What It is Like Motorhome Tenting in France

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France is named some of the camper-friendly nations in Europe. However what’s tenting in France like? Simply as scrumptious and delightful because it sounds!

This weblog will share among the prime stuff 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 street?” The reply might be sure. As you noticed within the video, it could possibly get irritating 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 move slower visitors on the proper, and also you’ll keep inside the traces of your lane whereas driving. You wouldn’t assume I would wish so as to add that final one, however should you cross into Italy, you’ll instantly discover that the traces on the street imply nothing to Italians. They drive the place they please!

You’ll see vehicles half parked within the driving lane and half parked on the sidewalk throughout France, however they do at the very least 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.

Typically, you’ll seize a toll ticket while you enter the toll street and cling onto it till you exit or come throughout a toll plaza. You possibly can simply pay with a bank card—usually utilizing faucet to pay—and in case your French is rusty, press the British flag icon to change the toll machine to English.

Extra hardly ever, you’ll come to a toll sales space with a set charge 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 charge of round $60. It is a border crossing because you really move the border whereas driving by way of the mountain, which is why this specific toll street 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 normally paid $20-$35 in charges. We opted for toll roads after we wanted to cowl a number of hundred miles rapidly, however after we may, we up to date our settings in Google Maps to “Keep away from Toll Roads” to move by way of small French villages off the freeway.

The toll roads will provide many relaxation stops, generally known as aires, the place you may refuel, seize meals, have a picnic, and even let children play on the playground. (If you happen to’re on the lookout for a style of dwelling, you’ll usually see McDonald’s and Starbucks at aires.)

Highway Indicators and Alerts

Typically, street 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 crimson circle and a white line throughout the center. In France, it is going to be a crimson 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 can be width, peak, and weight restriction indicators. These white and crimson round indicators could have black triangles on the prime and backside for peak or on the perimeters for width and say “2,3 m” to tell you of an upcoming restriction. A weight restriction signal will possible say 3,5t. (Test your RV weight earlier than renting, however you have to be secure with this restriction! 3,5t was the load restrict we noticed most frequently.)

And sure, the place we use durations for decimals within the States, they use commas!

Site visitors lights in France are similar to these within the US, with inexperienced, yellow, and crimson lights. Lights are vertical, with inexperienced on the underside and crimson on the prime. In contrast to different neighboring nations, you received’t see any flashing inexperienced or yellow lights. (Until 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 might be, making the sunshine inconceivable to see should you pull up too far at an intersection. We needed to again up a number of instances to see the publish. Nonetheless, you received’t see crimson lights fairly often in your travels. Most intersections throughout the nation are roundabouts, making driving that a lot simpler.

Associated: 16 Variations Between RVing in America and RVing Overseas

Tenting Choices

France is understood for being some of the camping-friendly nations on the earth, and it lives as much as its popularity. We by no means struggled to discover a place to camp in a single day throughout our month of adventures. (Conversely, after we crossed over to Italy for a number of days, it was a lot more durable to search 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 street (seen within the video above), we tried a number of.

France Ardour

Greater than anything, we used France Ardour to search out free campsites throughout France. France Ardour is a membership (about $35) that permits you to camp totally free at wineries and farms throughout France. (France Ardour impressed Harvest Hosts, the place you may camp totally free at wineries in North America.)

It was extremely straightforward to search out lovely locations to spend the evening! Actually, after driving throughout the nation, I’m fairly certain 99% of the French countryside is vineyards. Miles and miles of gorgeous vines. You possibly can see why we selected this expertise time and again in our video overview of how France Ardour works.

Learn Subsequent: Why You Ought to (and The way to!) Camp on Wineries in France

Residence Camper

Residence Camper is an app the place you may keep in your motorhome at individuals’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 in all probability need to know a bit French because you’ll be conversing with locals.

We used Residence Camper on our second evening within the RV to remain within the moderately massive yard of a champagne home in Epernay. This web site supplied electrical energy, bogs, showers, and playgrounds, however facilities differ by web site. Sure, a number of playgrounds! Our youngsters liked it. The property was massive sufficient to stroll round and discover. We even received 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 sometimes called wild tenting or freedom tenting overseas. In France, we used the Park4Night app to search out boondocking spots (which additionally will present you websites throughout most of Europe). Within the video, we camped in a forest totally free and began our day mountain climbing 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 low.

Associated: 31 RVing Phrases You Ought to Know

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 might in campgrounds doing laundry whereas the youngsters performed.

We had been stunned at how kid-friendly many campgrounds had been. At one specifically, there was a big out of doors tent crammed with toys for youths. Blocks, dolls, a kitchen, bikes, a trampoline, swimming pools! It all the time surprises us how family-friendly Europe is.

Campsites in campgrounds diversified. We stayed at one with stage, 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, plenty of campgrounds used grapevines to separate websites! (I’m telling you, 99% of the nation is rising grapes for wine!)

Typically, your campsite could be very easy in comparison with the States, so don’t count on an excessive amount of. However what the websites lack in improvement, the campground makes up for with recent baked items.

Oh sure! You possibly can odor 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 perfect 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? Lots of them provide in a single day tenting. This may be free or paid (normally solely paid if providers are supplied like electrical energy). We used Park4Night to search out aires and regarded staying in a single day at one, however with little children, 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 youngsters play, and grabbing meals. This brings me to at least one different key a part of RVing in France.

RV Companies

Within the States, tenting totally free creates a number of 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’ll find potable water, RV service stations, and plentiful public trash cans in most cities. Heck, you could find sorted recycling bins in virtually each city, too! France lives as much as the hype, and discovering the providers we want for the RV was shockingly straightforward. We even discovered laundry providers exterior of some hypermarkets and gasoline stations.

Associated: All of the International locations The place You Can RV

That is additionally the place aires actually turn out to be essential. They’re the perfect, best place to service your tanks, refuel (on gasoline, diesel, and propane), and even take out the trash when you’re driving down the freeway.

RV Tenting in France

Navigating your means across the nation and discovering locations to remain are the 2 largest elements to determine earlier than your street 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!