Europe By Camper - Travelling Europe By Motorhome: France

Whistle Stop Tour of France & We're Home!

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: left;">Montreuil-Bellay</span> </span></td></tr>
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From Spain we entered France and our first French overnight stop of Capbreton. It's actually quite shocking how much prices increase as you cross over the French/Spanish border. Not just fuel and wine (and the total absence of any beer worth drinking) but just general produce as well. Lidl is 20-30% more expensive on most items and we find ourselves wishing we had stocked up. The perils of crossing a border on a Sunday.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Capbreton Fortifications</td></tr>
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Still, Capbreton makes for a nice overnight stop right on the beach with its eroding and toppling WW2 fortifications. Most of our stop over points here on in are chosen for convenience and because they are free; Contis Plage, Roullet-Saint-Estephe and Montreuil-Bellay. This method doesn't always yield a spectacular aire but the small town of Montreuil-Bellay proved a worthy stopover and a fantastic location next to a river and a few minutes walk from the town.<br />
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Back on the motorway we keep seeing decorated Renault 4's hurtling past at breakneck speed. It turns out they are all returning from a 6,000km charity rally to Morocco, the <a href="http://www.tousen4pourletrophy.fr/" target="_blank">Tous En Pour Le Trophy</a>, where each car must carry at least 50kg of goods to donate to local causes. Much of their route in Morocco is off piste which could account for the poor state of many of the cars. Yes, that's right we couldn't not mention Morocco even though we're in France!<br />
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We're aiming to get 200 miles a day under our belts as we head up towards Calais and our next stop is Le Mans. A big city it might be, but it has a free aire right in the center with free water and waste. A grey day contributes to a relatively uninspiring walk around and back in the van for tea. We're really not fans of big cities, it has to be said.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gace Aire infront of the Chateaux</td></tr>
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Our overnight aire of choice this time is Gace, with it's impressive Chateaux where motorhomes are allowed to park only between 5pm and 10am it can't really be anything else. The bells fortunatly stop chiming at 11pm and resume at 7am to ensure we are on our way the next day.<br />
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We arrive at Saint-Valery-en-Caux and then realise it is in fact a weekend and the aire is no longer free. Still, we've managed to avoid paying for the last 6 nights so we cough up €4.50 a van for the privilege. The aire is a prime location right on the harbour walls and we watch fisherman bringing in their catch followed by a swarms of seagulls. Wrapped up in our winter coats which have been unpacked from the depth of our van, we walk up to the top of the cliffs. Why can't the French clean up after their dogs?<br />
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The rain is belting down the following day as we edge ever close to Calais and Le Touquet Paris Plage want €14 for the privilege of staying overnight. I don't think so. We settle for an aire in Bologne Sur Mer where we chance that the appalling weather and gale force winds means the man won't come to collect his €5. We're right and we escape without paying the fee.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Saint-Valery-en-Caux</span></span> </td></tr>
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The next day the wind subsides but the ferry is still running late as a result. This gives the dog patrol longer to inspect the waiting cars and it's not long before 4 illegal immigrants who get bundled out the back of a French curtain-sider alongside us in the queue for the ferry, sniffed out by a playful black Labrador. The crossing is like a mill pond and somewhat surreal given the previous two days weather.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beautiful Montreuil-Bellay</td></tr>
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We roll off the ferry and towards customs. We don't actually know how many bottles of wine we have or if the limit is 90 liters per person or per van. As we snake through the checkpoint 8 customs officials stand with arms folded and weigh us up. Adam almost makes the decision for them, since we always get stopped here anyway. But not this time! We get waved on through, maybe we're looking too respectable in our old age?<br />
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Despite 23,000 miles on the 'wrong' side of the road and it feels like we've never left home. Roundabouts feel a little strange though, but apart from that all seems fairly normal and we cruise back up to York in a little bit of a daze. Nearly home we stop for for Fish and Chips. Well you have to, right?<br />
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So that's it. We're home. Or is it? Over the next few weeks we will be writing about all sorts of topics which have been asked by our readers that we would like to share for the benefit of others.<br />
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The BIG question - did we manage to spend 334 days and 23,336 miles away in Europe for under our budget of £10k? Find out next week as we start to blog our breakdown, tips and a little bit about how many people have been in touch with us during our trip.<br />
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Is there anything you would like to know? If so please don't hesitate to e-mail (you can reply to our blog subscription e-mail), comment, tweet @EuropeByCamper or post on our Facebook timeline.<br />
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Thank you all for following, it's over for now but not for long!<br />
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Adam & Sophie<br />
EuropeByCamper.com</div>

Whistle Stop Tour of France & We're Home!

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Beziers and Carcassonne

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The journey into France from Italy passed without incident with the unmanned border now being reclaimed by motor homers as an impromptu aire. The coastline of the south of France is nice if a little manic and our route took us up and over behind Monaco rather then through it as on our last trip here in 2008.<br />
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However just outside Nice a dramatic set of events occurred in quick succession. The van proclaimed it was low on oil which was strange because I had only checked it a few days prior. After immediately stopping and topping up a quick look underneath confirmed that oil was indeed pouring out of somewhere and had coated the whole bottom of the engine in oil. Contemplating getting recovered we noticed we were right next to a Fiat Professional agent, so we limped the van in and tried and failed to explain what we needed. "Catastrophic!" said one mechanic as he got into the passenger seat to move the van into the workshop, before switching to the correct side "No guarantee!". It transpired that the oil filter had somehow come lose spraying the whole undercarriage in oil and despite being in the workshop for over an hour we were charged just 30 minutes labour and €40 to fix - including jet washing the engine clean and refilling with oil we were on our way incredibly relieved at what could have been game over for the rest of our trip.<br />
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Later that day we met up with Adam's parents in Arles in their new Autotrail Tracker which seems a world away from our beloved Adria Twin. It was great to see them after 9 months away and they will now join us on this leg of the journey as we travel to meet Sophie's parents in Spain for a Christmas reunion.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHRnp8fpU2yO-35Wu8nAlTeapdq4-68jqzqziT0M_LMxV4CMMKLbvlKtzNdvHc2O_pclKEPRWJEw_M977AEX0VQ0-lBndPJ0lJhs8xNdut7i9gE2BmbP-XudjJkHply1JOe4QA0k960k/s1600/IMG_2152_3_4Adjust.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHRnp8fpU2yO-35Wu8nAlTeapdq4-68jqzqziT0M_LMxV4CMMKLbvlKtzNdvHc2O_pclKEPRWJEw_M977AEX0VQ0-lBndPJ0lJhs8xNdut7i9gE2BmbP-XudjJkHply1JOe4QA0k960k/s200/IMG_2152_3_4Adjust.jpg" width="200" /></a>In our new roles as tour guides (for an area we ourselves haven't visited!) we set off for Beziers before stopping at a quiet beach location near Sete with the shores awash with giant shells you can't help but to collect and then wonder what it is you are going to do with all these shells when you get home. Beziers itself christened the Tracker with it's first 'Wild' camping night, however nothing is truly wild in France when it comes to motor homing.<br />
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The following nights were spent at the recently relocated aire in Carcassonne (GPS: 43.2056, 2.37499) which while the old town is charming enough you can't help but feel it is missing something after visiting the likes of St Mont Michel or Monemvasia but nevertheless worth a visit (late evening being better since the aire is free 8pm - 8am with the first 'paid' hour free).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijVJnLOTVFFnNceIuGRhMClxZ8G642VO7LcNh2qDwVIuzM2sGn2odZTarQXmgS1LaojyhRynbuhaO_JMKcC2i6Kykg4yIufjGg-Nf-GU69JChm5ihnQ5maoc645cr7bycfprURTofKXus/s1600/IMG_2272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijVJnLOTVFFnNceIuGRhMClxZ8G642VO7LcNh2qDwVIuzM2sGn2odZTarQXmgS1LaojyhRynbuhaO_JMKcC2i6Kykg4yIufjGg-Nf-GU69JChm5ihnQ5maoc645cr7bycfprURTofKXus/s200/IMG_2272.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWXucUv5tnHUyXpnSaUmKmWYPi9ZFAQpRprBj6SuNSUXnC-k8wRafnxzFG5H_MHdWZratPM2kddftob2umvIKtW7wtkC43tOOMw893Qxjf6kMJBLl3lCmqi-2J3TjZjKohqh4rCiGyOk/s1600/IMG_2274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWXucUv5tnHUyXpnSaUmKmWYPi9ZFAQpRprBj6SuNSUXnC-k8wRafnxzFG5H_MHdWZratPM2kddftob2umvIKtW7wtkC43tOOMw893Qxjf6kMJBLl3lCmqi-2J3TjZjKohqh4rCiGyOk/s200/IMG_2274.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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We will leave you with a photo of our miniature but perfectly formed Christmas tree which is now resident in our van until boxing day!<br />
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Beziers and Carcassonne

The journey into France from Italy passed without incident with the unmanned border now being reclaimed by motor homers as an impromptu...

Mont St. Michel

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We decided after Paris that we wanted to see something worthwhile before<br />
traveling home for Christmas so we made our way to Mont St. Michel on<br />
the north coast.<br />
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When we arrived there were no clouds in the sky so we parked the camper<br />up at the aire which was separated off in the car park which fortunately<br />gave us an incredible view. We had a wander round in and out the little<br />streets which led up to the abbey on top before it got dark and we also<br />managed to take some quite nice shots of the sun setting.<br />
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This morning we walked up the steps to the top of the abbey, not much of<br />a view from the top just sand really but the best park about Mont St.<br />Michel is the outside and the history of construction which has been<br />carried out through the centuries to make it was it is today.<br />
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We are now on our way to Rouen to an aire right in the city centre, we<br />will explore Rouen tomorrow then maybe head for Amiens for our last full<br />day in France before returning.<br />
Enjoy the photos!

Mont St. Michel

We decided after Paris that we wanted to see something worthwhile before traveling home for Christmas so we made our way to...

Paris Day 2

Paris Day 2

Paris Day 1

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Our first day in Paris started later then planned due to the bad weather. We made our way from the campsite to the bus stop, walking on the side of the road without a footpath at rush hour was... interesting! We got to our bus stop and on the the Metro. There was a huge que for the ticket machine, at least 30 or so people so we joined. We hoped to get a day pass like we have in other capitals, but no luck - we had to get tickets which were valid per journey. We got 20 of them!<br />
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Our first stop was the Notre Dam Cathedral - well it has to be doesn't it? We probably did our trip the wrong way around, this one should have been first! We then made our way into the shopping district and and some of the stores to keep out of the rain. We eventually took refuge in a Starbucks as we got our bearings and then had a wander around Luvre. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better tomorrow to take in more of the sites! The traffic in Paris is certainly interesting - and it's true what they say about the parking - it's pretty wild!

Paris Day 1

Our first day in Paris started later then planned due to the bad weather. We made our way from the campsite to the bus stop, wal...

Nice

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Casino in Nice<br />
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Costal Road<br />
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<div class="moz-text-flowed" lang="x-western" style="font-family: -moz-fixed; font-size: 13px;">
It was a shame to leave the the beach and St Tropez behind, but when the  french guy on the golf buggy came round for his 7 euros we knew it was  time to leave. It was lunchtime after all and we didn't leave the site  until after 1pm, spending the morning enjoying the sun and then sweeping  / hovering sand out of the camper. At least it's clean (on the inside!)<br />
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We headed up the coast to Nice, a drive of probably only 80 miles or so  along coastal roads and by for our most relaxing drive of the trip. It  took us through Cannes (film festivals) and then into Nice itself.<br />
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By  the time we got to Nice it was starting to get dark and with no Aire's  listed in any of our handbooks we tried our luck at a few camp sites but  they was closed. Our tact of following an Italian Camper on the seafront  failed when he made a second U turn in front of us (probably thinking  why he was being followed by a british camper!) and we eventually found  a small parking area allocated for motorhomes for free using some  pushpins we had downloaded off the internet. No pictures of the Neon  lights unfortunately, but it was bustling with lots of people out and  about.We were tired and hit the sack early, and aside from being woken  by a camper van joining us at about 1am (which was more of a relief as  we were no longer alone!) and a bottle bank being emptied at 4am, we  slept soundly.<br />
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Nice

Casino in Nice Costal Road It was a shame to leave the the beach and St Tropez behind, but when the french guy on the golf buggy c...