spending money south of france for 2 wks

[skintonhols]

have booked south of france, on campsites some tent /some mobile home... for 2 weeks. I'm trying to figure out how much we'll need spending money wise. Haven't been to french campsites before.
For those who do similar hols - how much do you usually spend per week?

And how much of that do you take in cash, use cards etc?

I'm hoping we can be fairly simple with our food etc - any top tips for good cheap easy meals (other than pasta with tomato sauce - which is a given!)

We have always paid for what we can with a card, and used cash points. (visa debit)

Yummmm French food.

Those lovely stalls that have ready cooked chickens with the potatoes cooked underneath. Great pates and cooked meat from the deli including my fave remoulade (bit like coleslaw). Mergeuz (spicy sausages) and other things to barbecue.

Huge choice of yoghourts etc in the hypermarkets and good bargains in the market places.

Fish soup in bottles - great with added grated cheese.

Makes me want to go there now............

French prices are pretty much the same as here, so take your normal weekly food budget plus a bit extra for cafe coffee's etc, the camp site shops tend to be quite expensive so make sure you get to a biggish supermarket, and use the shop for milk/bread etc, We usually take the vast amount of our money in euros and just use our card for diesel and some meals out and attraction tickets etc, it's really easy to cash point cash so if your uncomfortable with carrying cash around then just use the hold in the wall, google which bank you can use your card in.

How much you will spend depends on what you are planning to do. Eating out can be pricey in the SoF - more so on the Riviera than languedoc. I always allow 100 euros per day on holiday - and that covers buying self catering food, petrol, attractions and the odd meal out. You can manage on much less by more pool days and not eating out.

Quite often we will buy a jar of something like coq au vin and then get chips from the takeaway. Yummy, convenient and not too expensive.

If in a mobile home with an oven dont plan to use it for actual cooking, keeping things warm is about all they can manage.

Pork chop with cider is delicious, simple and not too expensive - add chips (see above).

Merguez (see BlackandGold's post) are delicious served with savoury rice.

Eating local will always be cheaper. It is very easy to over-buy so do a bit of planning before walking into the shops!

Things like herbs, oil etc we buy locally. We take squash to drink from home.