French Aires and campsites , taking cards ?

[Jake Royd]

Whereabouts are you headed ? might have a few tips or aires worthy of a stop as its a first time venture

Hi, thank you.
Our plan is to take the BF boat from Portsmouth to Santander in early May.
Then we plan a month of touring , heading from Spain into France.
We will then go something like :-
Cabaceno Aire
Pedrosa de Valdepores , maybe Haro ?
Logrono
Jaca
Then Somport tunnel to Pau.

That's as far as I have got so far , so where to go in 3.5 weeks of working your way back to the channel ports would be very welcome.

We favor culture and quietness.

We are familiar to some extent with the Vendee and Brittanty but haven't been there for a couple of decades (I had a boat instead of a MH)

TIA

 

[Jake Royd]

@suavecarve , thanks for the 'big' post above BTW

 

[7735]

.... and dishonest.
A lot of aires are patrolled by Police and Gendarmes. All attendants will give you a receipt which you display. No ticket = parking fine. They will take the €50 note off you then, plus more....

Nothing dishonest about it, I am quite willing to pay, here is the money Mr parking attendant please take it. I have only ever seen police checking tickets where you have had to buy a ticket from a machine. The French know what time the attendant calls and move out before and return when he’s been.
Spongy

 

[suavecarve]

Your timings are good for coming back and i ll make a presumption to head for caen Cherbourg etc to get to portsmouth.
First up if you havent been to the islands and vendee for a couple of decades and not in a motorhome that is a plan. If going on to Re, remember the cost of taking the motorhome over so make good use of it for 3-4 day stay. Several aires on there. One just over the bridge and then cycle every where. If no cycles then get one near to St Marten. Apart from that town, which is a stunner, the islands are quite similar. If you go up towards st nazaire there is a great serpent worthy of a stop at. La Rochelle is a great night out. The aire is 15 euros for a park and ride next to a train station. La Puy du Fou gets raved about on here and 2 nights seems to be the order of the day and seeing the night time show. Wedidnt go much at royan but la roche sur yon is nice. One beach village is very much like another up the coast way north though into Brittany it does become more interesting. Bordeaux on the way up is well worthy of a stop. Beautiful city.great tram system and there is a stopping point that you can either pay for or it is a FP site about a kilometre from a terminal at Blanquefort. 15 (60 quid) euro bottle of wine and worth every cent at that place.
If going more inland the dordogne, lot and vezere are real france to me. Numerous places to stop but Rocamadour is a gimme, st leon, montignac, peyzac, souillac, lacave, meyronne, Gluges (really top aire) are amongst some very goos stopovers. You can then catch the free motorway up to Limoges and Oradour sur glane is a must, remembering all these places will still be there next year. You need to look up Oradour before committing to going. There is a big lake to the east of Limoges worthy of a day and night. and if continuing on this route then Sully sur loire is a reaonable drive from there but numerous great stops on the loire all along the river.
St Malo was a bit of a stunner as well. We were well surpised by it. I was expecting a downbeat Portsmmouth and very pelasantly surprised. Caen was good too but i cant remember where we stopped. It was about 8km north eat and a little village but really quaint. Getting closer to the ports Fougeres is a must. Numerous people love Honfleurs, i am not in that group but you have to go once. It is very very pretty and very very expensive (can you see why i wont return). Lisieux has a great Bassilica but the aire was on a very steep hill opposite it. Nonancourt is also a favourite and it only says 5 vans but you can park outside the mairie if full.
Get a map of the beautiful villages and use that as a guide as to which way to go and check for festivals when it is the weekends at Tourist Information. If you find one, GO. If you can detour GO. Fridays and Saturdays are when they are most prevalent. Look out for any french bank holidays. Ok i needed to check myself so 1/5 8/5 30/5 and 10/6 are of interest. There will be street parties then. At the festivals dont have your normal evening meal. Just turn up buy the cheap food and wine there, sit at the communal tables, throw your handbag down and dance like you jsut done care. Great night out.
The other thing to do, is, if you have some internet. Create a post in the chat section. Entitle it something that grabs the attention. "losing our french virginity" or "live updates of forthcoming disasters" "Currently here .. tell me where to go tomorrow" if you write up where you are, whats happened in the day, how you are coping with the language and money, people will say, Oh we stayed there and went to so and so from there. or you must go up to the castle. Tak a look at the tam thread. Shed laods of advice every day. so choose a route back and take it slowly. You can make Limoges to Calais in a day (just) so dont get concerned in getting back too early(unless you see lots of yellow vests
Enjoy

 

[Spriddler]

Nothing dishonest about it, I am quite willing to pay, here is the money Mr parking attendant please take it. I have only ever seen police checking tickets where you have had to buy a ticket from a machine. The French know what time the attendant calls and move out before and return when he’s been.
Spongy

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[Riverbankannie]

I always wondered how washing dried.
Now i just need to find out how it makes to the washing basket from the floor then to the machine

Side note. Top of Ventoux this year as i failed last year. Within striking distance from start of May to end of June. Told her that we are dong sunset, middle of night and sunrise. Shes not happy. Shes grumbling away to herself carrying this package of something towards the washing machine at the moment.

We didn’t start off from Sault until about 2:30 pm and also stopped at the restaurant half way. It’s easier to avoid the cyclists who are both slow going up and speeding, cutting corners, on the way down. The last thing you want is for someone to come off in front of you.
We left in the morning next day and so were mostly just going against those coming up.
Hope it works out for you.

 

[John Russell]

In case you hadn't seen, Revolut are in trouble with regulators over various issues. Suggest you google it.

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