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Quote: Originally posted by Val A on 12/9/2009

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Less than £140 on site fees (mainly due to the generosity of others on here who sold us their Camping Cheques), 25 euros on tolls, £260 on fuel, and about the same on food, a couple of meals out, perhaps 100 euros,  - and that's it!  Seriously!  Ok, we've no children, and had the sort of quiet holiday that many of you would hate - but we enjoyed it, and that's the reason we keep going back!

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camping cheques? moi??

I'm not buying any next year (well , will buy 4 for whitweek as Whitehill Country Pk take them over the holidays and we love the site) and maybe another 4 max as we hope to spend the last 4 nights of our holiday at Les Peupliers, Tarn. After talking about the site for the last 3 years thats where we're heading (You've heard that before too) but no seriously we just dont fancy anywhere else in France and the Canal du Midi is calling us. So its an overnight at camping Filature, 2 or 3 nights at Les Rivages, Millau. Seven nights at Les Sablons to cycle some of the Canal du Midi and 4 nights at Les Peupliers for us.

Sounds good to me!  Hopefully next year we'll end up somewhere else - but if the Tarn keeps calling us then we may be back at Les Peupliers.  This year was just so restful and relaxing - and that was just what David needed after his stressful times recently.  We somehow got all sorts of special deals this year, too - and my sons cancelled their holiday at the last minute so we've got enough CCs left for one holiday next year, already.  If we book ferries through the Caravan Club as we did last year,  then it tends to be cheaper, too, if you buy Camping Cheques (and no admin charge either) so we're likely to be back on Camping Cheque sites again.  Mind you we haven't anywhere near exhausted the possibilities of where we want to go.  We did 'do' two new sites this year - and would definitely go back to one of them as an overnight stop. 

We're still looking at Provence for next year - it's several years since we did that area.  We loved inland Provence and have a hankering to go back.

We've also been out looking at new caravans this weekend ------ very tempted!  However, if we don't sell our existing van privately then we may well just end up taking it to France and storing it there - figuring that it will last many more years if stored undercover in a better climate than it will here in cold, wet storage at the very top of the biggest hill around!  The under cover storage we've thought about is actually cheaper than our current storage cost - and we'd save the cost of the caravan on the ferry - so that's another plus for France!

I did just that 20 years ago and was the best thing that I ever  did! I left my caravan with a Brit on the Cote d' Azur. I used it far more then I ever would have done in the UK. I used to fly down to it via Easyjet and I  had some inredibly cheap holidays (Even high season when the kids were little) if you are free to go off peak then some real bargains to be had. I could never understand the point of always lugging the thing around. I would either hire a car ansd stay in that area or drive down, pick the van up and go into Spain or Italy-simple! Saved an absolute fortune. The caravan lasted longer due to the climate, no expensive road tolls (ours was twin  axled) etc etc. Off season you can get some very good car rental prices. I usde to avarage a 2 week holiday in the South of France  for about £300  or less! Good luck but enjoy!

We've just been mulling over the idea and because we love our current caravan so much are seriously thinking about storage.  We have one undercover storage place earmarked - cost 300 euros per year which is significantly less than we pay for outside storage now.  It's also near to a couple of airports with local budget flights available.  They will tow it to a site in the local area for a short break - or we could drive down in our towcar for our main holiday and still tour. The only problem would be that we'd have to stay overnight in hotels on the way through France - which I suppose would suit a lot of people. 

It's very tempting - and probably more sensible than spending £8 or £10k to upgrade to a new tourer as we'd probably get less than £5k for our current fixed bed van.  It's likely, too, that with the increased weight of newer vans, that we'd struggle to find a fixed bed model which could be towed by our current Mondeo. After taking photos of it yesterday to sell, and then looking at them, we're even more undecided now about what to do!

Just got back, diesel cheap, didn't use autoroutes much (did tow along some very hairy roads). Thought prices in restaurants etc a bit much (we tend to eat out in Wetherspoons or similar here), so mainly ate in. Supermarket prices ok, depends what you buy. If you drink whisky (which we don't) you are spoiled for choice. Wine boxes, depends what you like, got some perfectly ok rose EUR 8 for 5 litres. Found boxes of 24 beers for EUR 5.15 at the Super U in Ruoms. Stayed at 13 different sites, all but 1 camping or touring cheques. Paid EUR 14.90 at the Municipal at Laon.

Anne

How was your holiday Anne?  Did all go to plan - and most of all did you both enjoy it?  Will you be going back? 

Hi Val, yes, we did enjoy it. Mainly went to plan, but we didn't anticipate the bad weather we had at Gap and Castellane (11 degrees and raining, snowing in the mountains) at Gap. It had been bad in the Med as well but cleared up when we arrived and had lovely weather there and at Villeneuve les Avignon. A bit cloudy at Sampzon but still ok. Somwhere between Nevers and Melun the exhaust nearly dropped off the car- luckily OH had brought a chain to lock our bikes, he wrapped it around and tied it up with cable ties, and it held up, thank goodness.

How was your holiday? we will go back, but not to Gap. Didn't like the site there, or the town, although the mountains are lovely.

Anne