Off to France again. (1 Viewer)

[GWAYGWAY]

We are shipping on the tunnel tomorrow afternoon have to be there for 4pm, as I think it is going to be stupid busy there, so instead of going around the back way from home I am going up the M20 to the services and back down, I feel that is going to be more sensible as the lorries and cars are going to be rather thick at the entrance and the usual way in for us involves crossing 6 lanes of lorries and into two lanes of cars and it might just be problematic. The school holidays are starting and the bookings got extremely busy. I got one place on the that train as it was solid booked for everything else for days.
So having got over we intend to just wander down to Normandy and basically travel the invasion coast and sites. Never been there before so will follow our noses. If we get fed up there, we could go east or south and maybe Bordeaux area. Our trouble is that not having been before we do not know what we will like before we get there??????????? Any suggestion in the West? Is it Ok into Brittany or is it a backwater area or a bit like Cornwall.
Always a bit jumpy when going abroad but at least unlike most people we do not have a long trip to get to the tunnel 7 miles at most. We usually stop in the Cite Europe but we will be there a lot earlier this time or at least there in daytime so might well travel out a bit further maybe Le Touquet area, As we have a bit more parking information now, it would be easier than before. We might be out of the loop for a bit but hopefully EE will not cock up this time, I have learnt that the dongle I bought and paid for does not work as the shop told me it would, should be able to get data all over Europe in fact does not as the scheme they put me on does not give the dongle getting anything outside the UK, so I have to use the phone as a personal hotspot. That was a waste of time getting really and when I complained It came back as 'Tough you should have known it wasn't covered.' At least I do have 30gb of data on the phone so it lasts quite well but not as convenient as the dongle would be.

 

[Xabia]

There is a good free stop at Baie de Somme services on the motorway from Calais towards Abbeville, about an hour’s travel. They constructed a dedicated motorhome/Caravan parking area away from the main service area. We use it 4 times a year on our travels to and from Spain.

 

[DavidG58]

There is a good free stop at Baie de Somme services on the motorway from Calais towards Abbeville, about an hour’s travel.

Oh oh, this could get messy quickly

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[Lenny HB]

Good luck Graham, you need it. Will this be your 3rd attempt?
If your phone SIM is EE it should work well I use EE and get 4G nearly everywhere.

 

[DavidG58]

we like the aire at Montreuil sur mer, nice little town, refurbished aire close to centre, nice restaurants, nice walk round old walls

https://www.campercontact.com/en/france/nord-pas-de-calais-59-62/montreuil/21677/aire-municipale

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Plenty of places to stop around Normandy and Brittany. just do it and work along the coast -don't forget St Michel-really nice place but likely to be busy in the hols.
The run to Bordeaux is full of interesting places, but Bordeaux itself is a big traffic .

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[WillH]

Enjoy, we toured Normandy a few years ago and found it delightful having driven through many times without stopping to look.

 

[robrace]

St Valery sur Somme!Nice Aire and plenty of room.Nice town.and if you have time get the steam train from the Quay to Le Crotoy.

 

[Baileysbus]

St Valery sur Somme!Nice Aire and plenty of room.Nice town.and if you have time get the steam train from the Quay to Le Crotoy.

Second this one. We were at both places about 3 weeks ago now.
Normandy beaches are really worth a look. Thumbs up for the Pegasus bridge museum in particular but there's so much to see and mostly very moving.

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[138go]

Omaha Beach American Cemetery & Memorial .. Visited a few years ago. There was a massive sandy Beach in front of it and no one on the Beach. It felt really strange. Until you have stood in the middle and looked round through 360 degrees you cannot imagine the number of American soldiers who lost their lives in Operation Overlord.

 

[h1ghway1]

we like the aire at Montreuil sur mer, nice little town, refurbished aire close to centre, nice restaurants, nice walk round old walls

https://www.campercontact.com/en/france/nord-pas-de-calais-59-62/montreuil/21677/aire-municipale

and a lovely guy who has a outdoor pizza place just down the road... come off the aire and turn left.. over the roundabout and just beyond the petrol station... also the baker on the roundabout is of course excellent .. enjoy your trip...check my post from last October.. Brittany and Normandy are great !

 

[h1ghway1]

Plenty of places to stop around Normandy and Brittany. just do it and work along the coast -don't forget St Michel-really nice place but likely to be busy in the hols.
The run to Bordeaux is full of interesting places, but Bordeaux itself is a big traffic .

Bordeaux is a traffic nightmare... do visit but take park and ride.

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[Pete5996]

There is a good free stop at Baie de Somme services on the motorway from Calais towards Abbeville, about an hour’s travel. They constructed a dedicated motorhome/Caravan parking area away from the main service area. We use it 4 times a year on our travels to and from Spain.

Stopped there for a double espresso Monday lunchtime - many of the bays were occupied by solo cars with picnicking families and the service area is being refurbished. Long, long queue at the cafeteria and no coffee machines - so reversed the long walk to the buildings and had an instant in the MH...

 

[Allanm]

If your getting here early, I would avoid Cite Europe and travel down a bit. There are some lovely aires on the coast in Picardy, some have been mentioned, here’s a few more. Quend Plage, large aire with pine forest next to it. Lots of good walks, close to the beach and a nice little town to enjoy. Fort Mahon. Just up the coast from Quend, nice town and lovely beach, you can walk to Quend along it.
Le Crotoy. 2 sites, the biggest next to the town and marina. Lovely town, great food, aire is big and busy but great for people watching. Little train takes you around the bay to St Valery which is a nice town with an aire.
Normandy beaches are great to visit. Lots of museums near the beaches including Pegasus Bridge and the Grand Bunker at Ouistreham. Britanny is lovely. Lots of free aires, no toll roads, fantastic beaches, lovely people. Everything from quaint fishing villages, rocky coves, medieval towns, standing stones and castles to long sandy beaches and canals.
Enjoy your trip and hope everything goes well this time.

 

[stcyr]

Brittany is 27,208 km2 and certainly not a backwater!
And Normandie is 30,100 km2 - quarter the size of England

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[martin2603]

Enjoy , wish I was going , M25 free, lovely towns and villages, hang on a mo, think I might just go!!!!

 

[klaatu]

Hope you're having a good time - you don't seem to have posted since you were due to leave?

 

[matt34]

we are going for 30 nights from thursday onwards, down southwest side cannot waite,2 long 10hr drives with 3 kids in the back!!

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[filopastry]

Leave the technology behind. Bad news will always find you and good news will wait. Such a lot to see, so many places so many wines and beers and ... for you ... so little time. Chill on the evenings outside with a barby and cool beers or warm wines whatever floats yer boat. Our guests at our little neck of the woods are not provided with internet and the mobile phones only work in 1M² of our 4000m² garden and then only if you stand on your left leg whilst swinging a haggis in round right hand. Strange how at the onset of two weeks holidays folks twitch and have a panic stricken look to be replaced by a much calmer presence at the end of the two weeks. Enjoy where ever you choose to ramble, it's a huge country and the variety is astounding.

 

[2bob]

ther a nice aires in le treport 10eur if you cant get in the rd at the side is ok

 

[Lenny HB]

@GWAYGWAY , you are very quiet Graham we are all suspense wondering what's happened to you this time.

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[2bob]

just pick this up from f/b--- Yesterday at 05:52 A word to the wise.., we stopped over at Bourgogne en Sur last night before departing for Calais today. The aire is fine and spacious and had a nice walk to the sea front. However just after midnight someone jumped off the back of our van. My husband rushed outside, where 2 very well dressed young French men were wandering around. One of them told him he’d just seen 2 men run off after trying to get our bikes. Needless to say we never slept for the next hour. My husband went back outside an hour later to see the same young men hanging around on their mobiles and a van parked further down the road. Just to make you all aware!

 

[GWAYGWAY]

We are still going strong at the moment ,. At this time we are in an aire attracted to a huge campsite at Queberon on a peninsula in Brittany it is quite expensive but we can sneak into the site for the shops etc.
Before we were on an aire at Batz sue Mer a nice little place but to get water from the bunde yo had to pay 3 euros for 100 litres BUT to get a Jetton you had to walk 3 km to the tourist office in the main town and back again if you actually find it.
The batches in Normandy were nice but no services unless you went some distance to the next town. So far so good but looking at the news we were wondering about the tunnel getting back after the trouble they are having. It seems the temperature at home is higher than here.
All is going OK so will report again, there are some low signal areas for 4g and they always seems to be where we are. We have however really turned a different colour and wondering if immigration will let us back in, I look nothing like my photo now

 

[Lenny HB]

All sounds good Graham a successful trip at last.
We stayed on the Aire at Queberon a couple of years ago it was June so the campsite hadn't opened yet I didn't think €3.50 a night was expensive. Is it dearer in season?

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[GWAYGWAY]

I had to pay 12 Euro for one night 18 euros for two nights but that is load cheaper then CCC or the others in UK most the aires I have been in were 8euros plus water for two or three euros.
Fuel costs are really high in Frannce now up to 1.60 in some places so I am not driving so much this time

 

[GWAYGWAY]

Question for all you French travel experts.
I want some non UHT milk as it is awful in coffee.
I went into a Lidl and there was a list o French milk but they did not keep any NON UHT so stuck with a carton of YEUKK milk.
Where do I buy proper milk and WHAT IS IT CALLED?...
Please............I hate the other stuff.

 

[Nicepix]

Chiller cabinets in larger supermarkets should have some.

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[klaatu]

You want 'lait frais', you won't find a lot of it, but it's there in some supermarkets.

 

[Zains Pops]

French milk is terrible, they have no taste and sell terrible UHT, been caught out a few times.

Most decent sized stores do sell proper milk However. Look in the chiller cabinets.
Ignore the colors of the bottle tops, they are different to the UK ones your used to.

Seek out Demi creme pasturised. Read the label carefully to spot the dreaded UHT description as sometimes that undrinkable concoction is passed off as proper milk.

Another clue to proper milk is to read the bottle date, if it’s only a few days then it’s fresh if it’s sometime next year or beyond it’s the dreaded UHT.

Best of luck

 

[Figaro]

Aldi and Lidl in France don`t sell fresh milk for some unknown reason. They sell it in the rest of Europe but I`ve never found it in France.
The good news is that most of the others do, Carreforr do and the one that sounds like an L`electrical shop, can`t remember name and others

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