Talk to me about camping in France.

[tiredemma]

we have only done long weekends in the uk- DP making noises about france next year.

any advice?

[tiredemma]

Anyone?

We have our own tent etc.

any advice appreciated, or any links to sites

[cornsilk]

I will lurk as we're going for the first time this year. I want to know what to take food wise. Obviously won't need to take wine!

[TillyScoutsmum]

We've camped in France a few times - would recommend the Vendee - its got the second best weather after the Cote D'Azur - but isn't as far to travel and is cheaper. Loads of campsites around Royan worth a look.

IME, French campsites seem to be better equipped and have nicer facilities than UK ones

In terms of food, we bought most of what we needed from local supermarkets

[snorkle]

Take teabags and marmalade. You can get most other stuff out there.

[LambethLil]

Take everthing you need to cook with. I thought I couldn't take gas on the ferry , so didn't then couldn't find any there; spent the first few days traipsing 'round camping shops and eating cold food until we found a Decathlon that stocked gas that was compatible with our stove.

[cornsilk]

Is the food the same price? Can I get wine on the campsite?

[tiredemma]

any campsite recommendations?

[Walkthedinosaur]

Have just come back from camping in the Vendee, millions of campsites, lovely and clean, fabulous pools and on site entertainment including kids club. Only thing we can complain about is the pitch was a bit small for our tent and not really any green spaces for the DC's to play on, as all green space was taken up with plots, but would go back again. DC's would go again tomorrow - we had tears when the tent came down to go home.

Oh and not really a campsite shop like you'd get in the UK, but the local supermarkets had loads of camping stuff for sale in them.

[RTKangaMummy]

please link to the site

[Walkthedinosaur]

www.la-grand-metairie.com This is the campsite we used. A bit of a noisy website, but nice campsite with wonderfully clean washing and toilet facilities.

It was in the Vendee.

[Lucycat]

We are in france in the loire at the moment! Wine is cheap,shame that the weather isn't better though. Lakey is still waterproof! I am on my mobile btw

[PeaMcLean]

Lucycat

[Tas1]

Recommend the VENDEE.
The only negative I can think of amoung the hundreds of positives, is that their pitches are quite small. Maybe it was just our particular site, but we had to pitch our tent sideways at an angle to get it to fit.

[Walkthedinosaur]

Tas1 we agree, we couldn't get out of the front door of our tent because it was pressed up next to the hedge. Pitches were small.

[LilRedWG]

If you don't mind a longer drive, here is wonderful.

[Lucycat]

Our pitch is 20m by 10 m! We are at chantepie near saumur . Drizzling again so need wine with lunch! :-P

[vitomum]

depends what kind if camping you are into. we have just come back from 3 weeks in brittany / normandy. the thing that bugged the shit out of me was the fact that all the campsites had 10 foot high hedges round each pitch. there seems to be an obsession with privacy. for me camping is all about the view, not looking at a hedge. the whole french camping thing just didn't seem to fit with my understanding of camping so i was a bit dissapointed. having said that we did do no research befor we went and did stick to the coast. might have been different elsewhere

[ivykaty44]

I love chantepie, no issues with privacy on that site and as lucy says big pitches, two swimming pools and beautiful views.

I like shopping in carrefore, not sure whether food is cheaper or not due to our prices rising here this year and the euro going up? But we usually take a store cuboard of food brought in uk to last us unexpected moments of not going of the site and not wanting to move

[mabel1973]

we are also looking at France next year, so v interested in this thread!
We are going to be in a VW camper with awning and three kids (3rd one isn't born yet) will be 6 / 7 months when we go....am hoping to still be BFing and thinking we could probably get stuff to mush up for weaning easy enough??? Or am I crazy even considering this?

Sorry for hijack.....

[FluffyMummy123]

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[FluffyMummy123]

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[Walkthedinosaur]

No Grand Metarie is deffo in the Vendee, there is one in Brittany but not the one I was at.

I know this because I live in Southern Brittany and spent 3 hours driving south to get to the site. (Have sat nav so know I wasn't driving round in circles

[scrambled]

We've just been to Burgandy and it was lovely. Just shopped in supermarkets, and of cousre the lovely bakers shops! If you eat out take a travel highchair and order off menu for kids meals otherwise you end end with constant steak hache and chips.

[welshdeb]

Just come back from the Vendee we have a touring caravan not a tent though.

I would go for it. I love the Vendee for a number of reasons. Weather is always better than the uk but not too hot, its not too far to drive from the ferry ports.

There are a lot of 4 star sites in the Vendee many with large pitches, covered pools, good play facilities.

There is a big Decathlon store in Roche sur Yon which isnt exactly a campling store stocks lots of camping stuff.

We tend to take stuff that is expensive in the french supermarkets like Tomato sauce and breakfast cereals tea bags etc otherwise you can get mostly everything you need.