Complete newbie!!

[Coffeeandavocado]

Hello, hoping someone can help. We've hired a camper van for two weeks in France. Thinking of booking some campsites to get us started off as we don't know what we're doing, but I keep wondering if we park up somewhere for 3 nights for example, do we have to park up and leave the van there or can we say take the van out sight seeing during the day and then return or an afternoon/evening. Sorry, it's hard to explain what I mean!!

You can take your van out sightseeing. When we had a motorhome we used to leave a marker on our pitch so people knew it was being used.

I’ve seen people leave as little as a couple of folding chairs to mark their pitch. Others have had a gazebo or stand alone awning.

Some parks have cones for you to leave - I kid you not!!! Or you could always invest in a penguin bollard he he he!

there are many sites in France that are near to towns or beaches - so that when you park up, you don't have to pack everything away to go out as you can walk.

That said in France its much easy to go out from the campsite in the day as there are many more place to park the van than there are in Uk as they don't seem to have height barriers and even on street parking seems easier soemwhow.

As others have said you can leave a marker - we sometimes used to put up a beach wind break for a bit of privacy - so when we drove off that was left there.

Have fun

If it’s likely to be sunny, you will want some kind of shade anyway. We have a Coleman event shelter which is good, but a bit bulky.

If you have a camper van, it might be worth checking out FrancePassion if you want to get off the beaten track, even if just for a night or two. Never used it as we have a caravan - it's only for motor homes - but met plenty of people who have: it's free to stop overnight - although you're generally expected to buy a bottle of wine from the vineyard or something from the farm shop, depending on the speciality of the place; and you can only stay one night in each place, but an opportunity to see a different side of France, especially if you only need a stopover. www.france-passion.com/en/

😭💔