Camping In france questions

[Oldwestaction]

Hi all.
I'm on the verge of booking the tunnel and a campsite in france for the first week of August, however have a few questions before we commit!
Looking to stay at a site in low normandy. Does anyone have any experience of this area, in particular the weather?
Also I know it's hard to estimate as everyone's spending is different but roughly how much do you think we would need for 2 adults and a teenager for the week?
An idea dh has had is that we just book the tunnel, no campsite and just drive until we find somewhere we like the look of! In his head it will be an amazing, fun road trip. In my head it's total madness! Has anyone ever done this?
Thanks in advance, sure I'll have more questions the more I think about it!

[reallyneedmoresleep]

There are some great campsites in Normandy but they are busy in August as there are lots of people passing through who do an overnight stop before moving on. The area around Bayeux is gorgeous with lots of WW2 stuff to visit and some lovely beaches.
Weather-wise, it won't be very different to the UK.
Have you thought about doing a longer ferry crossing (eg Portsmouth St Malo) and driving to the south of Brittany? You could even get to the Ile de Re in about 5 hours from St Malo.

[GraceGrape]

Also, we have done the "drive until you find somewhere" but only when we were looking for an overnight stop. I wouldn't recommend it in Normandy, which is quite a popular tourist spot, in August if you want to stay at the same place for a week. And definitely not with kids. There were a couple of times we couldn't find a site with space until quite late in the evening.

[GraceGrape]

I've camped there a couple of times. Weather generally a bit warmer than the UK although we had a bit of drizzle. We were able to get to the beach most days. There are some nice beaches there if you plan on staying near the coast.

[frozentree]

I live near there - the weather is pretty similar to the UK, if you're lucky it's a little bit hotter than the UK in the summer but rain is also very likely - there's a reason why it's green and pretty....!!

[Oldwestaction]

Thank you for your replies.
Yes we will be taking our own tent. We have all the gear as we camp in the UK also.
I would like to go south for the guaranteed weather but, we're only going for 7 nights plus I feel a bit nervous as it's the first time we've camped abroad so don't fancy a much longer drive than it will be already (about 4 hours.)
Think I'll bite the bullet and book tomorrow evening!

[Nodney]

I'm assuming you have your camping gear and don't need a pre-erected tent!

We book our main site that we are spending our main holiday in so we can choose somewhere which has the facilities we want (like a pool, nice toilets, snack bar etc). But we wing it using the mobile internet/a french campsite listings book for overnight stops on the way down (we go to the south). We've stopped in some lovely sites overnight and some awful ones. It's hard to tell from a campsite listing book and the internet connection can be patchy sometimes.

Head to any town and you'll see sign posts for campsites but in all honesty, I'd book somewhere! It's not worth the risk of a bad site for your holiday!

The weather tends to be better than the south UK, but not massively. Have a lovely time!

[Dazzalm]

I can't really help with Normandy specifically (I would expect the weather to be similar to the south coast of the UK though), but are you taking your own tent and equipment or looking for a Eurocamp style site with pre erected tents or mobile homes?

I have done the former in Britanny during the summer holidays between 6th form and uni. We had a great time and always found somewhere but it was a looong time ago!

I think you may struggle to just turn up looking for a mobile home or a tent that's all set up already though.

[Oldwestaction]

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