Frugal 3 day trip to South of france ! Any tips or what food to take to save us spending a fortune

[fakeblondie]

Ok we are leaving here Sun morning and have around 6 hour drive to hotel.
I have swapped some Tesco vouchers to spend on a lovely meal out Sun night ( well pleased with that ).
6 am crossing to Calais followed by long long drive prob 10-12 hours.
We have a hotel booked that night to rest but not booked food.
Early start Monday morning and prob 5-6 hr drive (all times inc stops ).
We are a family of 5 , me dc x 3 .
I feel like I need to cater for Duke of ed type trip ! Am thinking I do NOT want to paying a fortune at French motorway services for pies sandwiches ect, but equally I cannot pack sandwiches on sat and still be eating them on Tue ??
Ive thought about the type of thing we can add water to in hotel ect but everything is full of salt and I have renal disease so cannot eat salt.
I can sort myself out separately but so many packaged foods are highly processed and full of salt.
It wont do family any harm to consume some junk for a few days and I can pack fruit ect too but any tips on a meal ideas ect for 3 days would be fab!!!

[DocMarten]

Whereabout in the South of France are you going?
Cote D'azur is very very expensive, but you can buy lovely hot chickens, and fresh fruit cheaply, and make picnics up.

[fakeblondie]

Hi
We are going to St tropez area.
Im happy to spend on eating out and making up picnics ect on hol when we actually there but want to keep my spending money for the actual hol iykwim. I could easily get through a couple of hundred pounds otherwise on the way there and then back again.
Hot chicken sounds yummy ! What a lovely idea .

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Many hotels are near supermarkets. Google before you go! We pick up a picnic in the morning for our journey. If you make it a really good picnic then you wouldn't need a proper sit down meal at night and could find something cheap out and about.

[SilverViking]

Supermarket is best idea .... We would buy fresh French bread and eat with ham, tomatoes, bananas or similar. Also, yougarts and fruit. Also, supermarkets have petit pains, or pain-Au-chocolate which are individually wrapped, and have a long shelf life...good for snacks too. Take plenty of water.

Take regular short breaks (we try to get 3 hours for first drive, then stop every 2 ish hours). The French motorways are brilliant, and you will easily average 65 to 70 mph when you are driving. Fill up with fuel at supermarkets, as motorway stations are 15 to 25 cents more per litre.

[DocMarten]

If you are eating out in Saint Tropes then be warned a meal will cost about 3 times the price of a meal over here! Delicious though, and we always spoil ourselves when there, so get down to lidl for the food for the journey and save as much money as possible for when you are there. I love it there, you will have a fab time.

[Charlesroi]

Take some tins of three bean salad(or individual tins), and rinse to remove the salt, tuna in spring water etc. Buy a bag of salad leaves, tomatoes and some crusty bread? If you take a plastic container you can make up a salad before you set off from the hotel. Your hotel probably has a mini bar so use the fridge for anything perishable.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I really don't think you need to take tins of tuna and whatnot to France. They do sell them in the supermarkets for a similar price and often there is more choice for flavours.

Take a cool bag is another bit of advice. Then you can put in cold water and in the freezer sections you can get big bags of ice for not a lot to keep your picnic cool.

[Passthecake30]

Just had a slightly similar predicament...went to Legoland for 2 days and could only take a "fresh" picnic for the first day. On the 2nd day I handed out bananas, apples, cereal bars, mini cheese nibble biscuits and sultanas at regular intervals and tricked everyone into not realising that they didn't actually have a sit down lunch :-)

What about the John west light lunch meals and some crackers?

[swallowedAfly]

my sister used to live in france and me and my boyfriend of the time would go over to visit. we always just used to buy a baguette, some good cheese and meats and make sure we had a corkscrew and 'picnic' somewhere pretty when we were hungry.

motorways would be a nightmare for food but if you're stopping each night just buy up in the morning before you go on your way. fresh bakery stuff for breakfast, bread and bits for later on.

[fakeblondie]

Ooh thanks some lovely ideas.
especially like the three bean salad chucked in with tuna ect and will look forward to fresh bread and whatever to go picnic .
I think ill do like another mum and trick them into no main big dinner on the Mon night !

[fossil971]

The French motorway services are always full of families picknicking, complete with blankets, chairs and coldboxes - they have large grass areas for the purpose. If you don't want old sandwiches, take the "makings" in your coldbox. Perhaps freeze a big 2 liter bottle or something to keep it cold for a day or 2? Also take a board, breadknife, some paper towels/plates, and then you just need to stop at a supermarket and get a few baguettes etc each day.

[dotnet]

Hard boiled eggs are wonderful! They take up little space; are nutritious too, and I just quite like them. Lots of things you can buy here before setting off, need no preparation at all... how about sushi, rollmop herrings if you like them bhajis and samosas, hummus. Most of those will go with the salad-y things other people have suggested.
If you wanted to make a big effort in advance you could make a spanish omelette and take it with you.

[eslteacher]

The cheapest way to eat on the road is to try to find a supermarket or boulangerie before you set off and buy in a few plain baguettes - usually around 80 cents each. Then buy pate / round of camembert / sliced saucisson (all v cheap here in France, couple of euros max per packet), stick in middle of picnic blanket with a couple of knives and everyone can just tear off chunks of baguette and make ad hoc sandwiches. Delicious! Follow up with packets of biscuits and dried fruit. The dried fruit might well be cheaper in the UK.

The sandwiches in the service stations are never less than 3 euros, usually 4+ for anything vaguely filling. Chocolate bar around 2 euros, canned drinks around 1.70.

[jojane]

wraps will keep longer than bread, teamed with a tin of tuna, or a jar of peanut butter. eat fresh stuff the first day and stuff that keeps such as peanut butter etc on the second. fruit will keep a couple of days as well cake etc

[ivykaty44]

If you can eat cheese then I would go down the bread and cheese route.

I would pack the cool bag or box with mayo, ham, cucumber and tomato apples, grapes and kiwi, some cheese (it can be cheaper to buy french cheese in english supermarkets) plus some plastic plates a table cloth and a good sharp knife.

Stop and get a few sticks of bread and possibly a carton of pain au chocolate or pain au raisin for afterwards

then stop at an aire and get out the cheese and bread and eat with apples and have the other fruit for afterwards

take some ikea plastic beakers and take juice and water bottles

[Nemanemo]

We have eaten in aires all over France, they are great. Second the hard boiled eggs, taken in their shells. French supermarkets sell tubes of delicious mayonnaise to squirt on halved eggs - my kids' idea of a real treat!