France - Next Year
Comments
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Hi again. Can anyone please advise on the location of a fuel filling station somewhere near/en route from Riva Bella, suitable for caravans?
A special mention for DK’s blog. I’ve been checking out his review and directions for Soleil Plage. What a brilliant resource! 👍
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When you leave Camping Riva Bella and turn towards Caen there is an Esso station soon on the right. I found access to be easy enough with a caravan but if you doubt that then pop out and fill up there solo before you leave.
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There's a Carrefour on the northern edge of Caen on the right just before the autoroute to save a few cents per litre.
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Pre paid cash cards and automated fuel pumps are never good friends. Normal UK credit cards and debit cards are much more reliable in those situations.
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Thanks all👍 On the broader topic of cards/cash for campsites and shopping etc, any suggestions? I have a ‘clarity’ card (in addition to my Visa card) so quite happy to use that where accepted.I’m also reasonably happy to take a ‘wad’ of cash (euros) if that’ll make things easier. What do you think?
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Belt, braces and Velcro. Covers all the bases
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Freddy, OH carries a MasterCard credit card + a debit card from our bank along with a Caxton prepaid card. I carry a MasterCard credit card from Tesco + my M&S debit card, I also have my own Caxton prepaid card (not a joint one) if you have to cancel a card and its joint you loose both cards.
This proved to be useful last year when our bank cancelled my OH's credit card without telling him (they sent a letter) we were only 4 weeks into a 9 week holiday in France. Only found out when he tried to put fuel in the car and it was not accepted. Words were had over the phone but nothing they could do as we were in France and new card sent to home. Holiday carried on with using my Tesco credit card.
Belts, braces and velcro, you bet and yes we do carry some cash as well.
The bank cancelled the credit card because they thought it was unusual activity,
we had informed them before going where we would be, they didn't even bother to call him first or check to see that it is 'normal' activity for us. 1 -
Freddie. Yes with our Clarity Card , and normal Credit Card you will be fine. Careful about taking 'Wads' of cash for obvious reasons. We use our equivalent of a Clarity Card for everything except maybe in a bakery and for coffees! They are accepted almost everywhere in France. Some ACSI sites (a very few) insist on cash payment I just ask when checking in and get some cash if required.
Re filling up near Caen, just check the price of fuel before you leave it might be worthwhile filling up in UK before you go, there is a Tesco near Portsmouth just check on Google.
You have covered a lot of ground with your questions but if you have any more keep them coming.
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“You have covered a lot of ground with your questions but if you have any more keep them coming”
Yes, I have. I’m just thankful that we have folks here to help out, and have displayed great...patience
I’ll check out the Tesco near Portsmouth. It obviously doesn’t make much difference where I fill up, as long as I have a full tank heading south, which I’m hoping will get me to the first site, it should do.
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Only me 😄
Am I right in thinking it would be a good idea to apply for a Crit’air? I have no plans to visit the permanent zones, but it’s the emergency zones that I might find restrictive in my travels? I haven’t extensively checked all the emergency zones, but there seems to be quite a lot of them.
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I've got a French and German one. They're only a few Euros, last indefinitely and then you can forget about it.
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- Hi again
Given the relatively low amperage available on French sites, I’ll obviously need to use gas at some point. I’ll obviously try to eak out my electricity usage, but am I being realistic thinking that 2 x 6kg bottles should suffice for a month?
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Not all French sites have low ampage Freddy. Plus if you are going in summer then you won't need to heat the caravan.
We're off to Spain for March/April and for the first 4 weeks we'll only have 6 amps. The nights will be chilly but I'll only need my 6kg Propane and I always take a 3.5kg butane as backup whether I'm abroad or home. So you should be fine.
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I always think that running out of gas is like running out of milk - I go and buy some more.
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Thanks WN. Although we don’t tend to use it, we do have a microwave. We also have a halogen oven that we use quite often, so depending on the amps available, we should be able to use that. Over here, a bottle might well last us a year or so. One thing I don’t want to do, is limit myself to sites with higher amperages. Anyway, it seems from what you say, I won’t have any problem 👍
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We did use French gas and connectors for a few years because we got fed up with the cost of the electricity for the amount of amps you got. It worked quite well but we stopped going to France for a few years and the supplier stopped supplying the type of bottle so we gave up. It did work out quite a bit cheaper but can't be bothered now.
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The Club advice is in the information section at the top of this page, "we advise all members to take a Campinggaz adaptor because that is available almost everywhere". And of course it goes without saying to take an electricity adaptor too..
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