motorhome & kids

Shevy76

We bought a motorhome this year after always camping and then carvanning and have used it quiet a bit this summer. We will proably use it once more before we park up before he winter. We went to parsons green 2 weeks ago to meet my sister & her family and kids had a ball there and are thining about going back there for a couple of nights over the halloween.
Looked at the irish ferries prices there to france for 3rd week in June, , question is how far down in france do you think we could go with a 1, 3 &8 yr old, I was looking at marseilles...what would be best route to see things, we have been to brittany, normandy, loire aquitanine so have seen most of that so woud like advice on rest of france on way down...oh and looking at spending 3 weeks in france.
Thanks in advance for advice,
Shevy

kelbal

hi Shevy, might want to look at this thread....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056520444

Couple of highlights off the top of my head -

Le Puy en Velay
go see Millau bridge (drive old roads into Millau so you can actually see it! - you won't see it too well by driving over it!)
Drive along Tarn gorge (on route along towns of Quézac and Le Rozier)
Aix en Provence is quite nice.
Annecy, just south of Grenoble is great, quite far over though
The Dordogne area is fantastic (Le Roque Gageac, Domme, Sarlat)
Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges, WW2 destroyed town, chilling but worth the visit.
La Rochelle is a really nice city
Dune du Pilat - near Bordeaux, huge sand dune you climb up and walk along, definitely recommend.

Will update as more comes back to me

kelbal

btw, you could make it down to Marseille and back in 3 weeks alright, but you'd want to keep going at a steady enough pace, 1 or 2 nights in each stopping point. If you stay 5/6 nights anywhere you'll be putting yourself under pressure about the mileage you need to cover.
Have a look at this thread also, for information on the "Aire de Service" stopping points for motorhomes....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056673181

niloc1951

Marseilles is not a nice place for motorhomes, it is easy to end up in the 'wrong' place and in all sorts of trouble. The coast between the city and Nice is very busy between late June and late August, it's expensive and the traffic is mental.
For you first outing I would recommend the Atlantic Coast (south of Bordeaux is very nice) and inland as suggested by kelbal.

These two guides All The Aires France - Fourth Edition when it becomes available at the end of this year and the ACSI campsite book or CD should provide sufficient choice for your Aire and Campsite requirements.
If you have a laptop or netbook with cd drive the ACSI cd is a good buy as includes appropriate routing between camp-sites and short videos of some of their sites. Beware though if you have an Apple as the 2010 edition of the cd will not run on Apple software and it might still be so.

AutostratusEB

I'd second what Niloc said about Marseille. However if you are set on it, we were around nearby Martigues to the NW of Marseille in a place called Couronne in Spring. Cherbourg to Couronne was a 12 hour spin over 3 days. Motorway the whole way and cost about €250 between tolls & fuel. Don't know how feasible that kind of journey is with small people on board. For us it was a staging post for travel around the Carmargue and upland Provence.
Remember also that June could be hot in the south, so that could be a factor?

Every family I know without exception has had a a great holiday on Ile de Re, near La Rochelle. It's relatively close to Roscoff/Cherbourg, so there's another option.

France is great - wherever you go.