First France Trip (1 Viewer)

johnp10

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I've taken all of June off work, allowing a decent holiday period for myself and Management.
Never been to France with a MH before.
The only plan so far is:
Either to Calais, Dunkirk or Zeebrugge (dependant upon fuel prices).... off the port...turn right (south)......? Then back for Alnwick meet.
Any suggestions for a chilled, hopefully sunny, few weeks, places, sites, etc?
Not bothered greatly about driving distances.
Any suggestions welcomed.


Edit:
Need to go where Munchie hasnt been, would like to eat at some point.
 

laneside

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nowhere near long enough
We will be a month in front of you and will try to report our progress.

We will still be there when you get there so we may even get chance to arrange a meet.

We only have our first fout nights planned, the rest like you will be a suck it and see jobbie. We are sure to have some good places to report and you may be able to make some use of our experiences.

Lynda and I have been before but as you may have read Ken and Steph (Ksebruce) are coming along with us and it is their first trip, so they will be good to compare notes with.

Bon Voyage
 

Jim

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We never plan a thing, the country is so big, the roads are so empty, and the campsites and aires are abundant, find an area you want to explore, there will be campsites/aires right there, esp in June, no need to be a slave to a plan or itinerary, you'll love it:thumb:

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laneside

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Thanks Alan / Jim, my kind of plan so far.
Books to get?
ACSI and "All the Aires"?

Thems the two that we have and someone will be alnog soon telling you of a French book of aires and of course French Passion.

If you search about on here Mel (Heyupluv) has listed some brilliant aires and as we speak now he is down just beyond the Gulf of Morbiham
 

Welsh girl

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The acsi DVD has been invaluable. No need for a book but we do use that as a back up. We didnt.plan anything. The DVD keeps track of our mileage and the time it took to get there. We haven't used an aire yet but that's personal choice at Terry is not sure about them plus we need electric to charge our bikes and we like the comforts that having a ehu brings. We have propane at the moment but as we can't replace it over here we have been very careful not to leave it on gas parked up anywhere and get to a site with electric and then explore from there on our bikes. We can do around 25miles a day on them if we want and just lock them up in a town and explore
You won't be disappointed with the food here. It is so different and yummy. The roads are brilliant and we love it so much we are even planning on coming back in the autumn. It's going to be too hot for us soon anyway but we are here till the end of June and are already planning our next trip.
We will look into refillable gas bottles for our next trip and an inverter to charge our bikes as we already have a90w solar panel on the roof. Also want a Dome fitted for ease of finding satellite..
The roads are a plweasure to drive on and are not looking forward to getting back to the madness of Britains roads. Have fun, might meet you here on our tour. Look out for a great big dragon on the bonnet with Cymru written underneath. That will be us,give us a wave!!!

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Munchie

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I've taken all of June off work, allowing a decent holiday period for myself and Management.
Never been to France with a MH before.
The only plan so far is:
Either to Calais, Dunkirk or Zeebrugge (dependant upon fuel prices).... off the port...turn right (south)......? Then back for Alnwick meet.
Any suggestions for a chilled, hopefully sunny, few weeks, places, sites, etc?
Not bothered greatly about driving distances.
Any suggestions welcomed.


Edit:
Need to go where Munchie hasnt been, would like to eat at some point.


Oi :Angry:
 

wivvy's dad

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The acsi DVD has been invaluable. No need for a book but we do use that as a back up. We didnt.plan anything. The DVD keeps track of our mileage and the time it took to get there. We haven't used an aire yet but that's personal choice at Terry is not sure about them plus we need electric to charge our bikes and we like the comforts that having a ehu brings. We have propane at the moment but as we can't replace it over here we have been very careful not to leave it on gas parked up anywhere and get to a site with electric and then explore from there on our bikes. We can do around 25miles a day on them if we want and just lock them up in a town and explore
You won't be disappointed with the food here. It is so different and yummy. The roads are brilliant and we love it so much we are even planning on coming back in the autumn. It's going to be too hot for us soon anyway but we are here till the end of June and are already planning our next trip.
We will look into refillable gas bottles for our next trip and an inverter to charge our bikes as we already have a90w solar panel on the roof. Also want a Dome fitted for ease of finding satellite..
The roads are a plweasure to drive on and are not looking forward to getting back to the madness of Britains roads. Have fun, might meet you here on our tour. Look out for a great big dragon on the bonnet with Cymru written underneath. That will be us,give us a wave!!!

Have you run out of the food you took away with you?

Or have you hardly touched it, now that you've found the French actually do know a little about food.........::bigsmile:
 

bobandjanie

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Hi John, we will look out for you,::bigsmile: we cross with Norfolkline on the 26th May and spend 6 weeks following our nose.:winky::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: Bob.

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Welsh girl

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Not eaten it all. lots still in freezer. Just enjoying lots of different tastes in French food.like kids in sweet shops. Trying lots of different stuff,even the baguette tastes different here
 

wivvy's dad

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Not eaten it all. lots still in freezer. Just enjoying lots of different tastes in French food.like kids in sweet shops. Trying lots of different stuff,even the baguette tastes different here

Give my favourite a try.........

Rillettes is a preparation of meat similar to pate. Originally made with pork, the meat is cubed or chopped, salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until it is tender enough to be easily shredded, and then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste. They are normally used as spread on bread or toast (my favourite) and served at room temperature. Buy it in small pots either at the charcuterie, or in the supermarche. Yum yum pigs bum.

You're not yet ready for andouillettes..............................::bigsmile:
 

barryd

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It depends what you like but if it was me planning a 4 week trip places I would head for would be Brittany, The Dordogne, Lot and Tarn or the Rhone Alps or maybe the Pyrenees.

Our first trip was in June 3 years ago. We bought the ACSI book but only used it once as we discovered most of the Aires were free and offered great freedom and most of the municiples we came across were only about 10 Euros anyway out of season.

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Give my favourite a try.........

Rillettes is a preparation of meat similar to pate. Originally made with pork, the meat is cubed or chopped, salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until it is tender enough to be easily shredded, and then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste. They are normally used as spread on bread or toast (my favourite) and served at room temperature. Buy it in small pots either at the charcuterie, or in the supermarche. Yum yum pigs bum.

You're not yet ready for andouillettes..............................:BigGrin:


:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:....Yep you need a few experiences first , a bit like tasting all sort of english food for a foreigner before having a go with haggis :roflmto::roflmto:. But i suppose for you english the most difficult thing to eat would be , snails or even frogs'legs:RollEyes::RollEyes:::bigsmile:

Amicalement

Frankie:winky:
 

laneside

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:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:....Yep you need a few experiences first , a bit like tasting all sort of english food for a foreigner before having a go with haggis :roflmto::roflmto:. But i suppose for you english the most difficult thing to eat would be , snails or even frogs'legs:RollEyes::RollEyes:::bigsmile:

Amicalement

Frankie:winky:

Oi the last time I tried frogs legs when I was in France upon reading the label it said----------------------------------- Produce of China

At least Haggis are still made in Scotland---- I think
 

christine1310

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Hi,
There is always the temptation to see too much of France in one go. Pick one area and have a good look around. For example in October last year we followed the Canal du Midi staying on aires. The Charente-Maritime area is great for both countryside and seaside.

You can find details of aires here http://www.campingcar-infos.com/index1.htm and municipal campsites here http://www.camping-municipal.org/ plus details of where we have been here Link Removed

Have a great time, you won't be disappointed with France.

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johnp10

johnp10

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Hi John, we will look out for you,::bigsmile: we cross with Norfolkline on the 26th May and spend 6 weeks following our nose.:winky::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: Bob.

Hi Bob, Like Munchie and Alan, we have actually met, (gave ne a plug in at Newark) so will know you if we see you.

For others, will have to look for the smiley badges.
 

TDH

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There's a great garage forecourt, just outside Dunkirque, where we and The Rosabella have just spent the last week! Very cheap as well!! In fact, Rosie will probably still be there when you rock up! :ROFLMAO:
 

callumwa

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:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:....Yep you need a few experiences first , a bit like tasting all sort of english food for a foreigner before having a go with haggis :roflmto::roflmto:. But i suppose for you english the most difficult thing to eat would be , snails or even frogs'legs:RollEyes::RollEyes:::bigsmile:

Amicalement

Frankie:winky:

As a Scot I'm actually not that keen on haggis so no surprise that

andouillettes = disgusting.......:cry:

cuisses de grenouilles = not bad, but more meat required:whatthe:

escargots = delicious. yum yum, lots of garlic butter and fresh bread to soak it up......:thumb:

I want some NOW!!:thumb:

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Loujess

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Glad to see you still have you sense of humour.

We are off straight after Thetford, around 1 June and plan on going to the Vendee. Not sure which particular part, or all of them since we have around four weeks. Charente Maritime sounds good. Maybe we'll see you or others there. We stayed mostly on aires last year when we were travelling around but plan to find one or two ACSI sites on the west side this time and settle down for a week or two at a time.

I think it is very true not to go too far on one trip since you don't really take in each area you stop at. ::bigsmile:::bigsmile:

Ivy
 

Stephen & Jeannie

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2 Weeks to go !!!

It's got to be the Aquitaine area for me !! Miles of beaches and long FLAT cycle rides through the pine forests to find the local markets for that days fodder ! :thumb:
 

sandyketton

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We are off on the 30th May but only for three weeks. Heading for the Alsace region via the Mosel and Rhine. Plenty of nice food and wine.
Hope to bump into anyone we know.
There will be a FUN badge :Smile: in the rear window of our 05 plated Lunar.
If you see us you are more than welcome to stop for a chat and drinks.
Sandy and Margaret

PS We are going back in September too.

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MikeandCarolyn

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We leave Dover May18th-heading South down the West Coast-ish.
Aquitaine is on the list ::bigsmile: We have 6 weeks and may do a bit of Northern Spain.

I could eat Rillettes every day for lunch-with some Roqueforte and a nice glass of red :ROFLMAO:

Mike.
 

dshague

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we are off 1st june .:Smile: take it as it comes .:thumb:france just love it .
if only here in uk we had aires like france .hope fellow funnsters have got there stickers in van so we can say hi :whatthe:
 
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As a Scot I'm actually not that keen on haggis so no surprise that

andouillettes = disgusting.......:cry:

cuisses de grenouilles = not bad, but more meat required:whatthe:

escargots = delicious. yum yum, lots of garlic butter and fresh bread to soak it up......:thumb:

I want some NOW!!:thumb:

Are those andouillettes the things that look like sausage but I suspect are 100% fat??
Tried barbequing them once but they just wouldn't go brown, they just kept melting down, you'r right...disgusting. Put some string through the remaining ones and used them as candles!! :Tongue1:

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JayDee

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we are off 1st june .:Smile: take it as it comes .:thumb:france just love it .
if only here in uk we had aires like france .hope fellow funnsters have got there stickers in van so we can say hi :whatthe:

So are we. Night of the 1st at Canterbury P&R then tunnel and head towards Reims, Troyes, Rouen, then mooch around Brittany for a week or two. Hope we get a bit of beach weather while we're there.


John
 

Welsh girl

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Terry loves his pork pies but can't find any here but found a very long thing with the name on the pack saying pate en croute. Cocktail. Same type of thing but much tastier.
Also lots if nice different salad stuff,meat tastes different here as well. What are androillettes made from then.?

We are in the cote de or at the moment,lot more hillier than the other places we toured through. Went through lois pastuer street yesterday,very quaint.lots of men playing boules in car parks we cycled through,must be a good game LOL.
YUK YUK just read the ingredients for androillettes,won't be trying them,remember the smell of tripe cooking when I did some for Susie,stunk the house out,she loved it though,might buy some for her,second thoughts I don't want to visiting a vets with her gypee tummy...

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Parcverger

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Quote: Any suggestions for a chilled, hopefully sunny, few weeks, places, sites, etc?

Bit slow on this one, due to being out of circulation in April, but we'd be happy to welcome you (www.parcverger.com) in this beautiful area of France. The perfect place to crash out, with lots to see in the area if you want to enjoy the relatively empty roads, a local cycle/walking path (with a village and bar at both ends!) and the bar/restaurant in our little village with "pizzas to die for".

From Rouen head down the A20 towards Limoges, and follow the directions on our website. Rural France at its best! But wherever you go, enjoy yourselves and your travelling.

Bob
 

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