We are just back from two weeks camping in North West France. We flew from Dublin to Beauvais (extremely cheap flights), hired a car from Europcar (excellent value) and headed off.
Although our main trip was to travel around Normandy and Briitany, we first headed to Vareddes just east of Paris for two nights as we had tickets for Disyneyland (two park passport - got a special on-line discount from the disney website). We spent the first two nights in Le Village Parisien 4 star campsite in Vareddes, 12km from Disneyland - lovely site - nice pool, shop only open for limited hours and not a great choice at the snack bar, but very pleasant and own private individual site (approx 50euro for the two nights)
While we were in the Paris area we drove to Versailles to see the Palace but it was extremely busy (5th July - peak season) so we only visited the gardens, which are truly beautiful. We have been to Paris several times so we didn%26#39;t go into the city at all. From Versailles we headed north on the Normandy autoroute - remember to have plenty of change for the tolls - and there are several of them!!! I brought a bag of change with me to keep in the car for this purpose and was well worth it - saved lots of time and hassle searching for change.
Our first stop in Normandy was Giverny - Claude Monet%26#39;s famous house and gardens - stunning, beautiful. From there we went to Les Andelys - a gorgeous little town on the banks of the Seine - we stayed in one of our favourite campsites of our trip here - Le trois rois (3 star)- basic but very clean and friendly (15 euro per night!!!), on the seine beneath a fantastic chateaux which is at the top of a very high cliff - Le Chateaux Gaillard.
The next day we headed to Houlgate on the coast - a very pretty seaside town. We stayed in La Vallee 4 star campsite - very nice, lovely pool and bar and snack bar, staff were not particularly friendly and the site was quite noisy at night. We toured around Trouiville, Deauville, Honfleur and Cabourg from this base - all well worth a visit - great shops, excellent wine and food - soft drinks very expensive.
The following day we visited the D-DAY landing beaches, museums and war cemeteries - a fanstic and very moving experience - unfortunately this was the one time that the weather let us down - cold and wet! We stayed in Bayeux in a wonderful hotel - Hotel Argouges - beautiful 18th century building set back off the street trough a courtyard - room was lovely with original beamed ceiling a very nice bathroom and staff were very friendly (80 euro for the night). It was very centrally located, and we walked everywhere from there, visiting of course the Bayeux Tapestry - well worth seeing.
From Bayeux we drove along the coast again visiting D-Day beaches and cemeteries until we reached l%26#39;Anse du Bric - just outside Cherbourg. The campsite (4 star)was gorgeous just across the road from the beach with a lovely bar and restaurant and pool - a really lovely atmosphere. (27euro per night)
We headed to Mont St Michel on Sunday 9 July 06 - a fantastic day - its a magical place - be prepared to walk up several hundred steps to the top of the abbey!!! We parked in the little village just before the causeway out to Mont St Michel and walked out to avoid the traffic and parking hassels. That evening we watched the World Cup Final - great fun except that everyone desserted the bar as soon as the game was over - too disappointed to continue partying.
St Malo was our next stop - a stunning medieval citadell. the old city is completely surrounded by fort wall which you can walk around fully - the town is full of beautiful shops, cafes and fabulous winding cobbled streets. We didn%26#39;t bother visiting the modern city at all.
From St Malo we headed out on the long drive to Quimper in Brittany - we had seen a tv programme about Quimper before we came away and it looked beautiful so that is why we went there and although it was very nice and the campsite was excellent - L%26#39;orangerie de Lannrion - it was not worth the very long drive. We stayed there for two nights, visiting some of the nearby beaches as well as exploring the city. The campsite was set inb the grounds of a beautiful chateaux - shop, restaurant, bar, pool, sports, golf etc and friendly staff. I t was a 2km walk along the river to the city centre.
We spent the next few days travelling along the Brittany coast, visiting the most westerly point - Pont de Raz as well as many seaside villages. We stayed in a campsite in Crozon, right on the beach - very basic but fab location.
We then stayed in Les Ormes campsite (4star) in D%26#39;Ol de Bretagne, near St Malo - set in picturesque grounds of a castle with plenty of activities and facilities for families - several bars, reataurants, pools, aqua park, adventure park, boats, golf etc. We originally booked in for two nights but only stayed one - we did not enjoy this site at all it was too big and noisy and busy - it is descibed as a club campsite which is pretty much like any sort of resort - probably great for families but not what we were looking for - luckily they gave us our money back for the night that we didn%26#39;t stay.
We headed to Caen from there, staying in a lovely site just outside the city. W e had a lovely walk around the city and castle and shops. From Caen we headed to Rouen to visit the Cathedral made famous by Monet%26#39;s paintings - beautiful city. it was extremely hot while we were there so we took the toy train tour around the city to see all the main sites - worth doing - 6 euro each but was quite long in the extreme heat.
We then returned to stay in Les Andelys again as we liked the site so much the first time. This time we ate in a lovely small hotel across from the site - food fabulous and wine superb. W e climbed up to the castle on the cliff the following day - incredible views from it.
Unfortunately, we had to head back to Beauvais from there for our flight the next day. We stayed in the Mercure hotel that night - 10 mins from the airport - nice staff, nice room, difficult to find - its in the middle of an industrial/commercial park so not the nicest of locations but very handy for the airport.
We had a fantastic time - usually we stay in hotels or resorts or apartments while away but we will definately be camping again - the freedom is great - if you don%26#39;t like a particular spot you can pack up and move on. the campsites in France are excellent - own private pitch usually with a hedge around it, most have pools, great sanitary facilities and bars, shops and restaurants - a thoroughly great way to see a country or part of it! W e probably did too much driving - over 2500km - but we got to visit an awful lot of places and we had two weeks to do it. We would highly recommend this trip to anyone
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Hi there,
We were in La Vallée in Houlgate from the 1st to the 8th July and visited many of the same places you did :o)
We saw Lisieux on the 3rd July, The Bayeux Tapestry on the 4th July, Bayeux Town on the 5th July, the Tour de France on the 6th July and went over to Utah Beach and Ste Maire Eglise on the 7th.
We spent our second week in Picardy.
Like you - I think the French Camp sites are wonderful - there is a huge amount of space and the facilities are great. We use mobile homes though, as we%26#39;re a bit soft :o) We too found La Vallee a bit noisy too - but remember, it was during the world cup and there was quite a bit of excitement around the town at the time. When we were there last year it wasn%26#39;t as noisy.
We loved Bayeux and the Tapestry. The medieval part of the town is magnficent, really wonderful. We skipped parts of the prelude to the tapestry as our kids (5, 9, 13) were getting a bit restless and the day was very warm. However the dark and cool area where the tapestry is displayed is wonderful. I would certainly return. (We stayed our second week in St. Valery sur Somme, where William the Conqueror left for England - there was even a Gillaume le Conquerant Festival the weekend we arrived there!!)
Having seen the D-Day beaches last year (but by no means extensively explored the museums - kids again) we wanted to do Utah Beach. We found the museum at the beach very interesting but particularly enjoyed the Airforce Museum in Ste Maire Eglise. The church in the town has a parachute silk hanging from the steeple (John Steele parachuted into the town on D-Day but his parachute got caught on the steeple and he played dead for a time to try and escape the Germans).
The Tour de France was absolutely great fun - the Caravan beforehand is very funny. The kids were thrilled to get all the free goodies - the Grannies are even being given some of the free %26quot;Grande Mere%26quot; coffee which was thrown at us. The cycling was really only incidental to the whole event. The kids are already demanding that we see some of the Tour next year :o)
Having been unable to justify staying permanently in France, we are already looking forward to next year%26#39;s trip!!
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