Exactly, so why do people keep posting about the dangers in France & Spain, but forget to warn about what is happening on their doorstep. If you wander around with your head in the clouds you will get caught out no matter where you are. Just watch hayseed tourists in London, they may as well have MUG tattoed on their forehead. Life is harsh, get used to it and adapt.
Steve W
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Quote: Originally posted by sally12345 on 03/9/2010
Hi
Was planning to go to France without the dog - but after reading this may just take him, Bear Lake tent as well.
I know personally at least 5 or 6 other English campsite owners here in France. Not just in this area, but all over France. Not one of them has had a problem like has been reported here on this forum. Now, that's not to say that it doesn't happen, it does. It happens anywhere. But, it doesn't happen in sufficient numbers to cause mass panic among the camping community.
When I lived in the UK, I had one car stolen and written off. I had three others broken into and stuff stolen. I had tyres on my caravan slashed too. I even had a small stretch of lead nicked from my conservatory roof!
Here in France, we've suffered NO crime of any description (unless you count the taxes we pay) in just over FIVE years.
Make of that what you will. But MY glasses are definitely NOT rose tinted!
This thread seems to be taking off in all directions, with people getting a bit uppity with comments like 'get used to it and adapt'. Well, I'll maybe adapt a bit but I'll never get used to it!
Although this seems to have turned into a thread debating the increase in generalised crime and there also seems to be a bit of a France versus UK thing going on, the OP posted specifically about theft from tents by taking a knife to the canvas! That's got to be a pretty traumatic experience for any camper and I'm not sure it's something you'd get over quickly, positive non-victim attitude or not! I think I'd be more appalled at the violation of our perceived safety than at the subsequent loss of any belongings.
I'm thankful to the OP for the warning / reminder. We've generally found other campers to be such an honourable lot that we've perhaps become a bit lax and over-trusting on campsites, if anything. But then, this isn't about other campers, is it? It looks as if some of the bigger sites have been targeted by opportunist scumbags, which is odd because they're usually the ones with barriers, better lighting and such like.
I hope it never happens to me but I'm not going to get paranoid over it or stop camping in France, or anywhere else for that matter. I'll think a bit more about how we hide valuables and I'll maybe include a baseball bat in my list of 'camping essentials'!
Seriously, we should all look out for each other, no matter where we're camping, and be supportive on the rare occasions when crap stuff like this does happen (whilst recognising that it's very unlikely it ever will happen to us).
Best wishes to the OP and to others who have posted about their shocking experiences.
I'm with Stu on this one. A couple of very isolated incidents and within days its suddenly no longer safe to camp in France!!!! I have just returned home from a wonderful two weeks in the Loire Valley and our English hosts told us a story about the only "crime" they have encountered in the thirteen years they have lived there. Two bored 10 year olds borrowed a couple of bikes from an open garage and spent the day cycling the lanes. They were spotted several times so everyone knew who had taken them. At the end of the day they put the bikes back and returned home to a visit from the local bobby. They got a stern lecture from the bobby and were marched through the village to apologise to the owners. It was such a big event the whole village turned out to get a look at the two "criminals"
I'm not doubting for one minute that some people find these experiences very traumatic, especially when there are kids in the tent too. But, that said, it's easy to glorify the knife used into an assault weapon when in fact all it is, is a means to an end. It's how they perpetrate their crime. They couldn't open a slit with a melon, could they? The very fact that no one was hurt by the thieves wielding the knives seems to support this theory. So while I sympathise, and indeed empathise with the OP on this thread and on others too, I just wouldn't want to start a panic about the safety of camping here or anywhere. Choose your campsites well. It's hardly rocket science to figure out that these burglaries will occur where there's a) plenty of opportunity, and b) easy escape routes for the thieves.
I think your reply sums up the intention of my original post perfectly.
Not at any stage have I said that it's unsafe to camp in France or that there is more crime there than in the UK. If I did feel that this was the case I would of promptly returned home as soon as this had happened.
This type of crime is very rare, but if it's never reported then it we will never know how much of an isolated incident it is.
I don't agree with the implication that that it would be easy to spot where these burgalries will occur, plenty of opportunity, and easy escape routes for the thieves-pretty much sums up campsites (everywhere) in general. What I would say is that large campsites would offer the most opportunity. I certainly didn't think there was a threat of this happening when I booked the campsite, mainly because I had been to the area and knew of it's rural location, but where there's opportunity!
One of my points that appears to have been lost is that, in my case, it wasn't really about the loss but of the level of the effect it had on my children. My immediate initial reaction was 'okay it's happened, it could have been worse and I'm dammed if I'm going to let it spoil our holiday. I then insisted that we carry on as normal, however when your 11 year old son can't sleep at night and after a couple of days is crying that he wants to go home then you have to make concessions and leave your 'comfort zone' or in my case bedroom pod, and for the rest of our holiday I slept in the main part of the tent outside the bedroom pods. This was not an overeaction but a measure to instill a good nights sleep, for everyone. It worked and we all went on to have a great holiday.
I sincerely hope that this or these type of stories don't put peoople off camping holidays in France, or anywhere else for that matter. This was certainly not my intention, if it was then I would be a hypocrit as I fully intend to return to France to camp, a wiser man. Neither was it the intention of this post to court sympathy, although I would like thank all the people who have posted messages of sympathetic words.
As they say on crimewatch please don't have nightmares!
Just seen this, how awful. I'm so glad we opted to leave the bikes in the car overnight. There's a lot to said for keeping valuables near you, we kept passports etc in the car overnight, and other valuables in the sleeping tent (we use a pop up/ Quechua base combo).
On the whole we have had no problems, but we were very cautious on Le Belvedere (Annecy) this year...there appeared to be an enclave of 'undesirable' looking types gathering near a group of 'pop ups'...we moved pitches being suspicious. Within an hour the police were on the site..me thinks this was drugs & drink related. Why do they allow these type of people on the site.
Thankfully the practice of having to display the pitch number and site name in the car has changed......this was like a gold blocked invite for thieves.
Very sad story..I hope you are all OK.
------------- CAT
Favourite site:
Camping Nanzel, Limone, Lake
Garda..perfect for MTB, Kayak, SUP and fell running training.
Favourite areas: Provence, French Alps, Savigny (as a stop over for Southern France: Rhein valley as a stop over for Italy. 78
A bit more to say on the subject........It's not just France, it's camping. We all need to be a bit more cautious.
Crime on campsites is not as rare as you imagine, a few years ago now we were horrified to hear that people were targetting campsites on the Tour de France route...pinching bikes. This is also common in the world of MTB, you would never question someone loading bikes into a van, is common practice.
I will never be put off camping but am greatful that people bring stories like this to the attention of others.
If you are camping to attend an event/ festival/concert/ market......take your things with you.
------------- CAT
Favourite site:
Camping Nanzel, Limone, Lake
Garda..perfect for MTB, Kayak, SUP and fell running training.
Favourite areas: Provence, French Alps, Savigny (as a stop over for Southern France: Rhein valley as a stop over for Italy. 78
I can fully sympathise with then effect this had on your children. My 10 year old couldn't stop thinking about the theft of all his little treasures from our car and couldn't sleep.
Normally we put the boys in one bedroom pod and DH & I sleep in the other. We ended up each sleeping with a child to reassure them.
Oh well not much was going to happen with only 2.5 metres of living space between us anyway!
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Topic: Another France Tent Robbery!
