Ok a bit green but keen (1 Viewer)

[gordoncbrown]

Ex tugged been motor homing a few months now. Just getting to grips with things when......wallop. Would you like to come to our wedding? It's in Huric in France. We were looking at going further afield but had planned a year or so of uk touring. Looking for lots of tips about toll roads, what not to do etc. probably a bit early but I like to plan ahead to an extent. I have uk Tom Tom . Any advice on what is best for France? Also have maps on iPhone.Will probably come up with lots of questions so apologies in advance. Thanks:thumb:

 

[motorhomelover]

Ex tugged been motor homing a few months now. Just getting to grips with things when......wallop. Would you like to come to our wedding? It's in Huric in France. We were looking at going further afield but had planned a year or so of uk touring. Looking for lots of tips about toll roads, what not to do etc. probably a bit early but I like to plan ahead to an extent. I have uk Tom Tom . Any advice on what is best for France? Also have maps on iPhone.Will probably come up with lots of questions so apologies in advance. Thanks:thumb:

get the Micheline map of Europe
you need one that is of good detail as France is a large country and many maps just do not have the detail in them
tom tom is ok but you need the uptodate euro mapping on it about £99.00

you can go on the motroways but they do cost a few euro
if you have time to plan use the green roads they run along side the motorways most of the time plus if your MH is only going along at 50mph you will not get there any faster on the motorway
use google maps to plan your rout
good luck and enjoy the trip :thumb:

 

[Hollyberry]

For your first trip to France could you borrow a sat nav with European maps installed? I've a European TomTom, over 4 years old now but still gets me round OK.
When you plan a route it will give you the option to avoid Toll roads. The RN (Route Nationale) roads are usually OK but take a good map too so you don't get directed off into small lanes, woodland tracks etc...

If you look at mappy http://fr.mappy.com/itinerary_homepage this will give you an idea of fuel costs and tolls if you choose to use them. You can alter the type of vehicle and fuel.

Example from Calais:
Date:Today at 10:19 p.m.
Duration (1):7:10
Distance:632 km including 590 km of expressways
Vehicle:Truck, GVWR .5T
Fuel:€ 201.62 (145L)
Tolls:FRA: € 102.4

Enjoy planning your trip, sure you'll have a great time.

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[chatter]

a little planning but once you have done it you will wonder why you havent before, generally more relaxing drive over there, if you have a tomtom with european maps and you have kept it updated it should be ok along with a good french map book, plan to use no toll roads when setting it then it will only send you on one if it has no alternative. N roads are good a lot are duel carriageway. You dont say when it is for so just incase you dont want to try out motorhome aires check out the camping cheques and asci sites, these give discounted rates on production of card or cheque for the said site they cannot be used in july,august though

http://www.campingcheque.co.uk/

http://www.acsi.eu/en/home/l2-n144/

if you want to try aires you need the book 'all the aires' from

https://www.vicarious-shop.com/home.php

 

[hilldweller]

Oh stop pissing about, it's 26 miles away, it's more motorhome friendly than you could possibly imagine. Get on with it. All you need is a paper map and plenty of money to buy good food and wine.

All your wet dreams are there, do it.

 

[veevee]

If you are 3m + tall or over 3.5 tonnes you will be class 3 on French motorways. Class 3 is a lot of money relative to a car (Class 1)

Quite a few motorways are free, but you need to work out which are which. Using the Michelin maps either online ( viamichelin.com ) or in a book, the free motorway distances are marked with blue numbers, pay motorways are marked with orange numbers.

Again Michelin maps. The red (old National roads) or yellow (larger country/departmental roads in usually excellent condition) can be superb to drive, but white ones are sometimes similar to lanes in Devon and can be tricky with farm traffic.

In the last 10 years or so France has taken to roundabouts with a vengance. Sometimes there are so many that with a larger vehicle changing direction pretty quickly can become slightly less fun. It's something that you live with or stick to red or motorway type roads.

Last, French motorways in the main are superb in all respects except cost, or is that because of cost? It is often possible to enter a motorway for just a single journey to the next junction to use a well equiped aire overnight, either with a fuel station or just toilets and somewhere to exercise. The cost is often minimal

Information overload, I'll stop.

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[hilldweller]

Looking for lots of tips about toll roads, what not to do etc. probably a bit early but I like to plan ahead to an extent. I have uk Tom Tom . Any advice on what is best for France? Also have maps on iPhone.Will probably come up with lots of questions so apologies in advance. Thanks:thumb:

A bit more sober now so, toll roads - avoid if possible - cost is about the same as you'll be using in fuel and that's a lot. There is no shortage of good N roads.

TomTom - not essential at all. What is marvellous is planning using Google Maps. It never fails to come up with a brilliant route and can be set to avoid tolls. Swap to street view to see exactly where you turn into sites.

iPhone - since it's downloading loads of data check pricing when roaming, it's usually an arm and a leg.

But as I said before, France is a joy, better to do a few years in France then come back to this crowded island with limited sites and loads of hatred to MHs.

If going off peak, buy the ACSI book and discount card - can save quite a bit.

 

[WynandJean]

Have to agree with all the ohers who say that you'll find it a lot less problematic than you might expect, and once you have done it you can't wait to do it again!

I find that using the satnav makes it a doddle and staying on aires is much preferable to staying on campsites. Apart from anything else we've found many of them to be in nicer locations.

If you have specific concerns please let us know and you'll get all the advice you need
Wyn

 

[sedge]

Where's Huric? - is it the one near Caudry and Cambrai? - if so it's not very far and more or less a straight run from Calais on the A26 - so it depends on how long you want to spend getting there!

If it is that one, it's only 100miles via Mway or 120 not - 2 hours, or 2 hours 20mins ......

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