We've just got back from a fab. trip to the Dordogne, had a great time and on analysis have come to the conclusion that it could have been better, and I am wondering how we can improve next years holiday, this is important as half way through hubby did ask 'how much do you think a villa would have cost?' (It was during the only day of rain). We have twin 10 year olds so have to camp in school hols
Likes:
1. The climate (apart from day of rain! ) liked warm days (mid to high 20s) but cool nights so we could sleep
2. Our biggish polycotton was fantastic -lovely and cool, no condensation and I kept having to stroke it !
3. Staying in 1 place, we have a lot of stuff and packing up and down is stressful
4. Plenty to visit and see and do without much driving
5. Site with pool, big shady pitches and low key 'entertainment'
Dislikes:
1. Dordogne was super busy - measured 10 canoes a minutes passing by the campsite
2. River beaches, though we do want a beach suspect maybe only a sea-beach will do?
3. Lack of play area on campsite for our girls
4. Lots of small children screaching day and night (suspect this is just me being intolerant, it was the school hols and OH wasnt bothered!)
5. The long drive we live in cumbria which means a days drive to the south of England first.
Sorry this is a long post But does anyone know if there is a way for us having a camping holiday that can get rid of our dislikes but keep our likes ?
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If you go to the Dordogne in high season it will be crowded. If you want big beaches next yr try the SW coast nr Bordeaux just to the west of Dordogne, loads of nice seaside towns with coastal campsites. If the weather does what it should you get sun & sea breezes, about mid 20s or above temps & cool nights.
Still just as far to drive though. If you want to pay more for a ferry take a western channel route to France & go further up the west coast in Brittany or Vendee, cooler temps, nice beaches but a shorter drive in France.
If you go towards the end of August it will be less crowded because the French & Dutch school hols tend to start early Jul & campsites empty after mid Aug.
As well as your huge and lovely family tent, take a couple of small hike tents that you can all cram into and use en route. This way you can stop overnight anywhere you happen to be without spending hours pitching and striking.
If you can afford to take your car/van/truck on Brittany Ferries Portsmouth to Cherbourg route you can cut a lot of driving miles, the M25, the Paris Boulevard Périphérique, see the Royal Navy fleet and experience a fast craft for 3 hrs.
I have just cycled between Cherbourg and St Malo and can recommend camping almost anywhere there, Brittany is great and has a kind climate.
If you want to drive further the Girond (Bordeaux) coast is amazing. Get away from the villes and have miles of beach to yourself.
Never sit outside a restaurant and winge where the French can hear you, it brings Britain into disrepute.
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
As has been said above, the end of August is generally surprisingly quiet on French campsites, compared to the UK say (even tho the schools don't go back until the beginning of september). e.g. We were at Les Jablines west of Paris, near Eurodisney from Sat 24/8 this year for a few days, and lots (25-30% at least?) of pitches were empty. This might help on the busyness/noise front. Though sites popular with families are always going to attract lots of kids, some of which will be small and noisy.... also choice of area, e.g. the Dordogne is well known and popular - there are other river areas equally as lovely, but less well known. Do a bit of reading up over the winter?
Play areas- well just take a bit more care in choosing the site, plenty do have play areas.
Beach - well go to the sea :-) Brittany is lovely, a bit like a French Cornwall, but a lot less of a drive. Tho weather less predictably warm than further south in france.
Packing, oh yes the stress of gettign all the stuff back into the car when it only seems to fit in one precise way :-) - our camping experience was made much more relaxed with a trailer. It spends the summer mostly loaded up with the camping gear ready to go, and at packup time it's much less stress full just loading it into the trailer, rather than trying to squeeze everything back into the boot the roofbox, between the kids etc.
Or just think hard about what you really need to take.
We're just back from Camping de la Plage in Brittany from mid to end of August. The campsite was full but it didn't feel busy, has a play area, pool and beach and is in a good location for things to see and do. I suspect we were lucky with the weather - two gorgeous weeks with only a couple of cooler days in the middle.
It was a two day drive to get there, but short of moving to the south coast of England, there's not much can be done about that - we rely on a portable DVD (the Incredibles four times in two days!!), anti travel sickness tablets, and bribery about icecream on the next stop!
Thanks for the thoughts
We went at the end of August and the Dordogne was still bursting at the seams, I think the sheer volume of Brits makes a slight reduction in the number of French and Dutch unnoticable.
I think we'll either go down the route of a small tent for short stays until we get to our destination, fly or stay in the uk.
Currently starting to move towards the uk option. Over the past 4 years have camped twice over the summer in uk And twice in France. On the whole we hace found the uk camping experience more chilled and relaxed but the weather not been so good.
I have too many childhood memories of wet stays in northern france not to know the weather there can be as bad as uk ! So I kind of think that If we cant get far enough south to get decent weather we might as well have a shorter drive in the uk and enjoy the camping even if weather bad. We could even head North (though I can hear the other half muttering about midges !)
What I really want is an easy to erect trailer tent so we can stop on the way down france and still have the luxury of a big tent but the OH wont consider towing anything !
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
I do camp in the uk but always use gites and mobiles in France.Gites are great in an intresting area were we can take the 4 kids to places each day but our little ankle bitters (14,12,11,11) do love making friends at parks and prefer that.We tend to use hotels for night stops,booked ahead can be great value.
As a general rule we prefer sites with a large local population,on our last trip we had an idyllic week at camping pre bas on lac Chambon.excellent quality/price and not an English,Dutch or German voice to be heard all week.The French were lovely the kids were a novelty and made loads of friends and i even got a medal for helping win the camp footie tournament.
Living in cumbria does present large problems,the years i lived up north i fly drived and used mobiles.Just couldnt face the drive.
Why not look for a campsite where they hire their own mobile homes or ready-erected tents. If you use the smaller sites then it can work out a lot cheaper than using one of the larger companies, and all you need to take is bedding, food and clothes! There are even sites which hire bedding, so you could 'fly-drive' if necessary - or do like lots of people have already done, and book with Roan Rent a Tent - if their half-price early bookings offer is still available. We've got two weeks in Croatia in a ready-erected tent for just £106 for two of us!
We have opted after the children hit 10-11 to go for the Vendee and would recommend that you look at places like Jard sur Mer, La tranche sur Mer, Longeville sur Mer in the south, Bretignolles sur mer in the middle or Pornic right at the top (officially Brittany).
We have used Ibis or Holiday Inn express hotels for stopovers to make the driving bearable.
Try Camping Le Champ Neuf on the Somme. It ticks all your boxes apart from the last one and the compromise is a short drive once you reach France. Maybe you can break the journey with an overnight premier inn/ travelodge stay which we did. We found driving down from Lancashire to the south coast to be the most arduous bit of the whole thing although some of that was because we'd never camped abroad before and were a bit apprehensive, I'm sure it will be easier next time. Of course there are no guarantees about the weather but the weather in northern France is similar the south of the UK which is a lot better than it is in the north west of England!
I love the look of the ready pitched tents but I begrudge paying to use someone else's tent when I have a perfectly good on of my own!
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
I would highly recommend 'Camping Du Letty' at Benodet in Brittany. You sound like you have a similar list of requests to us and I did lots of research into many campsites before we went. Chose Du Letty based on the many positive reviews on here and the fact that it had direct beach access, indoor and new fab outdoor pools and moderate entertainment (mainly for the little ones rather than for us). It did not disappoint at all. Really lovely, shaded large pitches in small hedged rows; fantastic interesting beach for crabbing, grubbing around in rock pools, great takeaway when you couldn't be bothered to cook! Somehow managed to be fun and full of stuff to do whilst being quiet at night and laid back. Even managed to enjoy ourselves when it rained! Only problem now is finding somewhere else that measure up...
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Help, Tips for camping in France please
- we rely on a portable DVD (the Incredibles four times in two days!!), anti travel sickness tablets, and bribery about icecream on the next stop!
