Our first excursion to France....what could go wrong?
Well, about 4 years ago we bought a 'bit of a shed' just to see if we would like this caravanning malarky. After being hooked, we aimed to get enough confidence to enjoy a trip to the continent. We are a younger caravanning couple with two girls, 5 and nearly 3 years old and an Abbey Vogue 2 540, towed by a VW Passat. We love our set-up and have enjoyed caravan sites all over England so far; however, we headed for Newhaven ferry port with a little trepidation. We arrived on time (thankfully) and had a small wait before we were boarding. There was no need to worry on getting the caravan into position, it was a doddle! There was a children's play area in the ferry which occupied the girls for most of the trip and there was some fairly decent food onboard too, although a bit pricey for what it was, but to be expected. I always forget something, and this time it was the headlight dippers ( I remembered the breath testers though) which were available onboard...at a price.
With sat-nav flashing "Drive on the right" we came off the ferry first and headed off to Le Cormoran site in Normandy. The site was excellent, and to be fair, we would have spent a lot more time there due to the indoor and outdoor pools, lovely pitches, sensible rules on driving times, on-site animal petting, fast food, kids activities (for older kids) and a reasonable shop to name a few of the amenities. However, there was all of the other things like St Michel's Mount, Bayeux Tapestry, towns and villages to see outside of the site.
We then travelled to Les Quatre Vents site just outside Paris for a suprise visit to Disneyland...for the girls, obviously!! The Paris section was fairly chaotic...some sat-nav issues!! Anyway, after one or two 'diversions' we got there following the excellent directions from the CC website to a warm and friendly welcome with no nonsense, just a personal guide to straight to our pitch.
The next three days we exhausted ourselves in Disneyland then headed back via the Channel Tunnel in a long procession of GB plated cars, caravans and motorhomes!!
Driving on French roads was a dream; surfacing is great (due to quite high toll charges probably) and users are aware of caravans. Speed limits change very regularly so using excessive fuel speeding and slowing down for those was a bit annoying.
All-in-all, we can't believe we haven't done it before now. France is very accessible to us at present and the beaches are fantatstic. There is plenty to see and do, proven by the fact we were able to keep the girls entertained for two weeks. We had as good a time (although different) in Le Cormoran as we did in Disneyland, mainly due to the ages of our girls and the fact we wanted to spend time in the pools to improve their swimming and confidence.
