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Hi everyone, this is my very 1st posting as a recent recruit to MHF.
All of our touring has been all over most of Ireland and Northern Ireland & England & Wales over the last decade, but this year we are heading for France for all of July and a bit of August. Only thing booked is ferry landing at Roscoff and ferry home at Cherbourg. We, (just me and the good lady wife) are thinking of heading down the coast via Brest and eventually to Bordeaux then inland with my personal target of the Normandy landings area to experience some of the WW2 sites on the last few days of our tour.
Apart from that and bringing the "aires France guide", a good map and satnav we have no plans.
(I wonder if other readers use their TESCO vouchers for the ferries. I collected £150 vouchers over a year ( converts to £450 for travel vouchers) and our return trip is costing me £170 travelling from Rosslaire to Roscoff and home from Cherbourg to rosslaire (includes cabins)
We have rented an RV in USA for a month but used sites all the way from Boston to Buffalo and back but this time we want to use the aires. I have heard about the France Passion book and would like to hear if anyone has used them recently and what do you think,
Cheers John & Emily
Hi John and Emily and welcome to MHF. A good decision to join...!
We've certainly used France Passion sites and enjoy them very much. Many of them do tend to be a bit off the beaten track so keep your eyes skinned for the small flower sign they use to show where you can park. Don't automatically assume that the sat nav takes to to the parking place- as we did first time. We pulled into the farmyard, Sunday lunchtime, and felt so embarrassed when the whole family got up from the table to help with the 34 point turn needed to get us out of the farmyard and to the nearby parking !
We use the France Passion scheme and have found the reception at all of the vineyards to be VERY welcoming with never any problems.
True we have often ended up buying yet more wine but the experience has been great and we now have a good wine store!
The journey you are planning is one that we have done, there are some great places to visit - it is worth taking the time to enjoy each area rather than covering too much ground, Brittany alone could take several weeks - make sure to visit Concarneau and also Quimper - great places with different atmospheres.
Moving down the coast there are so many great places, it is difficult to list them all in a small space, but one of our favourites is the Isle de Noirmoutier which can be quiet or busy depending on where you choose to go. The area around Niort is called the green Venice - there are a series of waterways which are stunning (we used a municipal site there).
Inland from Bordeaux? (We live there so may be biased........) But try to visit St Emilion of you like high quality red wine........ (but don't try to take the MH into the village - they are not permiited as the village is tiny, steep and with very narrow streets - but it is easily walkable and a Garnd Cru Chateau visit is well worth the time (and it's free to try the wines) - they are very welcoming indeed.
All in all there is so much to see before you get back to Normandy, but for me the Musee de la Paix (The Peace Museum) on the edge of Caen is a must - a really thought provoking time which should not be cut short. The landing beaches all have so much to see that you could spend weeks in that part of France alone......
As you can see we LOVE the variety that can be found in France - to such an extent that we chose to retire to the area South of Bergerac and continue to visit so many great places......
Does that give you a hint of what we like????
We are always happy to answer questions - just ask either via the open forum or via PM........
Passion France is great but remember there usually no waste facilities but usually water.
And yes its a great way to add to your wine collection as many will want to give you the tour and as we have found private tastings.
One of our fondest memories was at Chigny les Roses near Epernay on the Champagne route sharing wonderful champagne with three generations of a 5 generation champagne maker family at 10.30 in the morning. hic!
I am sure this will be the first of many great adventures for you.
That sounds like a really good trip...planned to some degree but with a bit of wriggle room. ...I like it !!
I have never used France Passion, when we had a big RV our personal choice was to avoid France ( we used the Ferry from either Standander or Bilbao,as that was cost effective)...but now that we have a little caravan we are getting to places we haven't been to for years, and are enjoying the meander !!!..
Enjoy...........
Jenny
______________________________________________________________ Jenny and Gordon Smith..
from Easter-September we are in Hemsby ( working in a campsite ) ...then we travel to Agadir, Morocco for the rest of the year in the sun.
We love to meet everyone...just PM us for our address !
I have to be a stick in the mud (Sorry) I was a member of France Passion, I did not get on with it, I found it difficult to locate sites, however I would not say that you should not join.
I find that using a combination of "Aires", "Municiple", and Commercial campsites, with the option of using National, and the Toll road network, works for me.
Enjoy your trip.
Normandy, volely aire at Arromanche, right in the little town, next to the play ground.
Hi everyone, this is my very 1st posting as a recent recruit to MHF.
All of our touring has been all over most of Ireland and Northern Ireland & England & Wales over the last decade, but this year we are heading for France for all of July and a bit of August. Only thing booked is ferry landing at Roscoff and ferry home at Cherbourg. We, (just me and the good lady wife) are thinking of heading down the coast via Brest and eventually to Bordeaux then inland with my personal target of the Normandy landings area to experience some of the WW2 sites on the last few days of our tour.
Apart from that and bringing the "aires France guide", a good map and satnav we have no plans.
(I wonder if other readers use their TESCO vouchers for the ferries. I collected £150 vouchers over a year ( converts to £450 for travel vouchers) and our return trip is costing me £170 travelling from Rosslaire to Roscoff and home from Cherbourg to rosslaire (includes cabins)
We have rented an RV in USA for a month but used sites all the way from Boston to Buffalo and back but this time we want to use the aires. I have heard about the France Passion book and would like to hear if anyone has used them recently and what do you think,
Cheers John & Emily
Hi John & Emily
We use aires in the main and had 4 trips last year to France mainly Normandy & Brittany using Tesco vouchers and the tunnel converting £200 of vouchers into the 4 trips plus benefit of a quick crossing unaffected by weather! We have all the aires on our satnav so finding a place to stay has never been an issue with the thousands to play with.
Agreed they can sometimes be a tad difficult to find due to somewhat vague directions in some cases but well worth the effort. We have had some wonderful stops on various vineyards, small farms and on one occasion, a duck farm in the Dordogne producing superb foie gras.
We have never stopped at an "aire" despite the numerous supporters of them on here. The ones we looked at always seemed to be chocka block with M/Homes parked very close to each other. Not our preference so we tend to go for the quiet France Passion sites and are rarely disappointed. We will however retain an open mind and keep a look out for quiet aires when we next visit France this September.
______________________________________________________________ Brent & Sue
hope you don't mind me asking, but when you use aires are they signposted or do you have to get a book with them all in. we are off to france in august and don't really want to have to book sites, do you ever turn up and have problems getting in?
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Norway
