Our 1st trip to france booked ! (1 Viewer)

champers

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Hi
Our ferry is now booked to France, sites are next to be done, and hopefully several essentials at Carmarthen bought::bigsmile:

We are so looking forward to meeting fellow funsters at Carmathen which will be our very first MH show , here we are hoping to equip the essentials items that will be needed for our trip to france and to sharing a glass or two with other fellow funsters!:ROFLMAO:

Roll on April
champers / John n Kath ::bigsmile:
 

sandyketton

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Aug 29, 2007
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sites are next to be done


Hi,

We did our first motorhome trip to France last autumn and found no need to book anywhere, and we stayed on sites rather than aires.
Hope you have as good a time as we did.
Sandy
 

hilldweller

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From Aug 2007
>> Our 1st trip to france booked !

First with MH or just first ?

If really first, then you may be in for a surprise, it's big, very BIG.

And better it has everything, from hot beaches, cool valleys with slow flowing rivers to snow topped mountains.

You'll certainly be pleasantly surprised at how little traffic there is.

So enjoy. Be hard not to.



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nozzel

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Apr 6, 2008
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43 years
France 1st trip

Hi John n Kath, We've been going to France in motorhomes since 1968 (that was in a self converted Bedford CA Ambulance) with our two children....Retired, now we take our two grandson's in a more modern Talisman
Your welcome every where in France and every where is different. Neither of use speak French other than Yes,No,Thank you and a few other simple every day words....its more than appreciated by the locals if you do try. I don't know of any where else in Europe that would invite strangers to park overnight, free of charge in the grounds of their Town Hall other than a small rural town in France

A couple of notes....Brit's are a good source of revenue to the local port city police, keep your speed down also ensure you've 2 warning triangles, high visibility jackets (for all passengers) bulbs, first aid kit and (to help and assure the officers that they're not going after a fellow French driver) a GB sticker on the back. Headlight beam deflectors from Halfords or AA cost...use black tape (just find the same vehicle at the port with them fitted and copy same).
Having said that, I've never had a problem with the very helpful..kind officers that we've ever come in contact with, over the last 40 years.

Best tip I can give you is, if you have a problem with the camper, just lift the bonnet and look confused. I guarantee within a few minutes you'll have all the help you'll ever need from other French, German, Dutch etc camper owners.

Best Tip ever is Do NOT forget the cork screw[/SIZE

Just enjoy your first of many French trips

Nozzel
 

takeaflight

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Sep 4, 2007
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Everyone says how easy France is for campers and it is, but we have been several times.

The first trip however, have I got this, that and other and I 'me sure we should have one of those just in case, a thousand and one questions running through your head.

But really as others have already said take the legal stuff thats required, also I would get a E111 health card Link Removed and a camping card international, we obtained ours free from the RAC but others do them. I would also take out breakdown cover for piece of mind, we have RAC arrivals through the cc and c.

Dependant on the time of year we use camping cheques Link Removed and never book in advance, we tend to follow the sun. Never been turned away yet.

Easy for me to say but it really is easy and welcoming and it tends to spoil you, to the degree that we don't use the van that much in the UK now..
Have a great time.:thumb:
 
Aug 1, 2007
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I can only add that the others are right, I would rather be in the van in France than any other place. You can see how we got on if you click on the link in my signature below.
Ralph

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champers

champers

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Sorry my post should have said first trip in a MH,

We have been before in summer and winter and have stayed either in hotels, chalet's or apartments s/c then, the latter (we enjoyed more which started us on the MH road) and normally travel on the toll roads, neither of us speaks any french( not for the want of trying, we could open a book/cd stall with all the training sets::bigsmile:)

It was good to learn that we could just follow the sun as our fancy takes us and not have to book would this still be so for July ?
As there would be less pressure moving on when you really want to stay put etc

We thought we would stay on sites this time as being newbies to MH and are very green about the do's/don'ts etc and learn from fellow campers :Cool:

Thank you all for such great info towards helping to make our first trip easier


champers
 

hilldweller

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Sorry my post should have said first trip in a MH,
champers

I see you have skiing as an interest. We stayed at a peach of a place right in the middle of Chamonix last June. It's between the hospital and the river. Probably an old small holding now a lovely family run campsite. Not a whole lot of use for Skiing but you might like the area and *everyone* should do the Aiguille de Midi once in their lives.

We came from Italy to Chamonix through the tunnel - I think we bought the *&*&^&%$ tunnel.

We're quite new to this, we stopped on two municipal sites, cheap, top quality and one even had free WiFi - this was attached to the town pool so one set of staff did both. Brilliant idea.

At the entrance to one there was also the local aire but the site with all facilities was only about €12 so we naturally chose that.
 
Jul 3, 2008
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Hi
Our ferry is now booked to France, sites are next to be done, and hopefully several essentials at Carmarthen bought::bigsmile:

We are so looking forward to meeting fellow funsters at Carmathen which will be our very first MH show , here we are hoping to equip the essentials items that will be needed for our trip to france and to sharing a glass or two with other fellow funsters!:ROFLMAO:

Roll on April
champers / John n Kath ::bigsmile:

Hi Champers
When you arrive in France find a large supermarket/newsagent and buy the following book Le Guide National Des AIRES DE SERVICES Camping Cars 2009 this gives you around 2000 places to stop in France some free some you pay a modest fee, this year it also gives all the stop overs GPS co-ordinates so it is even easier to find them.
Have a great time you will find the French 100% more friendly than their counterparts in the UK to camping car people
Bill frogijock :Eeek:

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champers

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I see you have skiing as an interest. We stayed at a peach of a place right in the middle of Chamonix last June. It's between the hospital and the river. Probably an old small holding now a lovely family run campsite. Not a whole lot of use for Skiing but you might like the area and *everyone* should do the Aiguille de Midi once in their lives.

Yes the idea was that we would do skiing in our van, thanks for the tip about the smallholding at Chamonix, we have not been there but heard that it is a great place so will look into it

Whilst we were staying near Samoen Jan 09 we did scout about for a campsite and found a nice municiple camp in Verchaix Samoen with stunning views next to a beautiful park it took about 5mins to walk from the gondola station which goes to Morillon ski resort(where we were staying) and the rest of the Grand Massif

If you should be in Verchaix Samoen, we can recommend the local pub and boulangerie, may be a small pub but excellent food and the best bread we have ever had

Link Removed will look out for that book, we are bound to get lost on the town roads , grateful for all help at theose times lol
champers
 
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champers

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:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:instead of snowchains take old style curtain rails weld mounting blocks on away to go - and a very large bottle of brandy to calm the nerves first ::bigsmile:
 
Aug 1, 2007
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Thanks John n Kath, for the comments, of course I don't mind the PM (although I can not PM you). I put the link there to try to help new motorhomers, well I did do the site for 3 reasons, the other 2 being,
I like writing and taking photos (although I am not very good),
I want to keep a record so we can look back and remember it all.

I thought the earlier trips in Spain and France (2003) would be of more help to first timers, have a look and see what we did wrong. Just a note, the site may not look right, as I lost my hard drive recently and had to recover it from the server and some of it is not as it was.

Ralph

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champers

champers

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Hi Link Removed
Sorry about your hard drive, photos etc are so precious but glad that you were able to recover most
I enjoy photography too and go to village classes but hopeless with the camera settings

I dont know why i cant receive pm, I did try to sort it also failed to do the quote but will attempt again

I will enjoy reading your trips that you mentioned also the other trips

champers
 

hilldweller

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Sorry about your hard drive, photos etc are so precious but glad that you were able to recover most champers

And a timely warning at the start of the season.

Any data on a HD is just one second away from death 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

I have 3 old HDs in USB housings that I back up onto regularly, always ADDING never synchronising - so none are erased but there is the small chance of a photo being over-written by another.

Then occasionally I dump them onto a DVD RAM or two. It's great on a cold winter's day to got and re-live a nice warm holiday.

Hopefully they'll survive right until "we cleared all the junk out of Dad's old computer", sound of man spinning in grave :)

At the other end of the photographic scale we have some glass plate negatives, some quite stunning over 100 years old and good as new, I doubt any electronics one will last 100+ years without any modification.
 

ronald4874

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France in MH

Don't fall into the trap that some do when they visit France and never see the place , only main roads and main attractions, believe you me this is not France or Spain for that matter. To see France just take a side road and 'get lost', you will find some wonderful views and sites not normally mentioned in books etc. Aires are much better in the 'lost' villages where the people make a real effort to attract visitors to their area.
Always keep a diary where you have been, including road numbers, very nice in future years to look back on. My wife has kept hers up todate for 10 years or so now. I never argue on where we have been, on what date, the mileage between each place, the fuel consumed and of course the weather at that time. All good memories.

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