General Q about France - help!

[wickedfairy]

Hi,

We are planning on going camping in France in the summer. At some point on the way home, we will drive from the Vendee and go probably to see Mont St Michel. We will have a car full of stuff and possibly a tent lashed to the roof rack (I am assuming there will not be enough room for it in the boot). Here are my questions, hopefully someone can help me:

1. If we stayed at a hotel/B&B overnight, do any of them have secure parking so our car/contents would be safe?

2. If we parked in a carpark/street during the day to look around town, would this be advisable (full car, tent, etc)

I don't think I would leave a car full of stuff in England, but was wondering about in France - do other people? Mont St Michel area must be full of tourists...

If it is a bad idea, how on earth are we supposed to do such a thing (i.e. look around a town)? Would leave Vendee after breakfast, about 4 hour drive there and ferry is not until about 11pm. Don't want to have to hang around the car the entire time!

Can anyone advise please? Thank You!

Some hotels have secure parking, and in any case I would think a hotel parking (outside of town centres) would be fine.

The biggest risk is in car parks with lots of other tourist cars, so Mont st Michel would be your problem.

IMO the safest place to park with a car full like that is a supermarket car park, or on the main high st if you can (Mt St michel not possible)

The problems I have heard of with cars is theives targetting things like the on board DVD players.

could you not buy or rent a roofbox. we've had many holidays in france with one and never been broken into - though i guess the car wasn't obviously full. we've usually gone to brittany where we have always felt very safe and have sometimes had to leave the car outside the security barriers overnight due to early crossings.

only been to vendee once - so not so sure about there. it was very cold at night - so take loads of blankets

mont st michel will be heaving - i'm no expert on braking into cars, but if i did i think i would go for somewhere quiet and dark surely?

Confused that you were cold in the Vendee. It can be cooler if you are camping and you are not used to it, but other than that Vendeen nights are perfectly plesant, if a little hot in the summer.

frenchfancy we went to la garageiouire in n vendee in july/aug and it was hot during the day and cold at night (ie needed a fleece to sit outside). the rep said this was normal due to the microclimate - and he had tonnes of blankets on his bed.

we camp regularly and on a normal english summer its warmer here in the evening than it was there.

didn't see one mosquito the whole holiday - guess due to cold nights