N France in March!!

[grahamj]

Hi - new member here.

Firstly Id like to thank Pauline and Graham for being so helpful. Also Id like to thank you in advance if you can help.

Myself and my fiancee Sarah - together with our two boys - are looking at the (strong) possibility of buying a motorcaravan/motorhome (apologies if Iv got this wrong - there seems so many names to choose from). Before we do this we have rented one for the last week in March (25th - 1st April) to try it out. TBH I have done this before and even rented for a week in New Zealand but it would be Sarah and the boys first experience. Unfortunately due to accommodating so many we wont be buying a small one but are looking at the Bessacar Luxery 6 berth which suits us for layout (we think).

Anyway I digress. the purpose of this thread to is to ask if anyone can advise on facilities and campsites in N France for the time we are going. I have it in mind that we will work our way across the top of Normandy and into Brittany. My chief concerns are

- Campsites open?
- Facilities they have - ostensibly for removing waste and taking on fresh water?
- Info on the Aires which are free
- Any insight into which books I could buy to gen up on this? I have been advised that 'Alan Rogers France' would be a good buy as would 'Camperstop Europe'. For a general book on all things 'Go Motorhoming' was recommended.

Anyway, all information greatly received

Thanks

Graham

[wendy]

Hi Graham and welcome to the site.

For campsites in France we use the Caravan Club 'Caravan Europe vol 1(covers France, Spain and Portugal) and have found this invaluable. It has comments from members which we have found helpful. It can be bought from the Caravan Club or from Amazon and presumably from any bookshop. We also have a Michelin Campsite Guide as well - they don't always have the same entries.

We also have the Guide Officiel Etapes Camping-Car, which you should be able to pick up in any supermarket or paper shop when you are in France - the new edition comes out around this time of year. Sometimes they are given away with magazines. This web site also has info on aires:
www.campingcar-infos.com/index1.htm

We were in France at the same time last year and had no trouble finding sites open. One excellent aire that we stayed at was at St Valery sur Somme - it cost €4.50 for 24 hours (water and elec extra) and an easy, signposted walk(5 mins) to the town and the river.

Any more questions just ask away and we'll all do our best to help.

[Pauline]

Hi Graham, nice to see you here

Well gang we couldn't fully help Graham with his queries but we told him we knew some folk who probably could - how right we were!

There is also this site that might be useful Graham, until you get the books to peruse - www.campingfrance.com/index.jsp?lg=uk

[johns1]

hi graham, welcome to the forum I hope that you find it useful.
One comment I would make is that from my experience in northern Brittany in particular you have to put up with a lot of strong cold winds at this time of the year. It might be better to stay in Normandy or go a bit further into southern Brittany. Having said this , it depends on your luck.

[grahamj]

Thanks for the replies - most useful. Its made my mind up on one thing - we will definately be going as there would appear to be more than enough choice of places to stay and empty/fill up etc

Wendy - the website you mentioned is in French which is slightly beyond my schoolboy French Im afraid

Pauline - great site - useful point of reference as I plan our trip

Johns1 - having been there a few times in winter I fully take your point!!

I think I will plan a couple/few nights ahead and then see where the road takes us. The area is quite small so if push came to shove we could always backtrack anyway

If anyone has anymore then i am all ears!!

Thanks again all

Grahamj

[grahamj]

Hi
Just an update to let you know that we had a great week in Normandy and Brittany. The weather was good for the first 3 days and then mixed for the rest of the week - not too bad for March. We met some real nice folks and stayed in some good campsites. We didnt venture into any Aires but rather we stayed on sites. One site - near Mont St Michel was free despite having all the facilities open as it was out of season - which was nice.

I think we are fairly set on buying a motorhome now. We have been to have another look around and have confirmed to ourselves, the layout we like.

Thanks for your help.

Graham

[Pauline]

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourselves Graham. Have you any particular model of motorhome in mind to buy?

Hope you manage to get sorted quickly so that you can enjoy the new camping season.

Let us know how you get on.