MY97_Toy

Hi all, looking for advice and experience of French Caravan parks (Chalet's or Cabin also considered) in the La Rochelle area of france.

Going to drive down from Durham via dover Calais only 800 miles

I have stayed in the South on a similar holiday but this was a big english owned site and would prefer french owned.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

We're driving down to the Loire in a few weeks time to stay in a cabin We live in Kent so its not such a trek though.

P&O ferries are on offer as from today (for 5 days), £25 each way.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Why not do Durham-Hull, then go over to Zeebrugge, it's only an hour from Calais on MUCH nicer roads, plus a night on the ferry is good with decent food, and a nice bar.

Dearer? Slightly, but another 250 miles each way to Dover, return, at nearly £6 a gallon...........

Plus Dover is AWFUL at the moment, the Dartford bridge has ten mile tailbacks for the tolls, and Dover port is a fekkin nightmare! Took me a full HOUR to get to the P&O check-in from passport control a fortnight ago today around 8pm

La Rochelle? Hmmmmm, don't know any sites there, I know of a decent one near Royan, actually at La Palmyre.

You can find stuff out off Google, just put in the name of the region, department or even large town, and camping.

Alcazar

MY97_Toy

cheers mate will look into that...... spent the whole morning on the net now looking at Gites aswell!

The wife looks on here so......... "I'm now going to do the chores"!

Spyder550

You could look at the Portsmouth-Le Havre crossing for LD Lines.
LD Lines – Ferries to France | Cheap Ferries to Portsmouth Le Havre It's a overnight crossing so you can start afresh the following morning, after driving down from Durham to Portsmouth the day before. For an overnight its pretty cheap, I'm on it for Le Mans in a few weeks.

A change in French regulations for July means you have to have fluorescent yellow jackets in case you breakdown, stuff about it here France

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

So............do you defo want seaside? And are you going to go peak season, (14th July to 14th August in France)?

If the answer to both is no, then have you thought of a site near to a nice river? The Tarn, the Verdon, The Drome, the Gard, the Dordogne, the Vezere, to name but a few, all have a good few sites, good weather and many have pools too for if you don't want to swim in the river that day. All can be reached from Calais in one day if you start early, or two if you want to take it easy.

I did it for years with my lads, canoeing, kayaking, rafting, and mountain biking around the areas.

Alcazar

stevem2k

Ile de Re' if you want to be around la rochelle

If you want to do it in comfort , Portsmouth > St Malo will get you down to the west coast without all the guff of driving across from Calais. Don't bother with Cherbourg as it takes forever to get down to the motorways...

MY97_Toy

We want away for Saturday 21st to Saturday 28th. But will be leaving Durham on the Thursday and just take it easy and stop over somewhere! this is a last minute idea to go to France as we were there last year.

Used to live in St Albans just remember how easy it was just getting down to Doverand over you go. Living 300 miles from the port now is a little bit of a bu**er. Oh the days of being in the office on a Friday morning and deciding to go on the lash in Belgium, Le Touqet etc for the weekend.

Could go over from Hull or Newcastle to holland but at £370 with cabin i'd rather save the money. £80 for the ferry seems good.

Last year rented long house near Sarlat in the Loire took the Saab Convertible (Petrol) and it pi**ed down for 2 weeks! Got 250 Litres of boxed wine in the car on the way back! Scary handling on the return!

So 800+ miles in my 1 Series M Sport (Diesel) anyone think its gonna get the BMW qouted 63 MPG..... I doubt it!

Many thanks for your input.