Newby France drive
Just bought my first motorhome and looking this year to do a France trip.
Having never done it before I am getting conflicting views regarding the journey and time I have to do it in.
I plan on setting off towards the end of August and heading ultimately to empuria brava in Spain.
I am looking to stop for 3 nights in Normandy.... 3 nights in poitiers and again 3 nights in sarlat de caneda on the dordogne. 5 nights nr perpignan and again 5 nights in empuria Brava.... Leaving me 5 nights to get back home to the UK. Having put this thru the Co Pilot app with all the motorhome details in, it shows in France that I will be travelling 3.5-4 hours between destinations... Does that seem realistic to people who are experienced at this... Or is this a pipe dream and need to reign in my expectations.... Any advice gladly welcome
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Don’t overplan it. You may find you see all of Poitiers in one day rather than three, you may like the Sarlat area and want to stay longer than three…. just go as you please. And if time is running out you can get back from the Costa Brava to a channel port in two days rather than five - just hit the autoroute. Good wishes. I hope it all goes well.
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As eurotraveller has said, plus, use the viamechelin website. It is great for adding via points, gives you a good idea on tolls and I've found the on-road times are generally accurate. There is no motorhome option, but you can tick caravan as one of the options.
Route planner: route calculation, detailed journey cost - ViaMichelin
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You could always re-gig your plans to visit one of the outward stops on the way back which would make it a more leisurely return trip. When we were at work we tried to take one three week holiday in France (or elsewhere) and tended to stay longer on the outward trip but less time on the return journey. When we retired and were able to spend more time, usually either 6 or 8 weeks we tended to tour in amore circular fashion so the return journey was as relaxing as the outward. I don't think there is any right or wrong way, just personal preference. Enjoy the excitement of the planning.
David
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We have a towed caravan but I reckon if I can average 50mph on a predominantly motorway journey I'm doing well. I tend not to want to tow for more than 4-5 hours so I figure each day's journey to be 200-250 miles. French autoroutes tend to be less populated than UK motorways but August can be very busy, and although toll plaza congestion has reduced, queues can develop.
Figure out what your average speed is realistically likely to be based upon your vehicle and your own driving habits (speeds and preferred maximum driving time) - that should provide an indication of whether your planned itinerary stacks up.
Sarlat's roads and those of the Dordogne can be a tad winding in places so parts may be somewhat slower than the main autoroute!
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50mph is a good benchmark average speed for French and Spanish motorways. It might be worth getting a tag for motorway tolls, as the time you spend queueing to pay can mount up on a long journey.
Personally, unless you want to stay at a specific site, I wouldn't bother booking in advance as there are usually alternative sites available, should your first choice be full.
Don't be afraid to consider using Aires des Camping-Cars - you can usually find space if you arrive by 3pm. One popular organisation is Camping Car-Park and if you obtain a card in advance and load their app on your phone, you can monitor availability before arrival
Another useful aide when touring is the Searchforsites app
Happy touring !
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we drove in France with our caravan last August for the first time and it was easy and simple. We did stick to the toll roads for convenience and peace of mind.
I’d say sticking between 3-4 hours is doable, we did a 5 hour drive back to our last site and that was hard!
Bear in mind travelling on some Saturdays in August in France can be very busy!
we hit one on our way down and although the drive was okay, all the aires were RAMMED!
nightmare in a caravan!0 -
It depends on what you mean by the end of August. We arrived on the 29th last year and had no issues. Certainly as you move into September there is no need to book anything, except perhaps for some popular coastal sites. It’s one of the things we like about touring over there, you can change your mind about where you are going to spend the night, or even on route. This flexibility is particularly useful if the part of France you are in is having bad weather, as you can just move on a few hundred miles. We don’t generally do long days anymore, however if you do, the camping car park Aires mentioned above are very useful. You can check live availability on the App and easily see how many spaces are left. Just be aware those close to autoroute exits fill up very quickly, therefore if you’re arriving particularly late it’s worth picking one 10 km or so away. We have never yet failed to get into one.
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Several companies offer autoroute tags - they are all reliable but the costs vary and the method of payment varies. There isn’t a best.
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As ET mentions there are several "Brands" doing Tags but they all do the same. We used Emovis because they had a UK webpage and the usage could be debited directly to a UK bank account. They all charge the same for the tolls but administration fees vary a bit but hardly a deal breaker?
Our first motorhome had a slight windscreen overhang so we had to mount the tag lower down the windscreen for it to work. Just pointing this out as you don't have to follow the Tag instructions precisely to get it to work.
David
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@Fozdog_71 If your vehicle doesn’t have one ( if not new, the previous owner may have applied for one and it will be stuck on the windscreen) it’s also worth getting a CritAir environmental sticker from the French government. You will then be covered if you wish to enter one of the restricted city zones, or in the rare event of local controls being introduced due to pollution.
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Thank you so much for the suggestions.
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Since 2013 I've used what is now branded Fulli (I think it is APRR owned - certainly that's who issued my original tag which I found needed replacement last year - the internal battery had expired*) - I've used it for towing, solo car use and motorcycle touring and somehow the technology works out the correct tariff.
I subscribed to their "occasional user" scheme, no subscription charges other than for calendar months in which the tag is used - circa €1.80 in addition to the tolls incurred and the account is then direct debited to my Halifax Clarity credit card so no "foreign transaction" charges and interbank exchange rate utilised.
There is also available a tag that's operational in countries in addition to France - useful once you cross into Spain (or Italy, etc) - I think most of the tag providers have very much similar offerings.
*I discovered the 2013 issued tag needed replacement last year when it failed to operate an automatic toll gate; no big deal, I simply had to use my Clarity card until I was able to make a short detour to Fulli / APRR's offices - old tag was swapped quickly and easily for a new one, probably added 40 minutes to my journey.
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