[Closed] Camping in France

In the past, mainly due to Kayaking, have use several campsites in the Alps ie Briancon/Gap area. Also near the Ardeche river (not sure which village that was) and in the Massif Central. Most campsites seem very well organised with lots of shade and good toilet blocks and showers. These days it is the European style toilets (or British toilets) rather than the "squat and drop" variety they call Turkish toilets!! Supermarkets are great, huge variety of BBQ meats (including horse - very nice), cheeses to die for, fresh salad stuff and of course excellent wine. Not sure how the prices compare to UK, but since they went into the Euro France seemed to get quite expensive, especially eating out. Hope this helps a bit.

South Brittany is the tourist hotspot in Northern France, loads of nice beaches and stuff to do.

Just remembered about a wonderful campsite in Landry (bar, restaurant and pool), on the banks of the Isere river near to Bour St Maurice - uplifts on ski lift system available. Also 10 minutes walk from Bike Village, where Sam would help with suggestions about where to bike. Most villages and towns in France seem to have Camping Municipal with Piscene (swimming pool). But also lots of private sites of good quality.

We do this every year with our 3 kids and are now pro's. Tow a trailer tent, go via the tunnel (Tescos vouchers can convert to free tickets). We stop twice on the way down, and have pop up tents for convenience on these overnighters. To get reliably good weather you have to go south; I don't go away to camp out in the rain and cold.

The Atlantic coast is changeable, but nice beaches, waves, French lifeguards are good. We went to Ile de Noirmoutier a few years back which is not too far. Archachon is very popular, a little lower down. This year we are trying Biarritz, kids can surf while I ride up in the hills. Watch the beach campsites, some are a bit rowdy.

We returned to the Cevennes National park several years running. Lovely deep gorges for snorkelling, canoeing, climbing, riding with good weather. Last time we mixed in a few days on the Med at Cap d'Agde - full on banana boats etc. Its usually really hot with just a few thunderstorms.

Never tired the Alps - weather seems a bit more extreme but I might have this wrong.
Brittany - cold and wet (THE CLUE IS IN THE NAME)
UK campsite website can be good for reviews. I can recommend some sites.

Just briefly mentioned the Alps to the OH. She said "We're not going skiing" which made sense until I reminded her we were going in August. She then immediately vetoed any idea of me sodding off on a bike for a day. 🙁

I can recommend some sites

Please do. I'm usually pretty good at picking out a decent site in the UK but I have no idea what to expect over there. Top idea on the pop up tents, hadn't thought of that, will come in handy as we are expecting to break up the trip on the way back as well.

I'm leaning towards the med coast as weather is more guaranteed just means extra driving time or an extra stop on the way down.

I can recommend Florac, camping pont du tarn
6.5hrs from centre of Paris though. We will be staying there for a week on our way back from a spell in Corsica this summer. Our 4th visit.

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/route-guideride-report-france-tarn-cevennes-big-post-pic-heavy

http://www.camping-florac.com/anglais/index.html

She said "We're not going skiing" which made sense until I reminded her we were going in August. She then immediately vetoed any idea of me sodding off on a bike for a day.

you could definitely have played that better... a cast iron promise of no skiing, and then sneak off on your bike. nothing says 'relationship' like technicalities 🙂

You can ski the glaciers in Summer. In the Alps expect half the days to be wet at some time in July and a few wet days a week in August.

I've stayed on the site Stoner mentions, great if you like an active holiday and sitting around the municipal pool recovering. I remember a 2.5-year-old being too heavy to carry far which would be frustrating. A bit young for the kayaking too.

A beach is nice with kids but the Med and Atlantic coasts will be busy almost everywhere. I've stayed almost everywhere on the French coast at some time and there's nowhere I can point to and say you'll have a great time in August. Some places are just too busy, some mosquito ridden, some attract louts. We were in Arcachon last year, nice place, good weather, good beaches, rich people, plenty of cycle paths, too much traffic to even think of using the car - a good holiday.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Really going to have to have a good think about the sites we pick as you say Edukator is can be a right pain the back carrying a toddler about.

Can't help on the sites down south, if your looking for one near Paris I can recomend Camping du 4 Vents, nr Disneyland. Massive pitches, nice pool, on site cafe (bit pricey). And it's a few mins drive from the last stop on the Paris train network, so a day pass works well. A day in Paris was ace, best day of our hols, kids loved it.
We are looking for somewhere probably around the same area as you, after a few days at Disney.
Camping in France is great. (Well ok, caravanning in France I should say).

I m from Millau, about 5 hours from Paris.
Lots of campsite and things to do for all ages. Same river as Florac.
This year, we are going there for a few days then camping in Agde.
3 kids, 6 8 and 11. Driving through the night. Eurostar at 7pm, should be at my mum early next morning.

Finding campsites in France isn't difficult. As a rule, we just put the tent in the car and decide where we want to go on any given day. I'd head for Brittany, it's about a 4 hour drive from Paris to the Brittany coast. You can download POI files for your sat nav with all the campsites in France on it. And if you get really stuck, you stop at McDo and use their free wifi 😀

My advice re: tents is to get down Decathlon. They're good, because they do tents that have a good 3-4 inch gap around the bottom of the flysheet. English people seem to have an obsession with sewn in groundsheets. Which sort of makes sense if you insist in camping when it's hammering down with rain. It's hot in France during the summer, and the last thing you want to do is to be trying to sleep in a hermetically sealed nylon tent... Try and get a tent that has a door you can prop open to make a canopy, or take a tarp and two poles so you can get some shade. You will also need to take some rock / hard ground pegs pegs, which are basically masonry nails. And you need to get the best coolbox you can, because stuff gets warm fast!

This site is below is probably the best we've ever stayed in, they have a really nice little bar / restaurant, pool, water slide and the like for kids. The pool / bar is about as close to being at a hotel as I've had when we're camping. And it's right next to the beach. It's also part of a chain, so I assume you can get more of the same from their other sites.
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We also camped at St Lunaire, on a site called camping longchamps which is about 150m from the beach. It's got an indoor pool and a decent bar that does food on site.

Saint Briac sur mer is a nice little town, slightly further down the coast. You can cycle there quite easily from St Lunaire, and I should imagine there are a lot of decent sites around there.

There are also loads of campsites in Carnac, where you can you go and see the standing stones.

South Brittany is great. We camped at Piriac and loved it, but that was many years ago so my have changed somewhat!

Have never camped near the coast in France (we don't do beach holidays)but camping with kids in France is brilliant.

The Castels group are worth looking at. We used this one http://en.camping-gorgesduchambon.com/ a few years ago. It is in the northern Dordogne, so a shorter drive than the south coast. It has changed hands since but had tennis, mini-golf, swimming and toddler pools, pony rides and a river to paddle in all on site. There was plenty of hilly riding, both on and off road, all around. Our kids are older that yours but they never really wanted to leave the site because there was so much to do.

Bear in mind that if you go in August the motorways to the south will be extremely busy both ways on the key changeover weekends, in a no parking spaces at services even in the dead of night kind of busy. Something to think of if travelling with a young child.

Cycling or not the Alps are wonderful. We stayed in Annecy last summer on the way back from the south of France and I wish we had spent more than a few days there.

Tron: we are planning on borrowing a tent which has a sewn in groundsheet. Is it that bad having one?

Taken your advice re the coolbox as well thanks to the decathlon PSA.

I don't know how hot it is with a sewn in groundsheet, as I've never had a tent that has one. If you've got plenty of vents you can open and leave the doors open of an evening, you should be able to get it to cool down before you're trying to kip.

Either way, sewn in groundsheet or not, if it's sunny in France and you're in a tent, it gets too warm to stay in bed after about 8am.

Sewn in groundsheets are fine as long as the tent has reasonable ventilation. We've been using one in France for years.

If the weather conditions are right for mosquitoes you'll get eaten alive down the Atlantic coast and along the Med west of Marseille without a sealed tent. Tents with mosquito nets in doors and vents are the best. One of the nice things about a tent is that it cools down quickly at night. We worked/lived in premises overlooking OM in Marseille one hot summer, it was mid thirties with everything open at night so sleep was only possible with a big fan blowing directly at us.

Which sort of makes sense if you insist in camping when it's hammering down with rain. It's hot in France during the summer...

Yes, it's very hot, which means that the thunderstorms this generates cause the rain to hammer down far more than it ever does here! I've had flysheets soaked by water and mud splashing up off the ground; also seen rain being battered through the fly as a fine mist, the rain was that hard.

One of the nice things about a tent is that it cools down quickly at night.

Also they heat up incredibly quickly in the morning.. Being forced out of bed at 7am every day as a teenager was a shock.. 🙂

Just spent 4 nights in Annecy at La Ferme campsite. Very nice area, we will be going back.

Big blue lake to swim in and a bus to take you and your bike to the top of La Semnoz 🙂

Plus a cycle path runs from one end to the other so you can stay away from the road. The air is full of crazy people riding the thermals and the lake is warm enough for swimming.

It was pretty busy early July, could be murder in August but if you stay further down the lake from Annecy as we did, you'll be ok.

Annecy is glorious. One of the main roads through the town is closed at the moment though so trying to get through on a Saturday is hell! 😆

We spent two weeks at Hutopia near Senonches a little while back. Recommended.

Though, Given that this is a two month old thread, I expect it's a bit late for the OP now...

i hate annacy. tourist trap designed to extract every penny.... 2 euro to get on the beach(which was actually just an area of grass next to the water) i politely declined and went else where to eat my lunch.

bourg d'osian at the foot of alpe dhuez on the hand - 5.5 hrs from paris is like heaven 😀 - only issue is you might get a little green with all the cyclists about.

la cascade campsite - has activities for the littleuns on a daily basis - evening entertainment most nights of the palatable variety (unlike la piscine across the road who insist on playing badly covered music till 11pm every night so loud you can hear it at your pitch) nice cool clean pool and good facilities.

second the decathlon tents - it gets bloody warm out there - their vented tents are awesome. but withstand the alpine rain with no issues. cool box essential - most sites have freezers for about 80 cents a block - as for tents cooling down at night - i can assure you the first trip without the decathlon tent and all its venting - they did not cool down at all at night - would not like to have had a kid in tow.

I'm leaning towards the med coast as weather is more guaranteed just means extra driving time or an extra stop on the way down.

You will find the trip down is exciting but its a drag coming back 🙁

Trail rat, your no doubt right about Annecy itself, we only had two hours there, too busy. La Ferme is 15km down the lake, no real need to visit the town.

Domaines Des Ormes near Dol in Brittany is really good if you have little kids, not camped there, only used mobile homes via Canvas Holidays