one night stops when travelling through france

[absolutelynot]

Hi, looking at booking eurocamp for next year but in Italy/South of France (undecided) either way, we need to stop one night. Any tips/hotel chains you know of? Anyone done this? What was your itinerary?

Thanks!

We drive to South of France every year. we do it in one day, but that is because we are tight!

There are loads of cheap motels in France and we have had very good experience with them. Family rooms, clean and basic, chared showers and basic breakfast.
Places like Formula One, Campanile,

...and now the names of the other chains have gone right out of my head!
Every town has one or two.
be warned, it can be difficult to book a baby in, friend recently had this problem, you can't book them in but you can't have them in the room either or something. If you have an under 2 I can ask her what the deal was.

We drive down to near Toulouse, and from door to door including ferry and stops is about 15 hours. we are rigorous about stops, every 2.5 hours, snack, toilet and run around, we used to make kids run and touch 20 trees, or do races etc.
Dvd player, audio CDs, and air conditioning all essential.
We take a cool box with breakfast, lunch and snacks and then stop for a meal for dinner.

Meant to say - you book by credit card and then use your card to enter through front door, so unmanned and therefore inexpensive, and you can arrive any time.

How many of you are there? If you are looking for connecting rooms, Novotel suites have them.

also we are about 2.5-3 hours from Dover - the rdoor to door time isn't very helpful otherwise!

Avoid at all costs driving 1st weekend in August. You can find out the busy road times in France by googling it.

Thanks so much. We are a family of five, youngest will be 5 at the time.

My OH dries for work ALOT so a 15 hour drive is nothing to him really, however I haven't been driving long enough to share the travel. The run around is a great idea.

Are the unmanned ones the Formula One and Campanile?

There are some suggestions on [[https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_advice_tips/2936436-Good-place-to-stop-about-2-or-3-hours-south-of-Calais]] thread.

Try again

As I remeber yes, possibly also Novotel. There are others too.

Our 15 hours assumes 20 minute snack stops and 45 lunch stop. Dinner depends on how close we are as to how long we sit over the meal!

We set off at 5:30 and arrive at 11 pm ish French time. kids are asleep in car and dh and I go in and make beds.
Can't do that to a commercial property though, need to arrive at set time.

I would go a lot further than that though Cardinal. Otherwise there is a long way to go the next day.

eg
2.5 hours to ferry (Dover)
breakfast on ferry
2.5 hours to just N Paris, stop lunch
2.5 hours to South of Paris, stop snack
2.5 hours stop dinner/overnight.

Then next day you will be there by lunch/early afternoon.

The train is faster, but more expensive and no run around time.

Formula one are v basic, no shower attached to the room and no air con.. we go for ibis budget and haven't found a bad one yet.
Mister bed are good too as they also have showers.
They are still basic, but not as basic as formula 1.
We drive Leeds to south of France, normally stop either around saint
Quentin, saint omer or Reims.
Reins tinqeux ibis is good, just off the motorway, industrial but near a supermarket for fuel and also McDonalds etc.
Further south Troyes we have gone to and stayed at the mister bed, again industrial park but very reasonable.

Mister bed and ibis take four people unsure about five but I'm sure some bed sharing would suffice for just one night?

I've stayed in many Formula 1s, also Premiere Classe - these have showers in each room. Both always v clean.

It does depend on what time you are setting off. When we've gone we've left the London area late afternoon and got the shuttle, so by the time we get to the Reims area it's getting quite late, but you've done a good few hours driving. Then you can get an early start in the morning, stop for breakfast after an hour or two, stop for elevenses, lunch, and if necessary afternoon tea to break up the journey and arrive at civilised hour.

If you're taking the overnight ferry, or leaving early in the morning, then obviously you can get further before stopping for the night. But there are similar hotels available in other places, but I can't personally recommend any, not having been to them.

In the chains you will need two rooms - we are a family of 5 and they won't allow you to all be in the same room - very annoying!

Qualys is a chain with actual reception staff. Use google maps to figure out where halfway is, then booking.com to identify hotels near where you are going. Reims Tinqueux area is en route to the alps so probably good for Italy. Think south of France is A71 so Bourges or Clermont Ferrand. For Atlantic coast Le Mans , Angers or Tours. All depends where you start from and what time as to how far you get ( obviously).

don't try and put 5 people into a room booked for 4, even if the last person is a baby.
I know people who were turned away late at night from their booking for this.
It is somethign to do with French law and the number of people they are allowed.

We've just got back from a similar trip (with just one baby so a little different to you in terms of room size needed). We stayed at Ashford Premier Inn the night before getting the channel tunnel, as we don't live in the South anymore. We then had one overnight in France the following day before reaching our Eurocamp on The French Riviera. For the overnight going down we stayed at an Ibis budget in Macon, it was about 5 mins off the motorway. On the way back we stayed at a lovely independent, but cheap BnB called Racine's, it's about an hour below Reims. We then stayed at the Beconsfield Ibis budget on the English side (only £34 for our family room).

Enjoy your trip.

We are in the Midlands and did home to Colmar in Eastern France in one day, which is doable because you get a break on the Dover to Calais Ferry (or we might have done Ramsgate to Dunkirk because it was cheaper). We stayed in a chain hotel right by the motorway, where we had a family room for us and DCs aged 7 and 3.

Next morning we went from Colmar via Basle and St Gotthard Pass, Lake Logarno, Milan (terrifying Italian drivers on the ring road!) and down to a campsite in Tuscany. Phew.

If youre doing eurocamp, you can do stopovers in other eurocamp sites on the way down. We went to a eurocamp in Argeles sur mer a few years ago, and went down the east side on the way down, stopping at a site in burgundy for one night and staying in a tent. On the way back we went on the west coast and stopped overnight at a site in the Loire. It was just added on to the total eurocamp price, and meant it was cheaper than a hotel. Kids found it really exciting

thanks for all the help lovely people. Really have pulled our plans together more and have more of a targeted approach to planning now!

and always book in advance-- much cheaper than just showing up.....