French Campsite Pitches and Emplacements - is 80m² enough for you ?

Campsites can vary quite a bit in the amount of space offered on the pitches, or emplacements, for tents and mobile homes. Here is an ideal pitch with lots of extra space :

However, pitch size can vary from a minimum of between 80 m² to 100 m² to well over 100 m² right up to a maximum of about 200 m².

It can depend on location. Campsites in prime tourist spots near the beach etc. often have smaller pitches are smaller, whereas, you may find spacious pitches in some more rural campsites.

We have seen mobile home pitches where you if you park a car on the pitch you only have room left for your table and chairs and little else. For me that is less space than you might expect. And if you are taking young children with you then you might want more space. If you do find yourself in this situation you may be able to use a car park elsewhere in the campsite but it's not ideal.

Another thing which you may wish to consider is whether the pitches have hedges between them to give some privacy. Many campsites have been established for a number of years and the hedges and trees have grown to maturity and provide privacy as well as shading from the hot sun. Read the campsite descriptions carefully - Eurocamp often give descriptions of what type of pitch you can expect.

If you place a typical mobile home, sized 7.50m long x 4.00m wide on a 80 m² emplacement then this is what the area would look like :

We have some of the best campsites in France reviewed on our Best French Campsites website. Below are a list of the pitch sizes you might expect to find on some of the campsites we have reviewed :

Normandy
Château Lez Eaux, St Pair-Sur-Mer - Pitch size: 80-150m²
Château Le Brevedent, Pont L'Eveque - Pitch size: 80-100m².

Brittany
La Grande Metairie, Carnac - Pitch size: 80-100m². (You can request a Premium Pitch here with Eurocamp)
Château de Galineé, St Cast - Pitch size: Greater than 100m².
Les Deux Fontaines, Nevez - Pitch size: 100 -170m².
Pointe St. Gilles, Bénodet, Western Brittany - Pitch size: 80-100m²
Raguénès-Plage, Raguenes Plage - Pitch Size : 80-100m2
La Baie, La Trinité sur Mer - Pitch size: 80-100m²


Vendee
Bel at La Tranche Sur Mer - Pitch size: 80 - 100m².
La Garangeoire, has pitch sizes advertised with Eurocamp at greater than 100 but if you are taking your own tent and book with the site itself then you can book a pitch between 125 to 200 m²
Le Clarys-Plage - Pitch size: 80-150m².

Loire
Château des Marais, Chambord - Pitch size: 80-100m².

Paris
International Pitch Size : 80-100m².
Berny Riviere Pitch Size - 80-100m². (You can request a Premium Pitch here with Eurocamp)

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Win Tickets to the Scottish Caravan Motorhome & Holiday Home Show

The Scottish Caravan Motorhome & Holiday Home Show will once again be held at the SECC, Glasgow and will run from Thursday 7th - Sunday 10th February 2013.

We had two winners in our competition, Mrs Weadon and Mrs P. who each received a pair of tickets to this excellent show. (Closing Date was the 30th January 2013)






This year’s show is bigger and better than ever, with over 150 companies showcasing the very latest caravans, motorhomes and accessories – including the full range of caravans from the new manufacturer Eterniti and for the first time a full stand of Hymer Motorhomes. On show will be a phenomenal selection of holiday homes and luxury lodges from UK’s leading suppliers, available with outstanding offers and discounts exclusive to visitors of the show. The collection is the widest in the UK and is a sight not to be missed!

Once again the show will take over all five halls of the SECC and for the first time ever have one Hall dedicated to accessories and awnings, with a brand new Borders Leisure Accessory Superstore, showcasing the latest accessories from the leading suppliers. Visitors will once again be able to learn some useful techniques from the experts at our Caravan and Motor Caravan Manoeuvring Lessons courtesy of The Caravan Club. Visitors will be able to have a go at caravan towing or motor caravan manoeuvring at our outside track, whether for the first time or as a refresher, in 20 minute taster sessions. Please remember to bring your drivers licence to participate.

Keep up to date with the latest news and special offers on the show website at www.caravanshowscotland.com and also to find out information regarding our family friendly features and attractions.  Advance tickets* are on sale now and are available until 5th February 2013. To book visit www.caravanshowscotland.com or call the ticket hotline on 0844 395 4000.

To find out more about this year’s exhibition follow the show on Twitter @Caravanshowsecc or visit  facebook/CaravanShowScotland.

* Advance tickets subject to booking fee.


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Brittany - a great destination for a holiday

One of our favourite holiday destinations is Brittany in the North West of France. What does Brittany mean for us ?

Crepes...galettes.....rugged beaches with beautiful white sand...coves and inlets, blue/green seas.... rocks and lighthouses and the ancient Breton language which you see in road signs and place names...granite cottages with colourful hydrangea bushes outside and fishing ports.

The campsites we have visited offer all of these aspects of Brittany and by visiting them all over the years we have learned more about Breton culture and history. But if you are just looking for fun, relaxation and a great holiday by the sea they also offer all of those ! Let us take you on a quick tour ! The following campsites : Le Chatelet and Chateau le Galinee at St Cast or Chateaux des Ormes in the north of Brittany offer a great introduction to Brittany without being too far from some of the main ferry ports.

You can visit the famous tourist attraction of Mont St Michel which is on the border with Normandy on the north coast.

You can also visit the historic walled town of St Malo and learn of its history of pirates or corsaires and also of the history of how it was largely re-built after World War 2 - all very interesting.

And you can enjoy a range of meals or takeaways in the various restaurants inside the walls. Then finish your day with a walk around the ramparts - a total distance of about 2 kms, although you can chose to walk just certain sections of it as there are plenty of exit and entrance points !

There is an interesting aquarium to visit at St Malo as well.

Other locations which make a great holiday include Carnac and its close neighbour Trinite Sur Mer.

You will marvel at the thousands of standing stones that stretch for a couple of miles. What were they for ? Who put them there and how did they manage it ? You might find the answers while you are there !

There are a few interesting museums to visit in Carnac - one lovely one that was founded jointly by a French man and a Scotsman - the Museum of Prehistory (Musée de Préhistoire James Miln-Zacharie Le Rouzic) and also a more modern museum near the Standing Stones, Archaeoscope.

Les Deux Fontaines campsite and Raguenes Plage campsite allow you to visit a quieter and possibly more scenic area of Brittany but with one of the most beautiful beaches, Tahiti Plage ! In that area we enjoyed visiting a lovely old village Kerascoet and also a botanic gardens.

Benodet is a favourite for many and British people have been visiting this resort for about 100 years and there is a flavour of that when you are there. From here you can take a glass bottomed boat so you can view fish on a visit to the beautiful îles Glénan, an archipelago of islands twelve miles out to sea.

Quimper was nice to visit and has a very historic cathedral, as has St Anne d'Auray. I would also recommend a visit to Pont Aven - a beatiful village sitting near the mouth of a river. This village is proclaimed as the Capital of Crepe making ! And we certainly enjoyed a delicious crepe in a restaurant which was previously an old mill sitting on the river. It has also been home to numerous artists over the years and you can visit quite a few art galleries and see if there are any paintings you would like to take home with you. There was art to suit all tastes, from modern to more traditional. And a final favourite in Pont Aven was a lovely glass blowing workshop and shop where you could watch the glass blowers at work and then buy some of their beautiful glassware.

This year we are heading to the North West of Brittany, an area we first visited about 20 years ago. What are your favourite things to visit in Brittany ? Would you recommend a visit to this area or have you other areas of France you would suggest for a visit ?

If you would like to stay at some of the great campsites we stayed at in Brittany then we have listed them on our websites at www.bestfrenchcampsites.com

Dont worry about missing this Summer of Sport while Camping in France !

If you are worried about missing the major televised International Sports Event this summer (25th July - 12th August) while you are on your French Camping holiday, then dont worry any more. The following campsites are just some of the ones which Keycamp and Eurocamp go to which will be catering for a summer of sport !

This is a selection of some of the campsites which Eurocamp and Keycamp go to and which will show the Event on Big Screen television :

Le Ranc Davaine (in Auvergne or Ardeche) ,
La Bugue (St Avit Loisirs) in the Dordogne,
Le Vieux Port in Gascony, Domaine de Chalain in the Jura , Club Farret, Domaine de Massereau and Les Sablons in Languedoc
Esterel on the Riviera
La Pointe St Gilles, Les Deux Fontaines and La Grande Métairie in Brittany

In addition, some of the children's clubs will offer a Mini Sports activities and some of the sites are even getting adults involved with the entertainments - so if sport is your thing you should have a fantastic summer !

Keycamp and Eurocamp are offering a two hour Fun Sports session per week as part of their Children's Clubs and these sesssions which will aim offer a combination of traditional events such as Javelin, Hammer, Discus, Shot, Long jump, Relay race and Short individual race as well as fun events as well such as bean bag races and obstacle courses.

For more details of all of this please check the Eurocamp and Keycamp websites :

          

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A Room with a View - or...a Caravan with a View or a Mobile Home with a View ?

Les Criques de Porteils, Collioure

When you book a camping holiday abroad it can be difficult to visualise exactly what view you are going to get from your mobile home, tent or caravan. You can arrive at your campsite and if you have booked with Keycamp or Eurocamp or similar companies often you end up following your rep - who is often on a bicycle ! - and you await with trepidation to find out which part of the campste you are going to spend the two weeks of your summer holiday !

However wiser travellers get booked up well in advance and if you want to guarantee that you will have a fantastic Sea View or Lake View from your holiday mobile home or caravan then this is entirely possible to do.

Eurocamp and Keycamp allow you to book certain zones in some of their campsites and some of these zones offer a view.

We can recommend one in France on the Mediterranean, one in Spain also on the Meditteranean and one on Lake Garda in Italy.

Les Criques de Porteils, Collioure

In France near the border with Spain you will find the small Les Criques de Porteils Campsite overlooking the Meditteranean Sea.

This site has numerous sea view plots to either take your own caravan or tent or you can book a mobile home with Eurocamp by clicking here.

Nestled on the rocky coves that typify this small corner of France, this terraced Castels parc has direct access to several small pebble beaches. Criques de Porteils is ideal for a quiet family holiday or couples seeking a cultural retreat from the hustle and bustle of the nearby resorts of Argelès Plage, which is a short drive away.

Read our review of this site on Best French Campsites at http://www.bestfrenchcampsites.com/campsites/collioure/lescriquesdeporteils.html.

Cala Gogo, Playa d'Aro, Costa Brava, Spain

Cala Gogo in Spain has a Beach Zone that is bookable. Eurocamp don't guarantee a view from every mobile home on the Beach Zone though but if you can manage to book one like the one photographed here then surely that is a dream holiday !

Click here to view the Cala Gogo campsite with Eurocamp. 

Camping Eden Lake Garda

In Italy you can visit the popular Lake Garda area and why not make sure you have a view of the Lake by booking one of the mobile homes with a view at Camping Eden on the Western side of the Lake. 






You can also read our review of this site at http://www.bestitaliancampsites.com/italiancampsites/campingeden/campingeden.html.



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A Review of Trip Advisor, Review Sites and Reviewers !

I've just been reading some reviews on Trip Advisor !

It is a fantastic resource for researching a holiday but some holidaymakers' seem to have unreasonably high expectations !
And I have to say some people give themselves away when they give bad reviews ! For example I've just been reading one where a caravanner complained about unhelpful staff at a French campsite who said he had to be packed up and away by 12.00 including being out the barrier of the site. He apparently threatened to block their barrier if required to be away by 12 !  However, what does he expect ?  Every campsite I have been to expects you to be away by 10 am. Sometimes this might be so they can cut grass etc before next arrivals in the afternoon. If you are still rushing around packing beyond this time then I am always thankful that so far no-one has ever complained or charged us more ! This year in Cornwall we actually packed a day early as there was high winds and rain threatened in the forecast so we decided to use a day we had already paid for and packed at leisure and left about lunchtime.

Other comments I have seen in reviews included a site in France which had been taken over by new owners.  In fact it is the excellent site in the Vendee that we stayed at last year. The previous regular campers at the site wrote a review that they were very disgruntled to be evicted from the bar at 1 in the morning !  However I was glad to hear about a site that was strict like this - there is nothing worse than a few people keeping a whole site up at night as they make their way home from the bar !

And then there was a review from people with one of these mega motorhomes - 30 foot long ones - who were complaining about the very tight streets and bridge to get to the Camping International site in Paris !  As though the historic older buildings in Paris were actually put there by the campsite owners just to annoy them !  However I am sure that reviews like that are useful to people who are planning their route in large motor homes !

Another point which reviewers have highlighted about a number of French campsites is that in the busy months people are queuing early in the morning to put their towels on the sunloungers which they are not using immediately - surely the staff at the campsites could come up with a simple system to allow people to use sunloungers for maybe an hour at a time ? It can't be that difficult can it ? Something like the coloured arm band system which some swimming pools use so that you can stay in the pool for a certain amount of time but no longer ?

Another common moan from people is that "the campsite shop is very small and overpriced !" yet they go on to say that "we only managed to get some bread, meat, milk and newspapers" etc. Well really what do they expect ?  In the campsites we have stayed in I would say they all provided a pretty good shop and in one case it was almost a mini supermarket. They have always had sufficient food in stock for you to make a meal if you havent managed to get to the supermarket. And they have usually had fresh bread and croissants.

Review sites can definitely be worth reading as long as you bear in mind that it can often depend on the character and expectations of the holidaymaker who is writing the review !

So lighten up campers and enjoy your holidays without having such high expectations! Relax and enjoy !
And let us know what you think of these Review sites -  Have you picked holidays by reading them ? Did you find them useful ?

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Spectators's Guide to the Tour de France

If you are lucky enough to be camping near the Tour de France cycle race route this year then here are some handy tips to help you sound like a knowledgable follower of Cycling !

We went along to watch the race two years ago as it left the small town of Auray in Brittany at the beginning of a stage (or etape as its called in French) and we had a great day out.

This year the Tour runs from Saturday July 2rd to Sunday July 24th 2011, it will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,430.5 kilometres. The route varies each year but always includes some short flat sprint sections and some mountainous sections before culminating in Paris with a sprint. This year the "Grand Start" is in the Vendee and then it continues through Brittany, Normandy and Central France before heading south to the Pyrenees then across to the Alps before heading back for a final finish in Paris.

If you are able to catch the tour then go along to watch about two hours before when you will catch the "Caravane" which is a series of mad looking vehicles and characters who throw lots of freebies to the crowd - great fun !"

Then the race itself will flash past - we nearly missed it after all the waiting !  Either our watches were wrong or they set off two minutes early.

Watch out for the following jerseys - they all have a meaning !
The YELLOW Jersey is awarded to the overall leader of the race.

The GREEN Jersey is the next most prestigious and is given to the leader of the sprint sections.

The red POLKA-DOT Jersey is awarded to the rider who earns most of the points on the mountainous sections of the race. The wearer of the jersey is known as the "King of the Mountains". Scotland's Robert Millar was King of the Mountains in 1984.
The WHITE Jersey is the newest of the jerseys and was introduced in 1975. It is given to the best young rider (i.e. under 25).

To impress your friends and family as you are spectating, why not casually mention some of the more famous recent winners of the race !  These include 7 times winner and surely you must have heard of him, Lance Armstrong from USA who won between 1999 to 2005.

Then there was five time winner Miguel Indurain from Spain who won between 1991 and 1995

There were two recent major French winners, Jacques Anquetil, who won five time, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964 and Bernard Hinault who won five times in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985
And there was 5 times winner Eddy Merckx from Belgium who won between 1969 to 1972 and in 1974.

Some possible British and Irish competitors who may be competing and who you can look out for are :

• Mark Cavendish, from the Isle of Man (I think he is in blue in the photograph above),
• Bradley Wiggins, the three time Olympic Champion,
• David Millar, a Scot who is one of only four British competitors to have worn the yellow jersey (the others were Tom Simpson, Sean Yates and Chris Boardman),
• Geraint Thomas, who has been an Olympic Team pursuit champion, and,
• Nicolas Roche, son of the Irish 1987 winner Stephen Roche 

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Interesting French Camping Statistics from FFCC

Here are some interesting statistics from the Federation Francaise de Camping et de Caravanning (FFCC).
I may not have got my translation entirely right so if you want to check for me the original stats can be seen at http://www.ffcc.fr/53/html/campings/chiffres-cles.aspx

Camping is the No.1 type of holiday in France with the most numbers of "tourist beds"
French camping is the 2nd largest in the world after the United States.
France is the most popular place in Europe for camping.
People slept a total of 103 million nights in French campsites in 2009 (and increase of 4.2% over 2008)

There are 6 million French campers and 2 million foreign campers who come to France each year, with the majority being Dutch, Germans and British.

Camping in France employs more than 13 000 permanent employees in 10,430 campsites.

There are 83,051 mobile homes available for rental.

Campsites are currently graded in a star rating rather like hotels. Basic campsites, perhaps offered by a farm, might have for example just shower and washing facilities would have a 1 or 2 star rating, while if you stay in a four star campsite you might expect to find a restaurant, swimming pool, shop, tennis courts etc.
1 and 2 star campsites represent 40% of total emplacements but make up only 30% of nights, with their clientele being three quarters French.   3 and 4 star campsites make up 70% of nights and host 40% of tourists visiting France from elsewhere

The more basic campsites also tend to be smaller with 1 star campsites covering an average of 1.3 hectares while the 3 and 4 star campsites are larger, with the 4 star campsites covering an average of 5.5 hectares.

The number of emplacements in France has increased from 165,000 in 1960 to 900,000 sites late 1980.

Since 2005, camping has become very "trendy" or "chic" if we are to believe the media.

The FFCC believe that the popularity of camping has increased for a variety of reasons :

• Economic reasons - its a low budget holiday,

• Camping gets you closer to nature,
• The excellent facilities offered on many campsites, and,

• There are all sorts of varied new types of accommodations on campsites to satisfy the demands of consumers - so you can now find such things as kids' tree houses, gypsy caravans, log cabins and yurts on campsites.

A new system of classification of outdoor accommodation was launched on 1 July 2010 to replace the classification of 1993 which no longer reflected the quality of provision of campsites today.  Professionals have until July 22, 2012 to comply. Plans are to have a new grading of  "five stars" to keep up with some of the huge improvements seen on many campsites.

I hope you have found some of these statistics interesting !  I didn't realise camping was so popular in France !

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When is the best time to Book your Summer Camping holiday ?

If you are planning to go on a Eurocamp or Keycamp holiday then you might wonder "When is the best time to book your holiday ?"

There are usually early booking offers and late booking offers, but the particular campsite you have chosen may get booked up quickly. So the question is when is the best time to book ? 

If you are going in High Season of July and August you will really need to plan ahead if you want to go a particular site.

I have just scanned the holidays which are still available at the start of March 2011 for this summer 2011. I have found pretty good availability even for the peak of the High Season at the start of August. Only the most popular sites have limited availability.

If you are going to a very popular site you may need to book early. For example La Garangeoire in the Southern Vendee and Les Deux Fontaines in Southern Brittany at the beginning of March already nearly booked up for certain weeks of July.
The good news though is that you can reserve holidays with Eurocamp and Keycamp for as little at £100. So if you have a fairly good idea of where you want to go on holiday why not reserve it early on and then as it gets nearer the time to pay in full, you can see if you can afford to go ahead with the holiday. In these Credit Crunch times with lack of job security this is a good idea.

Two years ago we holidayed at Les Deux Fontaines in Brittany and we get to the site in late June/early July and wondered how was it so difficult to book two weeks holiday when many of the mobile homes seemed to be empty. We discovered that this is because they were maybe booked out for a holiday that started towards the end of our stay. So a holidaymaker only overlapped with us by 2 days but that meant that that particular mobile home was unavailalbe for the particular 13 night stretch that we were looking for.  However, if you are willing to move mobile home half way through your holiday or even to change site then you may find there are still options available to let you holiday in the sites or area that you have chosen.

If you are feeling adventurous and want to try "real camping" then the good news is that the Eurocamp or Keycamp tents are often the last things to book up on a site. Mobile homes seem to be more popular.

If you would like some more information to help you plan your holiday, we now have 20 different campsites in France which you can read about on our website http://www.bestfrenchcampsites.com/.


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How to Change Stations in Paris

France has an excellent, fast train service, with the TGV "Trains a Grand Vitesse" (literally very fast trains !) which can take you from the North to the South of France in 3 hours in comfort. A definite alternative to air travel or taking your own car to your campsite for your camping holiday !

If you need to change trains in Paris then this website has some excellent information :
http://www.greentraveller.co.uk/blog/french-connections-how-change-stations-paris

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Travelling with Preschool Children and Under 5s

If you would like to try camping abroad for the first time with young children of pre-school age then you will be lucky to be able to take advantage of quieter campsites as well as "more competitive" (ie cheaper !) prices in the May and June period. Eurocamp offers lots to appeal to the Under 5s.

Different campsites offer slightly different facilities but you can check it all out on the Eurocamp website.

There are a variety of different Kids Clubs available at the different campsites and these clubs are tailored to your children's age range and run by Children's Club Couriers.

If you have an active toddler then they will enjoy Tumble Tots for under 5's which is available at the following parcs from late May until early July :

In Brittany

Benodet - Pointe St Gilles  (Eurocamp link for this campsite)  (Keycamp link)
Beg-Meil - L'Atlantique  (Eurocamp link)  (Keycamp link)
Nevez - Les Deux Fontaines  (Eurocamp link)  (Keycamp link)
Carnac - La Grande Metairie  (Eurocamp link)  (Keycamp link)

In the Vendee

St Jean-de-Monts - Le Clarys-Plage  (Eurocamp link)  (Keycamp link)
St Julien-des-Landes - La Garangeoire  (Eurocamp link)  (Keycamp link)
St Jean-de-Monts - La Yole  (Eurocamp link)  (Keycamp link)

Keycamp and Eurocamp offer kids clubs at most sites. The particular clubs which are offered differ at each site so please check the Eurocamp and Keycamp websites for details. Under 5s will enjoy either the Mini Fun Station for under 5's or a Leo's Fun Station for 4-6 years.  (Some of these Kids Club sessions for Under 5s may be free during the Low Season - check when booking !)

At the Mini Fun Station the children will be offered a variety of sports, games and craft activities as well as themed sessions, for example a Pirate party ! There will also be things such as sand and water play and activity mats to keep toddlers busy !

Keycamp have also now teamed up with the STA (Swimming Teachers' Association) providing toddler swimming lessons on selected parcs so a great opportunity for youngsters to learn to swim !

Keycamp have also identified 21 Mini World parcs and Eurocamp have identified over 55 sites which are "Toddler Friendly Parcs" which are particularly suited to young families with toddlers, with lots of free activities, safe play areas and useful features such as

• Toddler safe pitches - on quieter roads and with flatter ground and far away from lakes and rivers (although these can still be present).
• All-terrain buggies and toddler trucks hire
• Children's pools for toddlers only
• Decking gates which can be fitted onto all decked accommodation on Mini World parcs.
• Bed rails - available on all parcs to ensure no bumps in the night !

You may also be able to hire the following items onsite :

• a Travel cot, which doubles as a play pen
• High chair
• Baby bath
• Potty

All these facilities can be checked on the Eurocamp website which has details of each of the parcs. We have put links to some of our favourite Eurocamp and Keycamp sites, many of which are Mini World Parcs, by clicking on the links "Our Favourite Eurocamp Sites" and "Our Favourite Keycamp Sites" to the right of this blog.

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Planning your 2011 Holiday ?

There's a good website looking at Brittany from the Brittany Tourist Board at http://www.brittanytourism.com/

And if you would like to enjoy a glass of French wine while you are browsing the tourist brochures for next year then have a look at http://www.frenchconnectionwines.com/

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Our French Camping Holidays and Planning for Next Year !

Our First Camping Holiday in France was when we visited a great campsite "Le Chatelet" right on the northern coast of Brittany at St Cast, which was only a half an hours drive from St Malo. That was a great holiday and we were lucky to see the 2006 Tall Ships race at St Malo. Also memorable from that holiday was watching the World Cup final at the campsite bar, sharing with lots of nationalities as we watched the now infamous or famous head butt incident !

The next year we ventured to South West Brittany and Benodet where we stayed at La Pointe St Gilles Campsite. The memorable moment from that holiday was watching the fishing boats racing in to land their catch at Guilvinec ! What a moment ! At least 30 small boats race into the port at 4.30 to land their catch. Thanks to the Canvas holiday reps on our campsite for letting us know about this !

I had always wanted to see the standing stones at Carnac, so the following year we finally made it to Carnac, or more precisely to Trinite Sur Mer which is adjacent to Carnac. We stayed at La Baie Campsite. What a great holiday destination that is. So much to see ! We viewed the miles of standing stones both on foot and from "Le Petit Train" which takes you around Carnac. We visited the very interesting museum which was co-founded by a Scotstman and a Frenchman and bears their names. We went on some great walks from that campsite and discovered a very old church which is dedicated to the memory of St Columba, who visited this area. Our guide for these walks was a multi-lingual Russian student who was in France to learn (or perfect !) her French. But this was a great opportunity to mix with some others from the campsite so we met some lovely French, Belgian and English people who were on the walk.

In following years we have stayed on a lovely spacious campsite Les Deux Fontaines near Nevez with probably the nicest beach we have seen - Tahiti Plage - a well named beach ! From Nevez we visited the lovely artist's town of Pont Aven - famous for paintings and crepes and also for a fantastic glass blowing workshop where you can watch the glass blowers at work and also buy some lovely glassware. We also managed to watch the start of one of the stages of the Tour de France that year in Auray which was not too far from Nevez. That was great fun if you ever get the chance to watch that.

This year we ventured further south to the Vendee. We stayed inland at a lovely site called La Garangeoire. Our highlight of this holiday and definitely worth a visit was the fantastic theme park "Puy du Fou" ! What a place ! There are five main shows to see during your day at this park and these include a Gladiator show in an amphitheatre with a chariot race. There is a Knights, (Chevaliers) Show and a spectacular Birds of Prey show with birds swooping just above your heads ! Be warned though, at the bird of prey show the warning to "keep sitting, don't wave your hands around and pack all cakes away" is only announced in French !

We have loved most of the campsites we have visited although we always make sure and do lots of research beforehand. However at least one of the sites was not particularly busy last year whereas other campsites which are not so nice were full of people so we decided to spread the word about some of the lovely campsites we have visited and for this reason we started a website http://www.bestfrenchcampsites.com. We have also included details of some of the great places we have visited from each site. And to make sure we all stay as "happy campers", we have started this blog so we keep track of any useful websites and we have also translated any relevant news items from France.

We haven't booked up yet for next year. We have loved all the places we have been but it is also good to see new places. We will possibly visit the Alps for a change of scene or perhaps even visit in early or late season. As the weather turns increasingly chillier at home, we are already looking forward to next year's holiday !!
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Indigo Wild Campsites

Here is a lovely range of "back to nature" campsites in some lovely places in France including the Ile d'Oleron and Ile de Noirmoutier - "Indigo Campsites"

Indigo Campsites Website : http://www.camping-indigo.com/en/nature-campsites.html

Indigo Campsites 2010 Brochure : http://www.camping-france.fr/brochure/catalogue/index.html

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The Seaside Still Favourite Destination for French holidaymakers

French holidaymakers still prefer to holiday at the seaside, with 60% choosing it as a destination this year. The next most popular destinations are towns (19%) and the countryside (15%). Only 8% choose the mountains as their holiday destination, possibly as people think this might be too energetic a holiday ! And only 1% go on a wild camping/walking holiday. However if you really want to get away from the crowds, the mountains could be an excellent choice of holiday destination. During the very hot summer weather, you can expect a cooler night high up in the mountains so you might actually enjoy a good nights sleep after all that walking !
http://www.francesoir.fr/vie-quotidienne/les-francais-plebiscitent-la-mer

There are some excellent campsites up in the mountains, with beautiful swimming pools with mountain views. We will be reviewing some of these mountain destinations on our website at www.bestfrenchcampsites.com or if you would like to look at campsites in the meantime please look at www.keycamp.co.uk

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Taking a Motorhome to France

If you are going to try and take a motorhome to France this year then you need to do a fair bit of planning ahead ! Here are some good links to help you out.

http://www.vicariousbooks.co.uk/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Aires-Motorhome-Service-Stopovers/dp/0955280818

http://www.caravanfacts.com/classifieds/accessories-for-sale/p1-camperstop-2010-book.html

There was a lovely stopover carpark at Tahiti Plage where we stayed last year - at Raguenes Plage/Nevez in Brittany. So that might be worth finding out more about. You could park your motor home overnight and get a sea view over a lovely beach if you were on the right side of the car park !

This is also an excellent website with a map showing all the stopover "Aires" for each region : http://airecampingcar.com/aire_camping_car.php

We saw some very long 30 foot motorhomes this year so it is possible to navigate these around France, but one of the problems in the Vendee area this year seemed to be that there was a lot of road building going on and new roundabouts and these hadnt been updated on Sat Navs, so people were being sent strange routes through small villages when there were better alternatives for large motorhomes.  Has anyone got any good recommendations for us about taking a motorhome to France and good sites to stay at ? Certainly La Garangeoire in the Vendee which you can find on our Best French Campsites website seemed a good site for motorhomes as the plots are a good size.

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