Planning stopovers caen to south of France tour. First timers. (2 Viewers)

[Bonnie Biker]

Morning,not sure of route yet, hoping to take our time, toll free through France. We're in an old hymer so speed isn't a choice. Any advice on mobile phone apps. Your thoughts very much appreciated. Thanks bonniebiker

 

[Purrfecttune]

Just got back from (our first) long tour of France/Spain and detailed all stops, some of which you might find useful.

See the thread ‘one more day to go’, at the end is a summary,

We went down the West coast and back up the middle from the East coast of Spain.

Best apps for us were Park4night & Campercontact.

 

[Bonnie Biker]

Thanks for that, we'll have a look at it

 

[brynric]

We use SearchforSites most regularly though others are available. They show a wide range of different types of drop over, aires and sites.
The Camping Car Park group have an increasing number of aires where you can see availability on the app. They have a card entry system and it’s worth getting the card before you go, it’s available at the machines but a little more complicated.
ACSI can be handy for a discount on some campsites out of season.

 

[Broadway]

Search for Sites and Camping - Carpark are both excellent apps. Take a look at the France Passion website too, paid app but lots of great places to stay overnight.

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[rb62]

We've used Search for Sites all over Europe since we had a MH and only once had a failure when the travellers had moved in! Worth paying the £7 ish as you can then use it off line and save data

 

[Bonnie Biker]

We use SearchforSites most regularly though others are available. They show a wide range of different types of drop over, aires and sites.
The Camping Car Park group have an increasing number of aires where you can see availability on the app. They have a card entry system and it’s worth getting the card before you go, it’s available at the machines but a little more complicated.
ACSI can be handy for a discount on some campsites out of season.

Thanks very much for the info, will check it out

 

[Purrfecttune]

We use SearchforSites most regularly though others are available. They show a wide range of different types of drop over, aires and sites.
The Camping Car Park group have an increasing number of aires where you can see availability on the app. They have a card entry system and it’s worth getting the card before you go, it’s available at the machines but a little more complicated.
ACSI can be handy for a discount on some campsites out of season.

We discovered Camping-Car Park in our last week.
We bought the card from the entry machine, then loaded it at the entry machine. Afterwards, downloaded the app which is excellent.
Their sites look great, more like campsites than aires and include all services along with WiFi and electricity. Some sites also have toilet blocks.
Average price is 14e per 24 hours and you can come and go as many times as you like during each period.
A shame we didn’t find them sooner!
(I posted a picture on my thread of the one at Bruere Allichamps)

 

[Bonnie Biker]

That sounds really good, will definitely have a look at that, thanks very much for the info.

 

[Bonnie Biker]

We use SearchforSites most regularly though others are available. They show a wide range of different types of drop over, aires and sites.
The Camping Car Park group have an increasing number of aires where you can see availability on the app. They have a card entry system and it’s worth getting the card before you go, it’s available at the machines but a little more complicated.
ACSI can be handy for a discount on some campsites out of season.

Thanks for the info

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[HKF]

If you get the Camping-Car Park app, as mentioned above, I can recommend the site at La Rochefoucauld (a Camping Mon Village). It's very quite, well kept and has showers and loos and everything else. The pitches are large, too. There's a large supermarket 5 minutes walk away. The town is also 5 minutes walk away with the Chateau, the river, restaurants and even a chocolatier. It was the very first aire we went to in our MH and we really liked it

 

[WillH]

Best advice is not to plan, overthinking it spoils a good holiday. We are currently in France and it's a little busy now so we are booking a day or two ahead. In past years we never booked at all, just found a place late afternoon.

 

[Purrfecttune]

Best advice is not to plan, overthinking it spoils a good holiday. We are currently in France and it's a little busy now so we are booking a day or two ahead. In past years we never booked at all, just found a place late afternoon.

Good advice
We learnt that very quickly

 

[Lenny HB]

We find Camper Contact the most reliable app, Search 4 sites is quite good but doesn't list a lot of places and reviews need to be taken with a pinch of salt as most of the reviews are by Brits who expect far too much from an Aire.

 

[seasideBill]

If you want a stopover not too far south from Caen, Falaise is very convenient - municipal site there is good.

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[Purrfecttune]

We find Camper Contact the most reliable app, Search 4 sites is quite good but doesn't list a lot of places and reviews need to be taken with a pinch of salt as most of the reviews are by Brits who expect far too much from an Aire.

Well said

(Or single reviews by someone with a tiny van)!

 

[rod_vw]

I can't add any more to the above suggestions and sources of overnight stops but maybe you should re think....

Planning Stopovers Caen to south of France tour. First timers.​

Just let your trip take its own course in this wonderfully quiet, vast and peaceful country.

PS mind the speed limits and cameras. A town or village sign outlined in red normally mean 50kph unless otherwise signed, end of said zone village sign with a diagonal line through it. A 30kph sign normally precedes a sleeping policeman!

 

[Wee Bold Davy]

Check out this web site it's rammed with info which gets updated regularly

Driving in France

Driving in France - main routes, rules of the road, practical information

about-france.com

 

[BikerGraham]

Best advice is not to plan, overthinking it spoils a good holiday. We are currently in France and it's a little busy now so we are booking a day or two ahead. In past years we never booked at all, just found a place late afternoon.

Probably the olympics start soon

 

[suavecarve]

Another vote for camper contact over search for sites.
If you get 5 reviews on S4S you will get 60 reviews on cc.

Another option is to view the journal map and see if anything is in your way that may interest you.

Top left open the list and hit journals. Then continental tours, then view map then view full map. Each of the 500 or so entries has a blog of some sort with photos and hints

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[Bonnie Biker]

If you get the Camping-Car Park app, as mentioned above, I can recommend the site at La Rochefoucauld (a Camping Mon Village). It's very quite, well kept and has showers and loos and everything else. The pitches are large, too. There's a large supermarket 5 minutes walk away. The town is also 5 minutes walk away with the Chateau, the river, restaurants and even a chocolatier. It was the very first aire we went to in our MH and we really liked it

If you get the Camping-Car Park app, as mentioned above, I can recommend the site at La Rochefoucauld (a Camping Mon Village). It's very quite, well kept and has showers and loos and everything else. The pitches are large, too. There's a large supermarket 5 minutes walk away. The town is also 5 minutes walk away with the Chateau, the river, restaurants and even a chocolatier. It was the very first aire we went to in our MH and we really liked it

Thanks, that sounds really nice,I will write all the info down. Very much appreciated, looking forward to it

 

[Bonnie Biker]

Thanks everyone for your help, very much appreciated.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

There are also lots of blogs written by people as they travel, many in France. Over the years I have found them very useful for finding sites and places to go. If a somewhere looks good, be it an aire or camp site, I favourite it on S4S and CamperContact for latter use.

 

[Bonnie Biker]

Another vote for camper contact over search for sites.
If you get 5 reviews on S4S you will get 60 reviews on cc.

Another option is to view the journal map and see if anything is in your way that may interest you.

Top left open the list and hit journals. Then continental tours, then view map then view full map. Each of the 500 or so entries has a blog of some sort with photos and hints

Thanks will do

 

[Bonnie Biker]

Check out this web site it's rammed with info which gets updated regularly

Driving in France

Driving in France - main routes, rules of the road, practical information

about-france.com

Thanks very much, will do

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[Bonnie Biker]

Best advice is not to plan, overthinking it spoils a good holiday. We are currently in France and it's a little busy now so we are booking a day or two ahead. In past years we never booked at all, just found a place late afternoon.

Thanks for the information,we were just going book as we were moving from one place to another but will make sure we plan ahead.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Thanks for the information,we were just going book as we were moving from one place to another but will make sure we plan ahead.

I wouldn’t even do that, often we find we are driving through somewhere and decide to stop unexpectedly. Also we find we aim for a site or aire and realise there is a better one nearby when we get there.

 

[Bonnie Biker]

There are also lots of blogs written by people as they travel, many in France. Over the years I have found them very useful for finding sites and places to go. If a somewhere looks good, be it an aire or camp site, I favourite it on S4S and CamperContact for latter use.

We shall try and get our heads around it as we're going along, lots of things to rememberwe aren't going to travel too far as we get off the ferry,will look for an aire/site then have a look for another while we're there.

 

[Bonnie Biker]

I wouldn’t even do that, often we find we are driving through somewhere and decide to stop unexpectedly. Also we find we aim for a site or aire and realise there is a better one nearby when we get there.

We may be brave and do that toothanks

 

[HKF]

Wherever you choose to go, please make sure you get a Crit'Aire sticker beforehand. Don't panic, it's very easy to do and only costs €4.76, including postage, per vehicle

Even though you might have no plans to go into any of the cities that require a sticker, you could find yourself on a detour or even (and I do hope not!) needing to go into a city for a repair etc.

So, this is the official website https://certificat-air.gouv.fr/ and you can change it to English, if you need to. They're sent out very quickly but, even if you travel before yours arrives, you'll be sent an confirmation email which will cover you in the meantime.

Please don't use any other site than the one above. There are a few unofficial ones out there who will charge you more than you should be paying and may not even apply for you anyway!

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