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My wife and our 3 boys (9,7,2) are looking at camping in Northern France having heard good things for those on a budget. Any tips?
I'm only going off childhood memories but north west might be worth a look ie Brittany.
We did the first couple of trips in Normandy but shifted south for the weather. We found that if we went 3/4 hours down from the St Malo ferry then you can get south of the Loire where the weather is noticeably better. Camping is ace, but is made significantly better by nice weather.
Vendee is good for weather or bit further north in southern west Brittany coast is good around arzon/ sarzeau area at the south of the mouth of the gulf de morbihan. Nice beaches, market towns and marinas and plenty of bike lanes etc.
As Burko says, we havd nice but busy times on the Isle de Re (cycling niceness) and in La Tranche Sur Mer a nice little seaside town.
We did the first couple of trips in Normandy but shifted south for the weather. We found that if we went 3/4 hours down from the St Malo ferry then you can get south of the Loire where the weather is noticeably better. Camping is ace, but is made significantly better by nice weather
Not camping but having holiday'd in France a lot, Brittany/Normandy can be very hit and miss with the weather and that extra few hours down to the Loire generally does make a MASSIVE difference (similarly the extra few hours from there towards the Lot etc!).
Did a season working in Brittany in '98 and loved it, don't remember the weather being notably different to anywhere else, it was like Cornwall turned up a degree or two, but of course the further south you go the warmer it'll be. Brittany's up-and-down like Cornwall, but have camped on Re, Oleron and Noirmoutier and they're all great for family cycling, but we found Re a little featureless, the other two have more forests and even gentle inclines. 🙂 I will as always advocate for municipal campsites - nice, unfussy, clean and tidy very French campsites at a bargain rate, heading to Quiberon this year and can't wait. 🙂
Municipal Camping’s are generally great value. If they’re near a beach which they often are you don’t need a pool.
Il de re is also great but we liked the arzon/ sarzeau area a bit further north as it’s a bit less hectic.
No toll motorways in Brittany as well which helps if you’re in a motorhome or van etc.
Pre kids we just used to get the ferry over and go north west - Finisterre area if the weather was good or go south west Brittany/ vendee if the weather was better there! I love the openness and ramshackle end of the world feel of Finisterre. There are some great municipal sites and aires out there right on the sea in some amazing locations.
This is our go-to camp site in Brittany http://www.campinglocquirec.com/en/
It’s an amazing place right on the beach with plenty to do. The rock pooling is fabulous and you can dig up clams on the beach for dinner...all the locals do it.
So many restaurants near by and the cafe of site is great for simple food, local beer for you and ice creams for the kids.
It’s really hard to beat unless you go further south to warmer areas.
The Plymouth Roscoff ferry, whilst pricy lads you at around 8am a 30min drive from the camp site.
We’ve missed out the last few years due to covid and have sorely missed the place.
We did the first couple of trips in Normandy but shifted south for the weather. We found that if we went 3/4 hours down from the St Malo ferry then you can get south of the Loire where the weather is noticeably better. Camping is ace, but is made significantly better by nice weather.
Not camping but having holiday’d in France a lot, Brittany/Normandy can be very hit and miss with the weather and that extra few hours down to the Loire generally does make a MASSIVE difference
Agree 100%.
We did a couple of holidays staying near Mont Saint-Michel. Its a beautiful part of the world, and when the weather is right its awesome.
We stayed here - http://www.camping-haliotis-mont-saint-michel.com/
Would recommend - nice site, great location.
However, on both holidays we had some horrendous rain, so decided to go further south the following year.
We've stayed here twice - https://www.sandaya.fr/nos-campings/les-alicourts
This place is awesome if you have smaller kids - you literally don't need to leave the site.
Its about 6 hours drive down from the channel tunnel, the Paris ring-road can get a little busy but other than that its an easy drive.
Lots to do in the Loire valley.
Another 3 hours beyond Loire gets you down to the Dordogne, which is beautiful.
The Huttopia campsites are usually very good and they have tents or cabins you can rent.
We've stayed on 4 of them and they've been good. We also hired a cabin on the Colmar site and it was pretty good value