We’ve just spent a little over 2 weeks in France and had a fantastic time, weather was generally excellent, food and wine was always excellent and the sites visited were more than we expected.  We set off on a wet Thursday evening down the M1 and heading towards the channel tunnel and guess what – the M25 was closed clockwise so we had to drive round the other way.

We visited the STOP 24 services on the M20 at J11 for a rest as we were a little early for our train and were surprised to find it closed although the petrol station was open.  We arrived in France at around dawn French time and drove through to our site, as always the motorways were not busy and there were plenty of service stations available.

Our first site was Chateau de L’Eperviere at Gigny Sur Saone just north of Macon.  This site is great for a stopover but also has plenty to offer for a longer stay and after a couple of nights there we moved on to Esterel at Saint Raphael in Provence for a week.  Esterel is a large site with multiple pools and entertainments and we had booked an ensuite private bathroom which was a real boon.

The next stop was 2 nights at Domaine Arnauteille at Montclar just south of Carcassonne, again a very nice site and of course Carcassonne is a must visit.

We then moved onto Les Ranchisses in the Ardeche at Largentiere for 3 nights and this is a real gem, excellent pool complex with a health suite and a fantastic restaurant.  The weather can be a little mixed though and when it rains it pours and is usually accompanied with plenty of thunder and lightening.

We then drove back to Chateau de L’Eperviere for 1 night and then up to Calais for a late night train back to England.  We drove around 2,500 miles, the majority of this via motorway and we never had any problems at all although the roads into and out of the Ardeche can be a little scary.

We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and wished we had stayed longer but work always calls you back but one day we’ll do a longer trip and take more time to enjoy the French countryside and the many historic treasures it has to offer.  I’ll post some more deatails on the trip and the sites over the next week or so.