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France is called one of the camper-friendly nations in Europe. However what’s tenting in France like? Simply as scrumptious and exquisite because it sounds!
This weblog will share among the high belongings you’ll must know earlier than hopping into your motorhome.
Watch this video for the complete scoop ⤵️
Driving
French roads could be slender, particularly in smaller villages, to the purpose the place it’s possible you’ll assume, “Is that this actually a two-way highway?” The reply might be sure. As you noticed within the video, it may possibly get traumatic quick!
However for essentially the most half, driving customs in France are much like these in America. You’ll see velocity restrict indicators (in kilometers), you’ll go slower site visitors on the fitting, and also you’ll keep throughout the strains of your lane whereas driving. You wouldn’t assume I would wish so as to add that final one, however when you cross into Italy, you’ll instantly discover that the strains on the highway imply nothing to Italians. They drive the place they please!
You’ll see automobiles half parked within the driving lane and half parked on the sidewalk throughout France, however they do not less than keep of their lane whereas driving.
Associated: Planning a Tenting Journey in Italy
Toll Roads
Most main roads throughout France are toll roads. Image interstates or highways in America. These are all toll roads in France.
Usually, you’ll seize a toll ticket while you enter the toll highway and hold onto it till you exit or come throughout a toll plaza. You’ll be able to simply pay with a bank card—usually utilizing faucet to pay—and in case your French is rusty, press the British flag icon to modify the toll machine to English.
Extra hardly ever, you’ll come to a toll sales space with a set payment and an individual within the sales space. For instance, the tunnel within the Alps that connects France to Italy is manned and has a flat payment of round $60. It is a border crossing because you really go the border whereas driving by way of the mountain, which is why this explicit toll highway is manned.
That $60 border crossing was our largest toll ticket, however on days the place we spent a few hours on toll roads, we often paid $20-$35 in charges. We opted for toll roads once we wanted to cowl just a few hundred miles shortly, however once we might, we up to date our settings in Google Maps to “Keep away from Toll Roads” to go by way of small French villages off the freeway.
The toll roads will supply many relaxation stops, referred to as aires, the place you may refuel, seize meals, have a picnic, and even let youngsters play on the playground. (For those who’re in search of a style of house, you’ll usually see McDonald’s and Starbucks at aires.)
Highway Indicators and Alerts
Usually, highway indicators in France are symbols that may be universally understood.
For instance, a Do Not Enter signal within the US will say Do Not Enter with a pink circle and a white line throughout the center. In France, it will likely be a pink circle with a white line throughout the center and no phrases.
Not all indicators are the identical as their US counterparts, however they’re pretty self-explanatory. An important indicators to search for when RVing might be width, top, and weight restriction indicators. These white and pink round indicators can have black triangles on the high and backside for top or on the edges for width and say “2,3 m” to tell you of an upcoming restriction. A weight restriction signal will probably say 3,5t. (Examine your RV weight earlier than renting, however you ought to be secure with this restriction! 3,5t was the burden restrict we noticed most frequently.)
And sure, the place we use intervals for decimals within the States, they use commas!
Visitors lights in France are similar to these within the US, with inexperienced, yellow, and pink lights. Lights are vertical, with inexperienced on the underside and pink on the high. In contrast to different neighboring nations, you received’t see any flashing inexperienced or yellow lights. (Except you’re in a development zone, then they arrange yellow flashing lights.)
Gentle posts are sometimes posted on the identical facet of the road as you’re, making the sunshine not possible to see when you pull up too far at an intersection. We needed to again up just a few occasions to see the put up. Nonetheless, you received’t see pink lights fairly often in your travels. Most intersections throughout the nation are roundabouts, making driving that a lot simpler.
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Tenting Choices
France is thought for being one of the camping-friendly nations on the earth, and it lives as much as its fame. We by no means struggled to discover a place to camp in a single day throughout our month of adventures. (Conversely, once we crossed over to Italy for just a few days, it was a lot tougher to seek out an open campsite!)
There are a number of methods to camp in a single day in France, and through our first few days on the highway (seen within the video above), we tried just a few.
France Ardour
Greater than the rest, we used France Ardour to seek out free campsites throughout France. France Ardour is a membership (about $35) that lets you camp at no cost at wineries and farms throughout France. (France Ardour impressed Harvest Hosts, the place you may camp at no cost at wineries in North America.)
It was extremely simple to seek out stunning locations to spend the evening! In reality, after driving throughout the nation, I’m fairly certain 99% of the French countryside is vineyards. Miles and miles of gorgeous vines. You’ll be able to see why we selected this expertise again and again in our video overview of how France Ardour works.
Learn Subsequent: Why You Ought to (and Find out how to!) Camp on Wineries in France
Dwelling Camper
Dwelling Camper is an app the place you may keep in your motorhome at folks’s houses/on their property—similar to HipCamp or Boondockers Welcome. You’ll want a self-contained RV (AKA your individual toilet), and also you’ll most likely need to know slightly French because you’ll be conversing with locals.
We used Dwelling Camper on our second evening within the RV to remain within the reasonably massive yard of a champagne home in Epernay. This web site supplied electrical energy, loos, showers, and playgrounds, however facilities fluctuate by web site. Sure, a number of playgrounds! Our children cherished it. The property was massive sufficient to stroll round and discover. We even obtained to get farm-fresh eggs from the hens!
The host had his champagne on the market, so we drank a bottle of their wine whereas tenting on their property. It doesn’t get extra native than that!
Wild Tenting
Boondocking is also known as wild tenting or freedom tenting overseas. In France, we used the Park4Night app to seek out boondocking spots (which additionally will present you websites throughout most of Europe). Within the video, we camped in a forest at no cost and began our day mountaineering one of many many trails that began from our free in a single day spot. Even higher, it was quarter-hour away from a fort and a brief drive to a close-by village for morning pastries and occasional.
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Campgrounds
The very first thing that involves thoughts when RVing in France may be staying in conventional campgrounds. Just like an RV park or campground within the States, right here you’ll discover electrical energy, water, and sewer hookups, in addition to facilities like a bathhouse, playground, and laundry. RVing with a child and a toddler, we spent much more nights than we thought we’d in campgrounds doing laundry whereas the children performed.
We had been stunned at how kid-friendly many campgrounds had been. At one specifically, there was a big outside tent crammed with toys for youths. Blocks, dolls, a kitchen, bikes, a trampoline, swimming pools! It at all times surprises us how family-friendly Europe is.
Campsites in campgrounds different. We stayed at one with degree, poured concrete websites (above). At one other, we had an unlevel grassy space with towering timber on both facet. One other was a grassy space with vines separating websites. Truly, loads of campgrounds used grapevines to separate websites! (I’m telling you, 99% of the nation is rising grapes for wine!)
Usually, your campsite could be very easy in comparison with the States, so don’t anticipate an excessive amount of. However what the websites lack in growth, the campground makes up for with recent baked items.
Oh sure! You’ll be able to scent the croissants and pan au chocolat baking out of your campsite. All that butter and sugar wafts by way of the campground like freshly cooked bacon does in America. Heath swears the very best pastries of the month had been at a small campground in Lourdes, France, simply exterior Pyrenees Nationwide Park. We stayed there for 3 nights for “the proximity to the nationwide park,” however Heath isn’t fooling anybody. It was the croissants.
Aires
And lastly, aires. Sure, these relaxation stops that I discussed discovering off the toll roads? A lot of them supply in a single day tenting. This may be free or paid (often solely paid if providers are supplied like electrical energy). We used Park4Night to seek out aires and thought of staying in a single day at one, however with little youngsters, parking zone tenting is rather less enticing.
We didn’t really keep in a single day at any aires throughout our journey, however we spent many afternoons dumping tanks, letting the children play, and grabbing meals. This brings me to at least one different key a part of RVing in France.
RV Providers
Within the States, tenting at no cost creates just a few issues. The place are you going to refill your water? The place are you going to dump your black and gray tanks? Is there a spot to throw out your rubbish?!
For a lot of campers, the reply is to seize a campground for an evening and deal with the RV.
However in France, no want. You could find potable water, RV service stations, and plentiful public trash cans in most cities. Heck, yow will discover sorted recycling bins in virtually each city, too! France lives as much as the hype, and discovering the providers we’d like for the RV was shockingly simple. We even discovered laundry providers exterior of some hypermarkets and gasoline stations.
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That is additionally the place aires actually develop into essential. They’re the very best, best place to service your tanks, refuel (on gasoline, diesel, and propane), and even take out the trash whilst you’re driving down the freeway.
RV Tenting in France
Navigating your approach across the nation and discovering locations to remain are the 2 largest components to determine earlier than your highway journey throughout France.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to maintain watching our RVing in France collection and study extra about the place to camp and what to do whereas tenting in France.
Have you considered tenting in France earlier than? It’s rising in recognition for worldwide vacationers like us, and it has blown us away!