Towing to South France
Hi
Any advice for heading south next summer. We are heading to Saint-Tropez, and estimate about 17 hours of towing. Sounds like a lot with only a one night stop, but equally we prefer to get there, rather than take our time and 'enjoy' the trip. Are there any sites within 2 / 3 hours of Calais, that accept late arrivals, so we could head over late the night before and get a few miles under our belt. Also any suggestions for stopping on the way down.
Thanks
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Having done it many times, I would recommend the 2.30 pm departure from Portsmouth To Caen (Oistreham). There is a great site just outside of the Port that stays open late, specifically to cater for that trip which docks at about 9.30pm local. That gives you a good nights sleep before routing down to Clermont Ferrand for a further nights break, before taking the spectacular route down to the South of France via the Millau Bridge!
NB make yourself familiar with the new French speed limits for caravans etc. The French Traffic Police have a distinct lack of sympathy for UK tourists who transgress. The on the spot fines can make your eyes water! Also make frequent use of the motorway Aires for short breaks. Not only do they make good fatigue stoppers but they also remove the possibility of you inadvertently exceeding the average speed traps between Peages!
TF
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As the questioner has a Kent address it sounds he's planning an evening crossing to Calais. The big sites like Gandspette have a late arrivals area but once away down the motorway I doubt if he will find others.
So it seems to me like it could be go to bed in the motorway services on the south side of St Quentin at midnight. After that it's about 320 miles to the site at Macon on the next day and then another 320 miles to St Tropez on day 3. All motorway I assume.
Although I'm too old for that game these days. Take care.
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The journey times you are suggesting are unrealistic. Two night halts at least i.e. 3 days travelling would be a better plan, setting off from Calais early morning. In summer there will be queues at the toll stations , especially south of Lyon. Once you leave the A8 and head towards St Maxime and St Tropez your progress, especially with a caravan, could be the slowest part of your trip.
If you are planning to go in July or the first two weeks in August, you should reconsider your plan.
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If you are in Kent it could suit you to get an early crossing via the shuttle giving you a decent day ahead. We do this by staying at Black Horse Farm, however, despite this early start we would still have at least 2 overnights. If you go all the way on the motorway the cost will be horrendous and the journey probably stressful. Also take account of the hour you will 'lose' as soon as you reach France. Personally we avoid Lyon like the plague but others may not agree. There are lots of nice places to stop on the way and although I agree with AD regarding St. Tropez there are nice places along the Cote d'Azur. Have fun planning during winter. Best wishes
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A site that we have used several times is La Paille Haut at Boiry Notre Dame near Arras. We go across to Dunkirk rather than Calais and it is an easy drive of about 75 miles to Boiry. The site does tend to be a bit of a transit camp with a lot of overnighters, particularly our Dutch cousins. From the site it's another very easy drive down the dead straight D939 to junction 8 of the A26 autoroute. Because we have the time we usually have journeys of various lengths each day , the Dunkirk to Boiry being the shortest but having driven 230 miles on UK roads the day before, driving to Boiry makes it a nice easy day. Our next stop would be Troyes, 180 miles further down.
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Hi All
I am indeed crossing to Calais, and we are thinking of Domaine de la Bergerie, as some of you have probably seen in another thread. The reason we are going to St Tropez is because I have been been told that's ''where we want to go''
( she decides, I make it happen, and that makes the world go round).We have done France several times before with the van, but never so far south. In 2016 we were in Dordogne, 550 miles. We did Black Horse Farm, early eurotunnel crossing, overnight in Vatan 340 miles ish and then 200 ish to site. Coming back we did all 550 miles in 11 hours, with a couple of short stops. We were planning an overnight near Paris, but decided to just keep going. It was all daytime driving, and no real hassle, so we kept going.
Overnights on the motorway or a no no for us, especially as we won't be taking the dog. I'm always braver at 3 in the morning, in my boxers, if she is beside me, and there is no way I'd get my wife to do an overnight on the motorway, although we do it in this country quite often. We have had issues with migrants more than once before, so are wary, especially within a few hundred miles of Calais.
I know it's a huge amount of driving in one go, but school holidays only last so long, and we have 2 weeks plus maybe the Friday before. We also like to get home on the Saturday, sort ourselves out, and have Sunday to relax.
I understand that 3 days travelling would be better, but that would mean 6 out of our 16 days would be travelling, almost 40%. This is our issue.
Gandspette could well be an option, although I'd prefer to be further south, and no guarantee with late arrivals. La Paille Hau is a bit better, if they take late arrivals. I always hate the early train from Folkestone, as it's always gone 8 before you really get going, and yet you have been up since before 6.
We have done south without a caravan before, several times, but I'm going back a long while, when the chances of a ticket were pretty slim, and the driving was shared !!
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I understand your situation, but what time do you reckon to land in Calais, and what time will it be when you hope to arrive at a campsite?
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I know it's in Roquebrune-sur_Argens, I just chose the nearest well known place, to keep it simple. I think St Tropez is about 15 miles away.
I'll remember that about the shuttle boat, thanks.
What I really need is a motorhome, so we can stop an aires on the way down, that changes to a caravan when we arrive, so we get separate transport and a bit more space
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Strikes me that you are in grave danger of having a holiday that consists of, the drive down, recovering from the drive down, worrying about the drive back, drive back. The most we have ever done in a day is about. Is about 550 miles it was horrible never again. Note I said we. We both tow.
This what we have done and will do next year.
Day 1. After work drive about 130 mile south and stay at a CL this is about halfway to the channel for us
Day 2 Get up have breakfast drive the rest of the way to in our case the tunnel. Get a train over at 3ish. Then on the other side drive 100 miles or so for our first overnight
following days travel no more than about 300 miles per day ( I believe that an average of 45mph is optimistic taking into account tolls and traffic jams and breaks into account) I reckon on a point to point average of about 35mph. Repeat until we get there.
Obviously you don't have the 5 hour slog to the Chanel but I would advise staying in France rather than Black horse farm. If you are going to get a 6am ferry for example, what time do you have to get up at? and you end up getting to France at 8.30 could be 10am by the time you leave the port. We much prefer to do so we can keep are normal sleep patterns as much as possible makes for us a more relaxing holiday.
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Hi Boff
We have done France several times, and I can only say that I have always used 45 miles per hour to work out travelling times, and It has worked for me.
Your post is exactly what I would like to do. 100 miles night before, leaving two days worth of 310 to arrive on site.
Perhaps my post wasn't clear. We would normally cross early, do about 320 miles, overnight somewhere and then do another 320 miles the next day. Unfortunately that leaves us about 85 miles short, which would mean two days of 365 miles each. It's possible, but hard work, so I'm looking for somewhere to stop if I traveled over the night before, but unfortunately I couldn't cross before about 9pm, so it needs to be somewhere allowing very late arrivals.
We use the Eurotunnel, and I live within 30 minutes of the tunnel, but stay at BHF as I don't keep van at home, and don't like leaving it out overnight fully loaded. We have always left the train and been on the road within 10 minutes of the train arriving in Calais.
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When we travelled South from Calais we would always get a late crossing and stop at a motorway Aire (caravan and two children). I don't believe that they would be any less safe now than 15 years ago when we did the same every year. Never had a problem nor heard of any problems despite all the scare stories. I would choose any 24 hour Aire and park in a well lit bay. The only problem is that you sometimes get lorries in the caravan areas so you may have to try one or two services.
We used to stay second night south of Chalons-sur-Soane but that was after stopping one hour from Calais at Aire de Sanchez or Aire Baralle so you may get further.
If you plan to reach Lyon outside of the rush hour then consider going straight through (especially going South) so ignore the motorway signs to Marseille which take you 25 miles around the outer bypass.
The best stop three hours from Calais is at Guignicourt, north of Reims (Au Board de l'aisne) but late arrival is probably difficult and in my view the site is grossly overpriced, however, we will be there Sunday night on our way to the Italian lakes for a bit of late sun (dream on!).
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"(Au Board de l'aisne) -- in my view the site is grossly overpriced". It sure is! Site fee is for pitch and one person - i.e. you have to pay extra for your wife.
The municipal at Val de Vesle, just south of Reims is our favourite first stop.
A good night halt well down the road would be Les Bouleaux at Vignoles, near Beaune. It's favoured by Dutch caravanners as an all year round night stop.
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It depends how far you want to do first day. Guignicourt is three hours from Calais which is enough for us, also, it is very close to the motorway. The site we stay at near Beaune is at Chagny, an acsi site and also favoured by the Dutch. For us it is ideal because the site is very close to the town so ideal for shopping.
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Apologies for jumping on this thread but we are on the way to the south of France arriving on Friday, having diverted from Austria this morning and currently at Lake Garda. So as this is unplanned ( we were on the way to Croatia) and all my data allowance has been used up on the German roadworks, can anyone recommend a campsite along that coast between Nice and Cannes please ? Apologies to OP.
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Have to agree with others a 1 night stop is madness, also St Tropez is not a place we would go near again, way to pretentious, very very expensive and crowded and that was in May this year. We couldn't wait to get away. Currently on the Valras Plage much more realistic.
We did 3 night halts on the way down to St Tropez but could have done it with 2.
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Freelander, Use the map search on UKCampsite.co.uk when you can get free wifi -they have seven sites listed in that area, most of them with reviews. But if you can't get it there may be others listed in your site guides - which ones are you carrying?
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We've done that trip, Garda to Cote d'Azur a few times ( and the other way). It's a featureless trip, with no campsites en route, best done in one go. By the time you descend from the mountains to Nice you will need a stop! We can recommend Camping Cote Mer and Camping les Cigales - both at Mandelieu-la-Napoule.
http://www.lescigales.com/content/fr/accueil/1
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Thanks Eurortraveller and Chasncath. Got the acsi books just before we left and left the french one at home as not needed. Will give one or both of the two campsites a ring in the morning to see if they have a pitch. They both look good.
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Hi HG
We had a 'migrant, try to force a window, whilst we were at a service station on the A1/A26. I was letting the dog go to the loo about 100 yards away, and bold as brass he walked up and started tugging at the windows. It was the middle of the day. We never leave the van unattended in places like that, but there were many vehicles about.
About 4 years ago, we were at the old pet passport control at Calais when someone actually climbed onto the spare wheel carrier, under the van. I was in the centre with the dog, and it was only my daughters insistence that someone had been creeping round the van that led me to actually lie under the van to check. I'd stupidly removed the spare wheel from the alko carrier as I didn't want to have to slide it out into traffic if needed, but left the carrier in place. He had actually climbed onto the carrier.
That's why we are wary of service areas etc, although admittedly we were heading north on both occasions.
Chalons-sur-Soane is where we were thinking of over nighting.
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Years ago we did Port Grimaud to Gandspette with one overnight stop but we were younger then! I agree that three days would be more comfortable. Don,t forget you need time to set up once you arrive. Perhaps compromise and do three days down and two back?
David
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We have just returned from south west France and we drove from Calais to Navarrenx in 2 days, just over 700 miles. Even allowing for the dogs comfort breaks I am used to driving 400 miles in one day with the caravan in tow so we split the journey roughly 2x350 miles per day in France plus another day for the ferry and 260+ miles driving to get us to Calais from Yorkshire. I was absolutely knackered when we arrived, the adrenalin rush of going on holiday was insufficient to offset the exhaustion of work, however coming back was so much easier. In comparison with autobhans I found The French autoroutes so monotonous and almost too quiet when south of Bordeaux.
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Good point about the migrant situation, in fact I think that the Aire we used to refuel at which was the last services before Calais (about 30/40km I think) on the A26 has been closed for a while. So, yes, any stop needs to be well clear of Calais but going South of course is not a problem.
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The facilities at Baie De Somme services are excellent and only an hour and a half from Calais. Separate parking area, food, showers etc.. Used it a couple of times with no problems. Would I use it again certainly if I get a late shuttle
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