HiI am new to caravanING in france I have come to the age of not to do a lot of driving so buy a tourer and leave on site thinking good idea.but is there any body wanting to sell there tourer over in france on this page, there are people saying buy in france so if people are giving up on france .I have tried on the net no luck no reply so any body wanting to sell up in france
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A few years ago we bought a caravan in the UK and stored it on a site in Normandy.
We would ring the site owner a few days before we travelled and he would site the caravan on a pitch.
The site was Le Picard in Normandy - if you look on their website they sometimes have tourers for sale that they are selling on the owners behalf
Garry
So, taking a UK van to a chosen site with storage facilities will give you a wider range of choice than waiting for a single seller at an existing site.
Or, but a van in France ... there are dozens of huge sales outlets ... and many continental builds may be better than comparably priced UK ones.
We have a French Sterckeman van ... couldn't get near to the price we paid for anything remotely resembling its spec in the UK.
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Older caravans tend to be much more expensive in France than UK & one that has been sited for years might be in poor condition. If you have a suitable towcar it would probably be cheaper to buy a caravan in UK & tow it to France.
Otherwise this website is worth a look. Click on region in France you want & then click caravaning to find caravans.
I'd agree with Opensauce, some of the prices charged by French vendors of quite old caravans are ridiculous. You could use some of the 'ex-pat' sites, like Anglo-Info or others to advertise 'caravan wanted' and you may get a British made van offered (there is a vintage Cheltenham Sable for sale currently on Anglo-Info/Languedoc)
Don't forget if you buy an older French caravan then it's not likely to have a battery or 12v system, and all the plug sockets will be French. It may not have a bathroom and toilet (lots of older vans don't!) either, and is unlikely to have the sort of heating we have. If you buy a new model then you won't have problems.
I would look for an English van - and tow it over. If you can't do that then I perhaps 'know a man who can' if all insurances, costs, etc., are covered.
I've just had another thought - friends of ours have a caravan on a very small British owned site in the Limousin, and they can use it during the winter. They pay a storage fee and then an 'occupied per night fee'.
We too store our caravan in France, but there are no other British vans stored there. We pay a very small storage fee and then the standard nightly tariff - but our costs are less than our friends, and we have a pool, heated shower block, bar and restaurant, and a shop within walking distance.
Look at www.leboncoin.fr for caravans, houses, cars, and everything else. If you select the region that you are wanting to holiday in it might save some towing distance.
I have a customer who has a very nice Eldis that he will be selling in the near future. He's in the Vienne department. But that is no good if you are looking at holidaying in Normandy
You'd probably be better off getting a British registered van though. They will be cheaper and you won't have the registration process to go through. Caravans and braked trailers require their own registration document and insurance. A UK registered one doesn't need this. There will be some British caravans on leboncoin, but not as big a choice as you'll find in the UK.
------------- If I had known how busy retirement would be, I'd have carried on working.
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We store our UK van on a different British owned site in Normandy (Le Clos Castel) with just 6 pitches and open all year. We drop them an email to say when we'll be arriving/leaving and when we arrive the van is out of storage ready to go, or on a pitch waiting for us for however many nights we want to stay on site.
As others have said, it'll be cheaper to buy a British used caravan in the UK and take it over to France than to buy one over there.
To add to Nice pix accurate post,it is also illegal for a UK registered car to tow a French registered caravan.
When the time comes to dispose of a UK caravan you will not be able to legally scrap it due to having no registration,it will have to go back to the UK.
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Quote: Originally posted by Keyboard warrior on 16/2/2018
To add to Nice pix accurate post,it is also illegal for a UK registered car to tow a French registered caravan.
When the time comes to dispose of a UK caravan you will not be able to legally scrap it due to having no registration,it will have to go back to the UK.
I thought that was the case but I've been told it isn't! It's illegal for a French car to tow a British registered van! This is because French insurance demands that the vehicles are insured and registered (each with their own Carte Grise) separately, but British car insurance also covers the towed vehicle. I'm sure that was mentioned on here somewhere.
If a UK person wishes to buy a French reg caravan in France & they have a UK reg car then they can buy the caravan, the owner can de register it & state it is being exported then UK buyer can put his UK numberplate on caravan & tow it away quite legally. This because UK caravans are not registered as vehicles with UK DVLA.
A UK buyer with UK reg car can do the above in any European country. I doubt though a French reg car can legally tow a caravan from UK unless the caravan is registered with French numberplate.
In reality If you buy an old caravan in France from a private buyer then pay cash take off numberplate, put your UK plate on & tow away. It’s up to seller what he does. As for scrapping an old UK caravan in France just smash it up & dispose of the bits.
Quote: Originally posted by Keyboard warrior on 16/2/2018
To add to Nice pix accurate post,it is also illegal for a UK registered car to tow a French registered caravan.
When the time comes to dispose of a UK caravan you will not be able to legally scrap it due to having no registration,it will have to go back to the UK.
I thought that was the case but I've been told it isn't! It's illegal for a French car to tow a British registered van! This is because French insurance demands that the vehicles are insured and registered (each with their own Carte Grise) separately, but British car insurance also covers the towed vehicle. I'm sure that was mentioned on here somewhere.
So when the Caravan Club supply a french registered tow car under their Red Pennant insurance the driver is breaking the law??
I thought RP brought out a UK car on a trailer as a replacement.
------------- XVI yes?
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
I guess the cop who stops you would interpret it that way. Which would require you to explain to the cop that under EU law that allows any vehicle that is legal in it’s own EU country to be legally driven in any other EU it could possibly be regarded as legal that a French reg car legal in France can tow a UK caravan that is legal in UK despite not being registered as a vehicle & not legally requiring separate insurance.
One should also note that UK caravan insurance does not cover third party risk while towing because UK car insurance does that but does French car insurance as trailer over 500kg requires separate insurance?
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Topic: Tour caravan for sale in france
