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Before we went to Franch this year we bought the Frence Passions Book as we have a motorhome now instead of caravan and somebody told us that if we were touring all round France it would be a bit cheaper and appropriate than pre booking all the sites we intended to visit. Well the first two locations we went to were fine, the next one we took an hour to find as if you put in to the sat nav it only takes you to the area, well we did eventually find it to be told that they having digging work done so sent us to another building down the road which was all closed up. This was on a Saturday evening. I know that the hosts let us stay whith no payment but why put their name in the book when they are closed. We eventually found another site which was about 30 miles from our intended route. 

Whilst the Passion Book is not that expensive it becomes expensive when the sites/locations are not in a position to welcome you.

Has anybody else had the same experience or any advice to offer on their usage of Passions.

Also can anyone recommend any sites in the La Rochelle area in similar formats to CLs in the UK. 

But these are basically intended to be free nights on farms/food producers/vineyards where they offer you a free stay in return for the 'probability' that you will buy something from them.  If they put their name/address in a book for publication then it's likely that publication will take at least six months, and possibly more.  Who knows what may be happening at their farm/allottment/vineyard in the following six months.

To be fair they are not campsites, you don't pay, they are offering free accomodation - and so basically you take a risk.  If you want a risk free way to say overnight then you'll have to pay for the privilege and stay at a proper campsite.  Many muncipal sites charge very little and you can access them all via the Camping France website which gives details of more than 11,000 campsites in France - everything from the municipal site, to CL type and all-singing four star holiday complexes.

Hi

It is a great system in my opinion for a trip of the beaten track where maybe time is not all important. I would think some of sites have have never been visited or maybe not for some time and they might even forget they are in the Passion scheme.

When i ran my business i was approached with many schemes which i agreed to but did not produce any business i expect some Passion sites are the same.

Yes some of the sites are difficult to find but i think it adds to the experience

Palaceboy