First trip to France

Hi Martin.
I wouldn't book a campsite. Actually I wouldn't use any campsites.
I don't know if you are aware of the 'aire du camping car' facilities in France. These are either privately run or local authority run motorhome parking areas that have water and waste emptying facilities, many have electric and some have toilets and showers and many you can stay at for 3 or 4 days easily.
They vary between rough bits of ground to park on to almost a fully blown campsite. Some are only for a few vans, some for 200 or more!
Many are free to use and others charge either by machine or an attendant who pops by to collect.
Most of them tend to be in the middle of a town, village or next to something of interest to explore.
They are on a first come first served basis and even in August when we last went, we only found one that was full up and the next aire was only 15 minutes away.
The French attitude to motorhomes is different to the general or perceived ones here.
Tom

nice one have a great time

Hi Martin
Whole heartily agree with Tom we have used the French Aires ( Aire du camping car) for many years. I can't remember ever paying for a campsite? I would suggest you download a program called CamperContact.com which is free for the limited edition or you can pay around £5.00 for the full online program including sat nav coordinates. This program will give you hundreds if not thousand of Aires around Europe by country including France. We use the user friendly Campercontact program with our iPad which details free and paid sites, water points, toilet dumps etc.
There are also books available through Vicarious Books.co.uk for purchase online detailing by country all the Aires through Europe.
Have a great trip.
Graham

Hi moos,

Have a look at the French stopovers on here, you'll get quite a good idea of what's available although if you want to see all the information we display you'll need to upgrade to full member

Mind you campsites are not needed here in the UK either, we have done trips of up to 3 weeks away, several times, solely using Club Motorhome stopovers with no problem

I also wouldn't bother booking camp sites. Plenty of aires on route and campsites will be quiet this time of year if you do decide to go on a campsite. We haven't used a camp site for the last twelve months in France.
I would download a good app on your mobile phone. Something like park4night or motorhomeparking. They will give you information of aires around you.
Enjoy your trip.

Hi, spent many months in France. It depends what you like doing. Aires are ok, but often you are limited to a certain number of days, and at times they can lack a bit of privacy, and many don't allow "campsite behaviour"...i.e. no chairs or tables etc. And some are just glorified car parks. There are so many campsites in France that you won't need to book. Check out ACSI camping card guide, which gives discounted rates at thousands of sites throughout all of Europe. Also check the site "campercontact ", it has thousands of aires with reviews, facilities, prices etc. Top tip on sites, if you've got solar don't take electricity, it's always an additional cost. (Unless it's already included of course).

Hi there, all the above covers just about all you would need in advice. All you need to do now is tailor it to your own needs. Do you need ehu for girlies to dry hair....need dog friendly location....etc We have all the books mentioned above which give you a good base knowledge but in this modern day and age the info (sometimes years old even in latest addition) needs supplementing by sites like this. Oh, they mention others too !! They can tell you what happened at a site last week LOL. We are full members here and have made full use of the stopovers section....GB and abroad....Maja