Calais to the vendee
We are going to be travelling from Calais to Malaga starting on the 1st of January next year but stopping off in a farmhouse in the vendee for a couple of days. Can anybody suggest a stopover about 1/2 way to the Vendee for a small camper van please, via michlin puts 1/2 way around Evreux
thanks Kev
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Whereabouts in the Vendee are you heading, because when I do a search for a route from Calais to the Vendee it doesn't take me anywhere near Evreux, and suggests that Le Mans is a half-way point.
Are you looking for a campsite for January? A bit more detail of the town/village you're heading for would be helpful in order to suggest sites which might be open at that time of the year. However, with a campervan you can use Aires de Service Camping Car, and there are Aires in many small towns and villages, which are open all year. But a warning, January can be very very cold in some parts of France, especially at night! Although it's south of us, it is a large landmass and not warmed by the gulf stream like this country!
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Hi Kevin, UKCampsite.co.uk has a search facility which lists just about all the French campsites they think will be open all year - but even that needs checking with the sites themselves.
I think if I were making that trip from Calais on New Years Day I would be looking for a cosy overnight hotel rather than a campsite, but from your Devon address you might perhaps go overnight on one of the Portsmouth ferries and get down to the Vendee in just one day without needing another night.
What do you think?
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Thanks for your reply. We will be up in the south east after xmas so have booked the tunnel for the 31 Dec stopping near Calais for the night then motor down to vendee? Could be done in a day but don't want yo go for it to find we can't make it for any reason.
we are converting the van as to not need to use hotel sect. It will be fully kitted out including heating so I'm hopeful it will be cosy!
just planning stops on route. Will be in Spain for 7 weeks in an apartment so no rush to get there 😀
Kev
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Again, my route planner doesn't go anywhere near Evreux (and I must admit I wouldn't either if I were using my Michelin map!). Unless your options are diffferent then I can't understand why Viamichelin is directing you via Evreux.
Le Mans would be my route planner's halfway house, and there are plenty of Aires de Service Camping Car in and around that area. In January you'll have no problem finding a space somewhere - so just drive as far as you want and then keep a look out for the brown tourist information signs for Aire de Service Camping Car - and then follow the signs. Or, drive into a McDonald's and take advantage of their free WiFi and google 'Aire .. Camping Car' and the name of the nearest town and you'll get directions.
Here's the result of just one google search: Le Mans area Aires for Motorhomes. Some Aires are free, courtesy of the local Mairie, others are paid for - sometimes for electricity, sometimes for water as well, and some how showers and loos as well.
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We head for Spain at that time of year, leaving the UK on January 3rd or 4th. Not wishing to linger in a (usually) cold France, we take an early Tunnel crossing and arrive at Poitiers around 3-ish the same day, where we stay on an Aire. Is that is roughly the same distance as you will wish to travel?
If you want to break the journey, you will find an Aire where you may park overnight, but often, at that time of year, the services will not be available. In that case, be sure that you have enough water and gas on board for the night.
Check the campingcar-infos website for suitable stops.
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Just out of interest, can a caravan stop at a camping car aire overnight at that time of year? Going to Spain next winter is under consideration and I wondered if we got a bucket with a lid so we didn't have waste water to dispose of, if open campsites are scarce, could we stay on an aire?
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You could chance it, but the hard and fast rule is no caravans.
There are enough sites open to make the journey achievable in easy stages: 2 in the Dreux, area, one near Tours, another at Poitiers, 2 near Bordeaux and one at Urrugne near the border. Once in Spain there are choices depending on which direction you take.
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Jenny, if you are thick skinned and heedless of rules and regulations or what motorhomers will say then you can do that.
Here in Plymouth caravanners stay in park and ride car parks, playing fields, grass verges and on football pitches. The council gets a court order to move them on and that usually takes about a week. You probably only intend one night.
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some access to MH aires is a bit tight, and any other vans there wont be too fussy about parking just close enough to make it extremely difficult to extricate yourself.
if there are municipals, perhaps try them.
if anyone in France was trying to 'move you on' for parking a caravan on a MH aire, i doubt theyd bother with a court order
on yer bike, mate
respect the aires network for what it is.....thank you.
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val, youre right, he did, well spotted...
i (perhaps wrongly) looked at the 'caravanner' info in his avatar....perhaps not updated yet, following a change?
small camper van, no problems.....enjoy
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Thanks everyone for the replies to my question. It was a sudden inspiration reading this thread but I believe rules are there for everyone, not just for when it suits you, so I will look elsewhere if we get serious about going.
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Supermarket car parks in France are usually fine if you are stuck for somewhere to stop overnight - no rules about that - and breakfast on hand when the coffee shop opens in the morning.
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In France there are actually enough sites which open all year to make a journey with easy stages. Those who go to Spain regularly will all tell you to use the western route, and have overnight stops planned at suitable intervals. The only problem, really, is if there is a change in the weather and you have to stay somewhere unexpectedly. In that event you can (as suggested) stay on a supermarket car park, or anywhere else which doesn't have a height barrier or a sign stating Caravans Interdit (or similar). We have stayed on a railway station forecourt near Beauvais, the village green in a village in Burgundy which actually had a welcome sign for caravanners, outside a large factory unit, a grass verge on the way to Chateau du Gandspette when a road accident on the M20 caused us to be very very late............and a variety of other places over the years.
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As Valda has said, echoing what I said in a post above, there are enough sites open through France to make the journey comfortable if you are a caravanner and not a motorhomer who may make use of Aires. I listed sites in my post and will not take up space repeating them here.
As for delays because of adverse weather - in all the years that we have been travelling to Spain in January we have never been held up. We have encountered snow, but campsite reception staff have kept us informed; snow ploughs are very visible; motorways are kept open.
Our friends whom we meet in Spain prefer the long crossing - but they have had crossings cancelled and then have had to make the trek across France. One year, one couple whom we know, were held up by snow in Northern France. They simply stayed on a campsite until the roads were clear.
Thousands, from all over Northern Europe, make this trip every year without mishap or delay and are able to find places to stay overnight. Were it that hard they wouldn't go. Too much is made of the imagined difficulties. And we have never had to resort to the measures described in the quoted post.
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Please, do go. It is not that difficult. Up-thread, I listed some areas where sites are open. Many, many "snowbirds" make the trip. And it is such fun once you get to Spain in Winter. Honestly.
Cheers,
Morris
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I am not the one that needs convincing but hubby. After reading Jondogoescaravanning blog and seeing all the fantastic places he has been I have wanted to go too but hubby thinks it would be Brits congregating together having coffee mornings, and while he is not antisocial, that isn't his thing on a regular basis. However seeing how miserable I got last winter I think this year I could be in with a chance.
We have thought about the long ferry trip but I don't fancy the Bay of Biscay in the winter.
Sorry Kevin for highjacking your thread.
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Is it really such fun? We have had some great winter holidays in wonderful places, but a long stay on a Caravan site in Spain sounds dreadful to me.
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"Again, my route planner doesn't go anywhere near Evreux (and I must admit I wouldn't either if I were using my Michelin map!). Unless your options are diffferent then I can't understand why Viamichelin is directing you via Evreux."
Val, googlemaps (non toll, fastest route) from Calais to Bazoges-en-Pareds passes right through Evreux and is almost exactly the half way point, with a choice at Nonancourt to go via Tours or Le Mans.
yes, going 'toll' the route is different...
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It can be anything you want it to be. There is an element of what you describe certainly as there are rallies on some sites. We don't do any of that. We do meet friends on one site, for a while, and we spend a little time with them. We also spend time with a cousin at her villa. We don't spend months on one site but tour about in our motorhome.
The only time we join in any "gatherings", apart from the times with our friends, is when we join others to watch 6 Nations Rugby matches in a local bar.
The enjoyment for us comes from cycling a lot; finding nice beach bars for lunch; going to markets; making the most of the low cost of living; enjoying the bright weather instead of the habitual greyness of a Pembrokeshire Winter. We feel a sense of freedom.
This year we didn't go in January as we spent February and March touring New Zealand.That too meant we escaped the British Winter. We plan on going to Portugal and Spain next January.
I wouldn't mind the long sea crossing, but my OH won't contemplate it - she has heard too many horror stories from friends and acquaintances. I enjoy the drive across France though as we have the route and stops well mapped out now. See my earlier post.
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LTC, as MT says, you can make the trip/stay anything you want it to be....we travelled alone in January, but called into a facourite site and met up a few longtermer friends there. we also knew other friends were making the trip at around the same time and met up for a week with them, but spent the other 8 weeks or so on our own...
re the trip: living in the SW we used the Poole-Cherbourg crossing, arriving at lunchtime. a four hour stint had us at Nantes, next day all the way to Irun (nr Urrugne mentioned by MT) and then all the way across Spain to Benicassim in one day, roads fantastic and almost deserted.
so, it can be done in steps, as long or short as you please.
Re: the ferry to Spain, weve used Santander and Bilbao (in both directions) mostly quiet trips but one was rough....c'est la vie
hope you get to try it.....you mentioned spain, but have you done France at all?
good luck.
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I agree you can make it anything you want and I would want to travel around. We have been to France many times and also Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and Belgium. Hubby doesn't mind winter at home and doesn't understand how fed up I get with the grey skies. He is also put off by the stories we hear from fellow caravanners in France about how they stay the winter on one site in Spain and the great social scene there. Never mind, we will sort something out. Off to Dover tomorrow for a ferry first thing Saturday morning back to France for six weeks. It's a hard life being retired.
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Longtimecaravaner, tell hubby you can join in with the activities on a winter rally as much or as little as you like. If something is not for you, you don't have to join in and it is not frowned upon. You also can stay on a rally for as long or as little as you like. Over wintering folk do move around from pre booked rally to rally rather than stay on one site for 3 to 4 months. A winter trip of 3 to 4 months would be too long for us but we enjoyed the 6 weeks trip we had to France and Spain this winter and will do it again idc
peedee.
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I currently work in Spain for about two weeks every month running horse trekking holidays in andalucia. Driving up and down the motorway to the ranches throughout this winter there are dozens of motorhomes and caravans seeking out the sun. The sun is not guaranteed though, parts of January were very cold and in fact it snowed in this region for first time in 80 years. In the main the climate is great, nights are cool though. I would advise booking sites in Spain well in advance as I hear they get full.
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Thanks again everyone. Thank you Peedee for the blog. There is a lot of useful information in it.
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Friends of ours, who had never caravanned in Europe before, did a trip with the Caravan and Camping Club two years ago, and loved it so much that they went back. It seemed that they could join in what they wanted, but go their separate ways as well, and they took off on two trips into other parts of Spain to look at areas renowned for bird-life and also to photograph butterflies.
If you don't try it you won't know if you'll like it, and as they did you can always do side-trips elsewhere and stay on smaller sites in less popular areas.
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Yes, and now I should apologise too! I always assume (perhaps wrongly) that if people don't mention going 'off-toll' that they will use using toll routes (even though we don't!).
I think the best solution, given that there are few open all year sites in that area, is for the OP to stay overnight on an Aire (remembering that he has a campervan) and there is an Aire in Nonancourt itself, giving him the choice of alternative routes in the morning.
If his campervan has a shower then that's OK and if not the service building just up the road on the N12 towards Dreux has a shower.............. and does nice croissants and pastries.
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