What's so great about motorhoming in France?

[namwaldog]

She can spend hours in galleries or craft shops, looking at castles or stately homes

Our initial attraction was pre motorhome days..... we ran a small bric-a-brac shop for a couple of years when we retired and heard about the flea-markets in France.
Vide Greniers (literally garage sale). Each town or village close off a couple of their streets and the residents (and other sellers) set up stall and sell off their unwanted rubbish treasures. Great atmosphere usually.
Let's you practice your French and buy all that stuff you can't live without. We really enjoy the experience.

This interactive website lists a lot of them...

Agenda des vide-greniers, brocantes et marchés aux puces

Agenda des vide-greniers, brocantes, marchés aux puces et salons d'antiquaires. Trouvez les brocantes près des chez vous.

vide-greniers.org

We used to plan ahead and make a 4 day trip where we could visit 3 Vide Greniers on consecutive days, fill the estate car and sell the stuff in the shop.

There's nothing to lose by trying France. The savings on wine will probably pay for your tunnel fare. We always book single trip to allow maximum flexibility.
Go for it, if you aren't comfortable you can be back in UK the same, or following day!

 

[chaser]

Our initial attraction was pre motorhome days..... we ran a small bric-a-brac shop for a couple of years when we retired and heard about the flea-markets in France.
Vide Greniers (literally garage sale). Each town or village close off a couple of their streets and the residents (and other sellers) set up stall and sell off their unwanted rubbish treasures. Great atmosphere usually.
Let's you practice your French and buy all that stuff you can't live without. We really enjoy the experience.

This interactive website lists a lot of them...

Agenda des vide-greniers, brocantes et marchés aux puces

Agenda des vide-greniers, brocantes, marchés aux puces et salons d'antiquaires. Trouvez les brocantes près des chez vous.

vide-greniers.org

We used to plan ahead and make a 4 day trip where we could visit 3 Vide Greniers on consecutive days, fill the estate car and sell the stuff in the shop.

View attachment 440919View attachment 440920

There's nothing to lose by trying France. The savings on wine will probably pay for your tunnel fare. We always book single trip to allow maximum flexibility.
Go for it, if you aren't comfortable you can be back in UK the same, or following day!

Agree with this as well.
I did mention France passion in my previous post, but realized you might not have a clue what I was on about, so here is a link

France Passion: Great stopovers with your motorhome in France

France Passion - A guide to friendly and gastronomic motorhome stopovers in the French countryside with farmers and winegrowers – agri-tourism and wine tourism

www.france-passion.com

Another small tip, by all means go to all the popular places but just do your own thing, there are new places everywhere, it's a big place!.

 

[pandas]

Agree with this as well.
I did mention France passion in my previous post, but realized you might not have a clue what I was on about, so here is a link

France Passion: Great stopovers with your motorhome in France

France Passion - A guide to friendly and gastronomic motorhome stopovers in the French countryside with farmers and winegrowers – agri-tourism and wine tourism

www.france-passion.com

Another small tip, by all means go to all the popular places but just do your own thing, there are new places everywhere, it's a big place!.

Including the French

 

[Wee Bold Davy]

To be depressingly practical, two things a UK driver needs to know.

The 30mph (50km/h) speed limit is not defined by street lighting like in the UK. At the entrance to every town and village there is a name sign, which is the start of the speed limit. As you leave there is the same name sign with a diagonal red line through it, showing the end of the speed limit.

Most main roads have a yellow diamond sign, which means your road has priority. Just like the UK. In certain areas like the centre of towns and villages, and roads off the beaten track, there might be a yellow diamond sign with a black diagonal line through it. Watch out! It means that at unmarked crossroads and junctions, the driver from the right has priority. I find it helps to think of it like an invisible mini-roundabout. OK, a reversed invisible mini-roundabout. Er...

The first time you hear about the 'priority from the right' rule, you'll understand it but you won't believe it. It applies across the whole of Europe, as well as Russia. The only place it doesn't apply is the UK.

Diamonds are a driver’s best friend

The yellow diamond sign means you are King of the Road Counterintuitive It’s commonly assumed the Priority to the Right rule is dying out. But as our photos show, all taken in the past couple of ye…

driveeurope.co.uk

Are there many road signs that us Brits visiting for the first time won't be familiar with?

 

[John Barrett]

Are there many road signs that us Brits visiting for the first time won't be familiar with?

The black striped (I think) pillar at the side of the road: it's a speed trap!

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[chaser]

Are there many road signs that us Brits visiting for the first time won't be familiar with?

Only the yellow diamond thing with a black line across it or not which means traffic from the right have priority.

 

[chaser]

Oh and a village sign is an automatic 50 k speed limit.

 

[two]

France Passion locations tend to be off the beaten track, rather than close to tourist centres, but worth a try if you enjoy wine and farm produce. From what you said, I'm not sure that Mrs WBD would them as much as the Aires.
A big difference between UK and France is SPACE and the lack of a need to book ahead, although avoiding school holidays is best. Travelling is generally easy, as the roads are not crowded. Take your time and enjoy the scenery as you go.

 

[spitfire]

This thread gives us itchy feet!

me too and I live here lol Van stuck on the drive :-(

 

[Just smiffy]

Are there many road signs that us Brits visiting for the first time won't be familiar with?

At a junction where there is a stop sign painted on the road then stop! Even if you can see that nothing is coming... stop means stop regardless, the police do have a habit of hiding sometimes...

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[Wee Bold Davy]

Been reading about the French Passions and their testimonials. They sound wonderful but we don't drink wine, eat snails or frogs legs so they may be of limited interest to us, apart from the fact many are off the beaten track. Maybe try it further down the line

 

[autorouter]

Are there many road signs that us Brits visiting for the first time won't be familiar with?

Reassuringly almost all the signs are international. Obviously 'Give Way' signs will be in the local language (Cedez le Passage), but they are the same inverted triangles so it's easy to guess. The word STOP is on all the Stop signs, so no problem there.

Red/amber/green traffic lights sometimes go into flashing amber mode in off-peak times. Slow down and be prepared to give way to other traffic.

Mostly, motorway signs are blue, signs for other roads are green, as in the UK. But in some countries, Switzerland for example, this is the opposite - green for motorways, blue for other roads.

 

[namwaldog]

Regarding roadsigns etc., When approaching roundabouts...

I think Jim originally put this in the Resources Section (but I can't find it there now)

Print it off A4 size and put it on your dash below the steering wheel and it will reflect the correct image on the windscreen.

 

[Jim]

Hi, its here

Keep Right Head Up Display

At Peterborough Show I was talking to someone who said they would love to go to France but were petrified about driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. That is a shame, there really is nothing to worry about. But, I realise for some this is a...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[sedge]

Some places still shut for a week or fortnight during the French school summer holidays so everyone from there can go on holiday. In holiday places, it can be before or after the main holidays - and their main dates are the Saturday before Bastille Day (when everything closes but most places are 'en Fete' so are fun - fairs, markets and street entertainments) on 14th July and the Fete de St Jean on the weekend before/after 14th August, but as it's red hot then and millions of kids everywhere obviously - probably best avoided. Unless you like queues !

Your wife - if classically trained for her job - already knows shedloads more French than you do Davy!

Don't look for the 'Bisin Fute' website - he's a fuming bison, it's spelled the same as in English. Bison Fute. Fute means 'seriously annoyed'. He's fuming because of heavy traffic on the road you are on, so there will be a yellow arrow sign which says Bis on it in black, directing you to a route to exactly the same place you want to get to, but avoiding the bottleneck you're about to come to.

Not a lot of castles and stately homes in Normandy generally now ...... the War damage didn't stop on the coastline. Still loads of history though, not only the last century !

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[johnval]

I know it would help but do you need to know much of the language to get bye? As I've said I've travelled widely but never been much off the tourist trail so it's never been an issue!

Try and speak a little Frence. Google translate on your phone helps. Use it to learn numbers so you know how much shopkeepers are asking for in stead of offering them a handful of coins. Like others on here most of our motor homing is done in France

 

[chaser]

Try and speak a bit of French by all means but on the other hand don't for one minute let it put you off, we have an advantage in Julie being fluent in French but I know very little , in fact probably nothing but I get by with a few waving hands and pointing, and most French speak a bit of English so it is quite easy to get by.

 

[marrod23]

For the past 14 years I've only toured abroad (apart from half a dozen nights a year to attend specific events in U.K.).
As well as the above to which I'd add delightful food, wine and rivers you'll be welcomed over there rather than merely tolerated over here.

Are we tolerated over here blimey where did that come from

 

[John Barrett]

'don't drink wine, eat snails or frogs legs'
Why on earth are you contemplating going to France?

 

[Imala615]

one tip worth remembering when in France is to find your overnight stay around lunchtime. When this lots over it will be even busier and there is nothing worse than finding parking places full or closed in a strange place late afternoon .

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[LesW]

one tip worth remembering when in France is to find your overnight stay around lunchtime. When this lots over it will be even busier and there is nothing worse than finding parking places full or closed in a strange place late afternoon .

This was what we did, gave us a chance to find a nice nice spot, have lunch and then a walk around the town/village we had chosen, sometimes choosing to have lunch out.

Amazed at the number of vans turning up in the early evening expecting to find a spot though.

 

[138go]

One thing we learned and I will pass this on, is to be wary of aires. Posters get carried away with recommending aires and the first time we went to France, we learned a few tips.

Not all aires are the same. Never stay on an aire next to a motorway or a busy road. Someone will no doubt be along shortly to say these aires are safe but there's enough information out there to suggest otherwise.

The popular aires fill up, so don't rely on turning up and being able to park. Some aires just don't feel right. We have a rule that if one or both of us doesn't feel comfortable we don't stay.

Due to the above, we always have a plan B and even a plan C. If you've driven a long way and you're planning to stop at a pre-chosen aire, you'll be properly fed up if you arrive and it's full. Our general plan is to start looking for an aire to stop on, mid-afternoon.

Just to mention campsites, we never pre-book because there are some horrors out there.

 

[chaser]

One thing we learned and I will pass this on, is to be wary of aires. Posters get carried away with recommending aires and the first time we went to France, we learned a few tips.

Not all aires are the same. Never stay on an aire next to a motorway or a busy road. Someone will no doubt be along shortly to say these aires are safe but there's enough information out there to suggest otherwise.

The popular aires fill up, so don't rely on turning up and being able to park. Some aires just don't feel right. We have a rule that if one or both of us doesn't feel comfortable we don't stay.

Due to the above, we always have a plan B and even a plan C. If you've driven a long way and you're planning to stop at a pre-chosen aire, you'll be properly fed up if you arrive and it's full. Our general plan is to start looking for an aire to stop on, mid-afternoon.

Just to mention campsites, we never pre-book because there are some horrors out there.

While agreeing with the principal of your post, on the other hand, if you are looking for Aires from dinnertime it can sometimes takeover your day, we have found, get to where you want to be then start looking where you can park, useually there will be half a dozen within twenty miles, and this is where park4night comes in, if the Aire you are planning on is full there will always be a layby or something nearby .
Only use campsites if we want to do a lot of washing or they are the only place to park near where we want to be.

 

[138go]

We would never start looking as early as lunchtime. Aires and campsites work for us, a lay by is a step too far.

 

[John Barrett]

Honfleur, one of our first and last stops on any French trip! The aire is pretty grotty, but handy for the town, but there is always La Briquerie campsite up the hill!
John

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[denisejoe]

Have used lay-by’s for lunch and yes there are some very nice ones, a lot of aires near villages and towns are close to a laundromat and a lot of supermarkets have them now. I start looking around lunchtime for places to stop mined you we don’t do many hours driving it would take me a fortnight to get to the border with Spain . 5 years ago we were going to the south of France made it to our first stop and it developed into a party for 12 so no moving the next but then just wandered around champagne region for 3weeks sometimes only moving 10 min a day one of the best holidays we have had.

 

[John Barrett]

You can always tell when it's my first day back in France Edit: I was a bit younger then!

France is full of contrasts: here is the Citadel in Verdun. Inside that tower reside tens of thousands of small white cards, each bearing the name, rank and number of a deceased WW1 participant. A sombre, must see memorial.

 

[Lizi]

As Riverbankannie mentioned your wife may prefer campsites for a first visit . Most villages have a municipal campsite which is usually pretty cheap. This August and September we paid between 11 euros and 18 for a night with electricity. Also might be worth getting an ACSI card which gives discount on campsites outside July and August. This will give you a lot of flexibility. We have yet to use many aires primarily because our fridge won't work on gas so we need electricity - we will get it fixed before next trip (I hope!).

 

[March Hare]

Another vote for starting off in the beautiful harbour town of Honfleur on the Normandy coast! Having bought our first Motorhome in Dec last year, we headed across to France, Spain and Portugal in Jan this year. We used the Newhaven - Dieppe route (about 3 hrs) which worked well for us (we got a great ferry deal via CAMC), and it cuts about 100 miles from the drive on the French side.

The Honfleur Aire is really like a big car park, but it is just a short walk into the town which is stunning at any time of the year!

Just for example really, here‘s photos of the Aire itself, the Aire‘s payment point (note the instructions are in English as well!), one of the the EHU units (5 AMPS), and the beautiful harbour scene.

 

[Pete5996]

Are there many road signs that us Brits visiting for the first time won't be familiar with?

The yellow diamond indicating priority is fairly well known but a lesser known sign, more often found on minor roads, is the black X in a red triangle:

On the approach to a junction, it means you must give way to traffic coming from the right. Very easy to be caught out with this one.....

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