Travelling through France, where to stopover?

[FredWorms]

Family of 5, arriving Calais early afternoon, travelling to Bordeaux and looking for a one-night stop-over. Cheap as chips please

?

There are loads of cheapie next-to-the-motorway chains - my fave is premiere classe (about€40 a room, free wifi) although b&b and etap are also fine - formule 1 is a bit cheaper (€30) but the rooms don't have own bathroom

B&B hotel Rouen

Look on the map. Find approx half way and search accommodation. Logis are usually fairly cheap

We did Calais to La Rochelle earlier this summer and stayed at a Hotel B&B in Alencon. Worked well.

Chambre d'hôtes can be cheaper than the cheap hotels and much nicer. For a family of four, we need two rooms at a Formule 1 which costs 78 euros without breakfast. Just north of Lyon (so not on your route unfortunately) we had a room with a double bed, two singles and our own bathroom for 70 euros including a really good breakfast with homemade bread and jam. There was a sofa bed in the room too so we could have squeezed in another two children if necessary.
Also, at chambre d'hotes, we always ask to refreeze the iceblocks from our cool box which isn't something you can do at a hotel.

And don't forget your breathalysers. Law from July 2012.

I don't think the breathalysers a actually enforceable until sept (if anyone gets stopped), but worth avoiding the hassle and getting some anyway
You can get a 'France driving kit' off amazon which has all the regulatory bits in it for about £35

We stayed at a hotel in the Logis group - Hotel de France in La Chartre sur le Loir. We travelled with friends, and took both the quadruple rooms, although one actually had a fifth bed in. I don't know whether they would let you book it for five though, as they're advertised for four. It was a fairly cheap stopover from memory, and while not a great hotel it was fine for a place to rest for the night. Also the town had a few restaurants so we found it easy to get something to eat. Only problem then was the hotel wouldn't provide breakfast - you either did half board or bed only, there was no B&B option.

You can buy breathalisers in French supermarkets for less than 1 EUR which we did, rather than buy them for £8 on the boat!!

I've not found the kits anywhere in France so I bought them off amazon

Our local garage is selling them and we are north Scotland!

We are also a family of five arriving early afternoon in Calais! Going to Limoges though. So far we've checked out Formule1 in Chartres but for £70 the night as we need 2 rooms. For only £10 more or so we can get a slightly nicer hotel in Chartres... and I'm going to check out the chambres d'hote. Why is it so difficult to get a family room??? As if nobody in France ever has more than two children?! Bizarre.

EarlofDoncaster - we often stay at www.hotel-bb.com. We are a family of 5 so we book a family room for 4 and the cheapest other room. We then strip the smaller room to make up the extra bed in the family room. We found this worked best as in effect we were only paying for one extra bed.

The breakfasts in the hotel-bb chain are pretty good so you need to have booked enough beds to take advantage.

Another alternative is to look at www.logisdefrance.com. These will offer individual hotels, you may be able to find 5 bed family rooms however IME these do get snapped up.

We took the view that the stopover should be part of the holiday so spent two nights in these tipis. 6 hours from Calais, then took us 6 hours to get down to just south of Carcassonne glampingtipis.fr/. We had the six of us (mum, dad and four kids) staying and there was ample space, and very luxurious!

ps - you're probably aware by now that the breathalyser kits are no longer legal requirement in France...warning triangle and hi-vis vest are though!