First Time France & Belguim in a Motorhome (1 Viewer)

Aug 19, 2015
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Hello all,
We are going to take our first trip to France and Belgium in September and would like some help/advice.
1 Our ferry is 00.400 am and we would like to travel to Dover the day before, can we stay overnight in the port as the sailing is early.
2 We are sailing to Dunkirk and arrive early can anyone suggest where we can stay as we want to spend a couple of days there.
3 We are then traveling to Ypres to visit a war grave and spend a couple days there then travel to visit the Normandy beaches has anyone got any advice on this trip.
 
Jan 2, 2015
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Feb 16, 2013
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Can't help on the first one as don't use ferries, but gravelines , excellent first stop, shops cafes and bars just a short walk away , market on Fridays ,Ypres brilliant aire just to the right of the menin gate if coming out of town obviously on the left if heading in that way , follow the road beside the canal and park at the side for free, just a short walk back to the gate for the evening ceremony (y):)

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Mel

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You can stay on the port the first night.
Its only a car park .(plenty of MH's there)
Just go to the first roundabout come back int the port and keep right.
 
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Feb 16, 2013
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You will be arriving at Dunkirk about 0300 local so I don't think a campsite would be best pleased. Have a look at http://www.searchforsites.co.uk/ and enter Dunkirk in the search box . There seems to be a few overnight stops there to look through.
Gravelines Aire, just down the D601 from the port, seems a favourite on Fun but never been ourselves
The Aire near the Athletics Stadium in Ypres would be handy http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/in-praise-of-ypres.103177/
Sorry don't follow the 0300 arrival surly it takes over an hour to get there then you have to add an hour , makes it 6 or 7 o clock in my reckoning
 
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Mel

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I think they are leaving dover at 00:40
So about 04:00 local time of arrival

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Steve101uk

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Sorry don't follow the 0300 arrival surly it takes over an hour to get there then you have to add an hour , makes it 6 or 7 o clock in my reckoning
Chaser is right. you add an hour not take it away....leaving at 4am means it will be 5am in France, hour and half say on the ferry and it's 6.30 am arrival time

edit

oops, did you say your leaving at 00.40 as in 20 to 1 in the morning? or 4am,,,think I have misread original post...either way you add the hour.....
 
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Aug 19, 2015
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You will be arriving at Dunkirk about 0300 local so I don't think a campsite would be best pleased. Have a look at http://www.searchforsites.co.uk/ and enter Dunkirk in the search box . There seems to be a few overnight stops there to look through.
Gravelines Aire, just down the D601 from the port, seems a favourite on Fun but never been ourselves
The Aire near the Athletics Stadium in Ypres would be handy http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/in-praise-of-ypres.103177/
 
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Mar 16, 2010
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I'd stay at Gravelines when you dock as @chaser says a lovely walled town then to the aire by the campsite at Ypres but I would book as it gets full .
We had a fortnight doing the Normandy beaches staying on a mixture of aires and campsites.... the municipal campsite at Arromanches is good I think it was about €14 a night and it's right in the town handy for the museum.
 
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Oct 3, 2014
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I'd stay at Gravelines when you dock as @chaser says a lovely walled town then to the aire by the campsite at Ypres but I would book as it gets full .
We had a fortnight doing the Normandy beaches staying on a mixture of aires and campsites.... the municipal campsite at Arromanches is good I think it was about €14 a night and it's right in the town handy for the museum.
@davanne have you or any funster got the coordinates for this site as hoping to be in the area tomorrow thanks Richard
 
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Mar 16, 2010
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@Shandyman I haven't got the exact address but it is signposted as you drop down into Arromanches which is only a small place . It is only 1 road back from the seafront. There is another site higher up the hill but it's quite a way out of the town.
 
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Mar 16, 2010
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@Shandyman just found the address its Avenue de Verdun Arromanches .The entrance looks quite tight with an archway but we are 7.3 m and 3.2 m high and we managed no problem and the road is very wide so you can swing in easily.

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wingman

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@Brimo's
Utah Beach is worth a visit if you're over that way. There is a camp site 100m from the beach called (conveniently) "Camping Utah Beach" (La Madeleine, St Marie du Mont 50480). There is also a long strip of beach parking for motorhomes just before you get to the campsite. Campsite was fine, 3 stars.

It is close (4km) to a local town with lots of war history. There are a number of numbered plaques on walls around the town that you can follow which tells story of the D-Day battle on each corner.

The town is also close to another; St Mère-Église, famous for the American parachutist whose canopy got caught on the church spire and who had to endure church bells ringing in his ears until the town was finally liberated by his comrades.

There is a good museum at Utah too. I found it all very moving, especially some of the approaches to the beach, named after the young Americans who fell in battle. There is also a memorial to the hundreds of Americans who drowned here in UK at Slapton Sands when practicing beach landings ready for D-Day.

It was strange to see windsurfing and children playing on the beach today when years ago, it was hell on earth!
 
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sdc77

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The town is also close to another; St Mère-Église, famous for the American parachutist whose canopy got caught on the church spire and who had to endure church bells ringing in his ears until the town was finally liberated by his comrades.
20140607_141303~01.jpg


And there he is .. being checked out by wee Archie..

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Oct 3, 2014
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Thank you all for yur help we found the site OK used the coordinates for the site which is just next door will also look at the sites nearby
 
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