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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Top 10 Camping Gadgets

Here are our Top Ten Camping Gadgets that we have seen so far in 2013 !

All new to us !

We spotted most of them at the Scottish Caravan, Motorhome and Holiday Home Show at the SECC in Glasgow. These camping shows are great places to spot new gadgets and buy accessories. If you enjoy camping then they are "must visit" retail therapy destinations !!

Our Top Ten (in no particular order !)

At Number 1

If you dont already have this installed in your caravan or motorhome then this is a great idea ! - a rear view camera so you can find out what is behind you while maneouvring.

These ones are supplied by DRW Electronics (http://www.drwelectronics.com/) :

At Number 2 in our Top 10 !

A Nestaway sailing boat.

It folds up in two sections which are bolted together or can be unbolted and nested together for storage.

These can then be carried flat on the back of your motorhome, or if you are using this as a yacht tender then you can place it on the deck and it doesnt take up too much space. They also do kayak versions too ! (www.nestawayboats.com)

We love the "Swallows and Amazons" style designs - very nice.

Number 3

Collapsible Camping High Chairs.

Ideal if you are camping with toddlers and as they are foldable this makes it easier to find a space for them in those gaps when packing your tent into the car. These are produced by Fem and sold via various distributors.

Actually I must also add here that if you are camping with toddlers then the Potette Portable travel potty which comes with disposable liners is ideal for toddlers when travelling or when camping and they are still at the toilet training stage. It can be purchased from numerous sources.

The next five gadgets were all on display from Borders Leisure (www.bordersleisure.co.uk)

Number 4
Security Door Locks and Door Frame Locks. Ideal to prevent theft etc. One of these door frame locks can be used on a door which doesnt otherwise have locks on it. A section goes on each side of a door and the whole thing is then locked in place. This would not only be useful in camping but could be used on garden sheds etc.

Number 5

A thermal window shield for your motorhome - this will keep you warm in winter and cold in summer ! Ideal if travelling to the South of France etc. where the midday heat can be very strong.

Number 6

OK this one is not very exciting, but could prove to be very useful ! A whole range of tent pages - extra large ones, ones for groundsheets etc. and also tent peg removers ! All of these can be useful if camping on different types of soils such as sandy soils etc and especially if you are close to the sea or in the mountains where you might expect more winds to be hitting your tent.

Number 7
There were all sorts of lovely designs of sets of melamine dishes - non breakable and stackable for easy storage.

Number 8

Gorgeous colourful whistling camping kettles in numerous colours !

At Number 9, PVC decking and fencing ! This is not exactly a gadget and is probably something more suited to caravans that are left permanently on their sites, however you could perhaps also use this to create an enclosure around your motorhome or caravan or have a PVC gate. There were a few manufacturers offering this and I would imagine they will appear at the various camping shows. There was also a version made from recycled materials if you want to be environmentally friendly ! Some suppliers we spotted included http://www.mapleplastics.co.uk/ and http://www.ecodeckingscotland.com .

Number 10

This is a fantastic idea. A simple tracker system from @Sail and Trail called Back2You.

There is an app for your phone so you can find out where the device is. And the tracker that you can place somewhere in your caravan is the size of the palm of your hand. It can be either hard wired in or else can be powered by batteries. It can be set to alert you if it moves out of a certain area or even if it detects that the caravan is being moved at a speed greater than you select.

Again we could think of numerous alternative uses but certainly it is aimed at helping you to keep an eye on your caravan or I guess boat as well since it comes from Sail and Trail ! (http://www.sailandtrail.co.uk/)


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Self Catering in France

A Self Catering holiday is a fantastic way to enjoy a relaxing holiday in France. No deadlines, no set dinner times. You choose your own timetables - its a holiday after all !

Some great self catering holiday options include :

• rent a villa, for example a Gite or,
• stay in a mobile home or tent on a campsite
• stay in something more unusual like a treehouse or a gypsy caravan
• or tour around in a motorhome (you can buy one or rent one !) 
• or why not try youth hostelling !

Self catering allows you to stay in beautiful locations and sample a slice of real French life, whether you chose to stay in a small rural hamlet or in a large beach or mountain resort.

So what are the options ?

Gîtes

The term gîte originally meant quite simply a form of shelter. Gîtes today vary from being luxury holiday homes to very basic apartments. The owners very often stay nearby.

There are a number of classes of gîte, including "Gîte Rural", self-catering accomodation in the countrysde, near the sea or in the mountains and "Gîtes d'Etape" which useful for an overnight stopover

Campsites

Campsites in France are rated according to facilities. So for example a 5 star campsite might have a swimming pool, shop and a good number of other facilities. It is not necessarily going to be better than, for example, a more simple 2 star campsite with friendly owners, but the 2 star site is likely to have fewer facilities. So it all depends what you are looking for.

On a first expedition to France for a family holiday then it is definitely an easy option to book with a tour operator such as Eurocamp or Canvas Holidays. They will book your ferry travel for you and on arrival at the campsite you are often met by an English speaking rep, so if your French language abilities are needing a bit of extra help then this can be reassuring to know there is an English speaker close by.


Motorhome

However you may then become more adventurous and want to explore different areas of France or even go touring with a motorhome. In that case you will probably want to try a variety of campsites. Many towns and villages in France also have stopping off points, called Aires, where you are perhaps allowed to park your mobile home overnight.

We have seen some great car parks where you can park up overnight in your mobile home and enjoy a sea view. For example at Tahiti Plage in Nevez in Brittany.

The sign to the right was taken from near Roscoff in Brittany and it is directing Motorhome owners, or "camping caristes" to the nearest Aire de Service where they will find water and facilities for emptying their tanks and parking overnight.


Youth Hostelling - Auberges de Jeunesse

In 1930, Marc Sangnier, co-founder of the Fédération Internationale des Auberges de Jeunesse (I.Y.H.F.) th hostel in France. He was inspired by a similar German movement 11 by Richard Schirmann.

In France they are open to young people, group and to families.

They offer reasonably priced accommodation, a convivial atmosphere and the chance to get to know others while cooking in the communal kitchens or enjoying some of the activities on offer. You may also have to join in some household cleaning duties, which are an important part of the whole ethos of the youth hostelling movement ! Everyone needs to participate to keep things going smoothly !

At one time there were over 400 Youth Hostels in France. Today only 200 remain. Youth Hostels are non profit associations. Therefore you need to get a membership from the Youth Hostel federation in your own country or by any Youth Hostel of the country you plan to visit. Memberships are usually valid for 1 year and give access to any Youth Hostel in France and worldwide.

Accommodation is often in dormotories but there are also options to stay in individual rooms and family rooms. You just need to check what is offered at each youth hostel when booking. Although they are generally self catering, some youth hostels offer breakfasts or meals. You usually have to take your own sheet or hire one and before you leave you should leave the room as you found it by folding your blanket, hoovering your sleeping space, empty the bin, and taking the sheets back to the reception.

So travel light, put on your rucsac and head off to wherever you want !

And self catering holidays definitely seem to be becoming more popular in France, both from French customers themselves and with visitors to France.

2011 saw a record number of holidaymakers staying in camping and mobile homes in France, with 106.8 million overnight stays, according to a survey by the services of the Secretary of State for tourism, Frédéric Lefebvre.

Campsites and mobile homes recorded an increase of 2.8% from 2010 attendance. It has become even more popular with the French who showed an increase of 4.1% while foreign customers had stayed roughly the same at an increase of only 0.4%.

Campsites on the Mediterranean coast recorded the greatest increase at 5.1% while those on the English Channel and North sea only had an increse of 1.3%.  4-5 star campsites showed a large increase of 14.3 %

Other interesting possible self catering holidays include youth hostels, the huttopia group of sites or centerparcs. There are also numerous companies offering villa holidays in villas that are privately owned. The Pierre et Vacances group also has interesting self catering apartments among other options.  They have quite a few of the places which are rented out in the Alps in Winter for ski-ing but are available in the summer for a fantastic Alpine holiday offering all sorts of activities such as walking, climbing etc. Pierre et Vacances is the european leader in holiday apartments and villages in France and Spain!

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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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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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Choosing a Motorhome for Next Year ?

If you are hoping to buy a motorhome for next year's camping holiday then why not make use of all the fantastic internet resources out there.
Here is a website which outlines some of the main models :
http://www.motorhomechooser.co.uk/used-guides-index.php

and why not watch some video footage to get a look round your motorhome. Once you have narrowed down your choices that sounds like a good time to head to a showroom or outdoor show to have a look at the real thing !
For example here is one with some nice music and doesnt this look like a luxurious motorhome ! Would you keep it this tidy though !!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONn9_fUc5G4
and here is a motorhome hire company showing their 6 berth model http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWD6TjhCbiU
I wonder if it has seating for 6 though when driving along. I'm not sure if they all do even though they call themselves 6 berth.

or here is some information about "The Caravan Channel" http://www.youtube.com/user/caravanchannel#p/u/1/6S8BIsuK7Fc

Mind you I think we'll be sticking to our tent for holidays in UK and mobile homes in France for a bit of luxury for the time being !
Let us know what your experiences are with motorhomes etc and would you recommend particular models ?

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September Sun Selection from Eurocamp

September holidays are becoming more popular for Eurocampers every year. It's a great time to get away. For exploring, excitement or escape, whatever your reason for getting away you'll find some great options in Eurocamp's September Sun Selection.

More details of this offer can be found here:

Link to Eurocamp

Don’t forget there are great savings to be made if you book your 2011 holiday or at least reserve it. You can make savings of up to 30% off next year’s holiday.

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