The important thing you need to know is that it is written in French.  Oh dear, too bad, won’t bother then I hear you say but don’t worry it is very easy to understand because at the front of the book the symbols for the campsite information are listed in English. Phew, that’s alright then.

When you look at the various regions in France you will be amazed at the huge number of sites there are, many more than we ever get offered in UK publications.

As a good example of this we like to visit the Bourgogne region around Chalon sur Saone and Tournus, just north of Macon, and we usually have a choice of 3 sites but this guide has around 20 minimum.  It’s a great book for those of you that like to try something different or travel around to quite a few sites in a particular area.

The book can be purchased from Vicarious Books for £12.50 with free postage.

If you’ve never used Vicarious Books then check them out anyway, they have a huge number of great books either written for or with Motorhomes in mind.

No related posts.

Japan is a wonderful country with many beautiful things to see and the Japanese people are extremely warm and friendly so although the language barrier can be an issue, communications isn’t, so don’t be afraid to visit if you do get the urge.  You will not regret it.

You need to be aware of the weather pattern if you do decide to visit, Japan has four very distinct seasons with very clear cut offs, not like England where our seasons seem to blend into one.  It can be very cold, very hot and very wet.  In the spring you can see the cherry blossom and in the autumn the maple trees turn to a beautiful pink, red or orange colour.  These seasons are cherished and the Japanese people love to marvel at the beauty of nature and take many, many photographs at these times.  This itself is a sight to see; lots of people carrying huge cameras on tripods from one tree to another just to get that magic photograph.

Japan runs like clockwork and you start to feel very ashamed at what England has become and just how second rate and tardy our transport systems are.  When you go to catch a train or the underground the platforms are marked where the doors will be so you know where to queue and if the train is supposed to arrive at 10.46 it arrives at 10.46 on the dot.  The trains are immaculately clean and it is a pleasure to use them although because of this they do tend to be very busy.

Shopping is an absolute pleasure and they have taken this onto another level.  The shops are again immaculate, often very large and spacious and just great fun to be in.  In Osaka there is a very large electrical store that has around six floors and is a totally magical experience; need a pair of headphones, choose from the hundreds on display.  The same goes for computers, cameras, TV’s etc.  Curry’s eat your heart out.  The other great thing is that when they build a new store the top floor is often used just for restaurants so shopping till you drop is no problem because you can then eat till you pop.

Japanfo is a good site to look at and has great information on culture, places to see, lifestyle, business etc.

We booked our hotel through a great site called Hotelpepper and stayed at the Ramada which is connected to the underground and is just a 5 minute walk into Osaka city centre.

We’ve been to Japan three times now and have loved every minute of it and can’t wait to get back there, if only it was nearer we would go in the Motorhome.

No related posts.

One of the best restaurants we had the pleasure of visiting on our French Motorhome holiday in 2010 was La Halte Nautique at Gigny-sur-Saône, the food was simple and excellent, the view was magnificent and we just idled away an afternoon in an idyllic location next to the River Saône.  The River Saône itself is very beautiful with an abundance of wildlife and it’s extremely  wide with huge boats that sail up and down between Paris and Marseilles.

We were staying at Château L’Eperviere in Burgundy, one of our favourite campsites and from there it is either a 10/15 minute stroll or a 5 minute bike ride to La Halte Nautique.  It’s literally left out of the campsite, left again, down to the river and left again to the restaurant.  Just ask at reception or pick up a local map for directions to the river.

The owners of the restaurant actually live on a boat moored on the river, apparently it’s safer in the winter because when the river rises it floods the surrounding land and that’s why when you do see it you’ll notice it’s built on a hill – sound French logic.

You can have a snack anytime of the day and they cater for all needs whether that be ice cream, coffee, glass of wine or a three course meal.  We had a gorgeous home made lasagne washed down with some Macon Rose followed by home made pecan tart.

We sat outside being entertained by what was going on in the river and gloried in the sun on a beautiful June day – it seems so long ago now.

No related posts.

TRAVELLING and staying in and around Port Lincoln in a motorhome has just got easier as a waste water dump point has been installed at Windsor Avenue near the Ravendale Sports Complex.

Tourists will benefit from the new dump point, which is free to use, as well as the local tourism industry and the environment.

Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA) project manager Phillip Berry said the installation of the unit could bring economic benefits to rural towns.

“Having a public dump point is an attraction to mobile tourists, and we need to remember that this is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry in this country,” Mr Berry said.

“Installing a dump point and providing necessary rest areas for these travellers will encourage them to visit, stay and spend their dollars in that town with the local businesses.”

The Port Lincoln City Council accepted the CMCA’s offer to assist in having a dump installed under a subsidy scheme where councils are given a ‘dump-ezy’ dump point free and only have to cover installation costs.

Actually it’s an article from the Port Lincoln Times but it just goes to show that Motorhomes are valued visitors in a lot of countries all over the globe.

No related posts.

For those of you who haven’t come across Vicarious Books before it is a fantastic bookshop that sells all of the books you will ever need for your Motorhome.  They are responsible for the production and publication of the ” All The Aires ” guides that are invaluable when you travel around Europe.

The new ASCI Card gives you a discounted price of either 11, 13 or 15 euros depending on the campsite and this includes 2 people plus electricity.  They also have deals like pay for 6 nights and get 7 or pay for 11 and get 14.

I haven’t used the ASCI card yet, this year we tried the Camping Cheque Card and that worked very well but for next year I’m going to give the ASCI Card a go.  The ASCI card has around 2000 participating campsites throughout Europe which is much more that any other operator and there is no up front payment except for the initial purchase of the book.  ASCI also produce a DVD that lists 8700 inspected sites throughout Europe so you may consider this as well.

PS.  I’ve just logged onto Vicarious and ordered my copy – can’t wait.

No related posts.

Chalon sur Saone is situated just off the A6, recommended to leave at junction 26 to the site and if you’re travelling down the N6 then its just as easy.  Follow the instructions on the Brochure and you can’t go wrong.  There is a local tourist office in the town and you should start by heading for that.

The site owners were very friendly and once you’ve checked in you just take your Motorhome and find your pitch.  There are two areas for pitching, one each side of the new toilet block, with the far side being on a grassy area and the near side hardstanding with two levels to choose from.  The pitches are easy to get on to and all had electric supplied and stunning river views so you can just relax and watch what’s going on day in and day out if you want to.

The River Saone is a fantastic river, very wide with some huge river boat traffic flowing along it, lot’s of wildlife, riverside bars and restaurants, anglers, walkers and cyclists.   It flows 300 miles from Epinal in north eastern France to join the River Rhone at Lyon where it then goes on to the south of France.  We’ve had many a picnic sat next to the river and it never ceases to amaze us.

The site bar is open every day and has free wi-fi to tempt you in there but the restaurant is seasonal so check, but they do have a take away menu that again is available every day.  The restaurant wasn’t open when we were there so we didn’t get a chance to sample the menu.  The takeaway was open but mainly for pizza, which looked very good but to be honest we’re not huge pizza fans so didn’t try them either. The bar was comfortable and spacious with plenty of seating and you can buy some very nice local Macon wine by the bottle at a very good price.

Across the river Saone over the bridge adjacent to the campsite is a very large swimming pool complex with both indoor and outdoor pools and close by that is a boating club.  Within walking distance you also have a number of boat trips available up and down the river with food available on board or you can take your own picnic.

The centre of Chalon sur Saone is only a 15 minute stroll and is quite delightful.  There are some very nice shops, lots and lots of places to eat ( the ones we tried were typically French with great food and wine ), museums, a Cathedral and plenty of seating available around and about to relax at and watch the world go by.  They also have a wonderful botanic garden that we spent a great couple of hours in.

Please try to visit Camping du Pont de Bourgogne when you next go to France, either for a stopover or better still for a few nights so that you can visit Chalon, trust me, you will not be disappointed.

No related posts.

I’ll give you a quick summary of the trip and then over the next few weeks I’ll talk through the sites and journey in detail.  We’d  pre booked some of the sites where we didn’t have to pay a booking fee and for the rest we were using Camping Cheques which we’d never used before so we weren’t sure how that was going to work out.  I’ve always worried about sites being full when we arrived and not being able to get a place to stay and although I was still a bit concerned we went for it.

We started the trip catching the Norfolkline ferry from Dover to Dunkerque.  This was the first time we’d used them and actually we don’t usually go by ferry but the £48 return was too good to miss.  The crossing went very well and I felt fine ( I’m the ‘if we were meant to take a ferry we’d all have gills’ type ) although I usually feel pretty bad by the time it’s over.  Not this time.  It takes around 2 hours so you’ve got plenty of time to shop and eat.

We then drove down to our first camp site, ‘Camping de Sorel’ at Orvillers Sorel on the E15 towards Paris for an overnight stay.  Campsites in the north of France are few and far between and in the end this one proved too far off our route although it was very busy, probably full, so obviously very popular.

Following that we headed south east towards Macon and stayed at ‘Camping du Pont de Bourgogne’ which was beautifully situated next to the river Saone and opposite the town of Chalon sur Soane.

We then set off to stay at a site just across the river from Avignon but never made it due to our water pump packing up just south of Lyon.  We then spent 3 unplanned nights there and had to miss Avignon out because we had booked into ‘Domaine des Naiades’ at Port Grimaud (adjacent to St Tropez) for just short of a couple of weeks.

This part of the journey down to the South was special for one reason only, it rained so hard that traffic on the motorway had to stop, you just couldn’t see where you were going.  We’ve never experienced anything like it before.

When we left the south we went straight up the motorway to stay at ‘Domaine du Chateau de L’Eperviere’ for a week which was fantastic except for the World Cup debacle that took place while we were there.

From there we drove up to Dunkerque and took the ferry home.

A great trip all round with lot’s happening to us and around us and in the end we were very sad to get home, we really wanted to stay.  France is a wonderful place for a holiday, especially in the motorhome, and the whole trip worked wonderfully well, even the breakdown had its upside.

I’ll post more details over the next few weeks.

No related posts.

Hotelpepper.com is a new and free tool that searches all the best hotel sites to bring you the lowest price all from one click. There is no need to search every major website one by one in order to compare all the best deals and availability. We give you all the hotel details, photos, maps and even customer ratings – a real time and money saver.

The site is a sister site of simplymotorhomes and has been made to give people the opportunity to book a hotel at a great price anywhere in the World with a few clicks of the mouse.  When you have a Motorhome you love to travel and sometimes it’s good to travel but stay in a hotel for a change and this site will help you to find the best one at the best rate.

No related posts.

Apart from just generally having a look around the stalls to see what goodies were on offer we wanted to take a look a good look at the Camping Cheque stand and decide if that was something we wanted to make use of.  I also had this notion that I’d read about the ideal Motorhome layout, a Rapido, and I wanted to have a close look at it to see.

We had a good look at the Camping Cheque and a long chat with the person on the stand and in the end we bought a silver card for £2 and the site book for £1 ( instead of £6 ).  We’re going to give it a go simply because we usually go to France out of season anyway and using the Camping Cheque is the cheapest way to do that and at around £14 per night is a real bargain. The silver card is a new thing that you use instead of the paper cheques and it means you can pay for the cheques electronically and then get them credited to your card when you arrive at the first site.  Easy; I hope.  There are hundreds ( 588 ) sites in Europe to choose from and even a handful in the UK. Have a look at the Camping Cheque site and see for yourselves.

The brand new all singing all dancing Rapido that I thought I’d read about turned out to be a figment of my imagination and doesn’t exist after all.  Never mind, one day.

On the subject of new Motorhomes we did have a look at most of the Manufacturers and Dealers but didn’t see anything that was better than our Autocruise Starseeker thank goodness.

We did the obligatory visit to most of the French site stalls and collected plenty of brochures but of course these have been superceded by the Camping Cheque sites list because we are determined to try as many of these as we can.  We have a 3 week French holiday planned for June and have booked the return ferry but no sites.  I’m a stickler for making site bookings normally but am determined to go on spec this year and see how we get on.  Incidentally we booked the ferry with Norfolkline ( never used them before ) and got a fantastic deal. We booked through the Caravan Club and got the return for the Starseeker plus the two of us for £48 return, going and returning on a Saturday. How good was that!!  Let me know if you’ve got a better deal than that!!

We also bought a couple of items for the house,weirdly, but I guess you do see a lot of innovative stuff at these shows.

We won’t bother going to another show this year but will try this one again next year.

No related posts.

These rules have been  interpreted in two different ways by two different organisations in France, the FFCC (Federation Francais de Camping et de Caravanning) and the FIA(Federation Internationale de L’Automobile)

The laws that have changed apply to the weight of your Motorhome and the corresponding speed that you will be allowed to drive it because of this weight.  It’s still a bit unclear exactly how to interpret the law so I’ll keep an eye out for any explanations that come up but the rules seem to be as follows;

FFCC

If your Motorhome maximum gross weight is quoted as over 3.5 tonnes, irrespective of the actual weight of your Motorhome at the time, then your speed limits will be reduced to the following:

• Motorways and dual carriageways with a central reservation 90kph
• Other roads outside of built up areas 80kph
• Minor roads I’m not sure about

FIA

If your Motorhome by itself or a combination of your Motorhome plus any vehicle you are towing together have a maximum gross weight over 3.5 tonnes then the above applies.

If you fall into either of these categories then you will need to display two stickers on your Motorhome, one for 80kph and one for 90kph.  However, these stickers can only be bought from HGV suppliers in France.

It all sounds a bit bonkers but to be safe the advice is to drive at the lower limits if you do exceed the 3.5 tonnes gross weight.

No related posts.