouistreham and took 6 days with rest stops rather than driving every day and we used the autoroutes. By the time we got to our destination on the Spanish Med.
we had been on the road for around 9 or 10 days. Fortunately we werre in a position to stop then for about 5 weeks. The journey was not of our choice, the BF boat, Pont Aven broke down and many travellers were forced to make the long trek down to Spain in
early May.0 -
I would not knock your plans, but as others have said France is a big place and worth taking your time over, kick back and relax and remember your on holiday not an endurance trip.
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I remember 1973, getting blue Mini and Michelin map - the one-pager which covers from Somerset in the top left down to Nice at bottom right - and suddenly the world was our oyster! France's shape - "l'Hexagon" - enables a nice usable sheet like that, but
youthful ambition was curbed by the time 1974 came along and we knew what the scale of the map implied!0
