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I'm looking for a campsite to park a campervan overnight in Clermont-Ferrand - anyone know of any good ones, or any preferably English-translated websites?  My GCSE-level French is rusty at best!

Welcome to the site!  I see this is your first posting, but we're a friendly and helpful bunch on here.   Where are you heading - and when (just being nosy, but a lot of sites in France close in late September, so people like to know!!!)

There are campsites around, which needn't cost much- there's a municipal Camping Du Mas at Issoire, just south of Clermont Ferrand, which is OK for overnight stops and will cost about 8 euros.  Also have a look at Chateau la Grange Fort, which is south of Clermont Ferrand at Parentignat, not far from the autoroute http://www.lagrangefort.com/ - the reception staff all speak English.  Cost may be about 20 euros

I presume you mean to stay in overnight, rather than just 'park'.  You can stay overnight at one of the Aire's on the motorway in a campervan, or caravan as we do.  The larger ones usually have plenty of other people staying overnight, and although some people consider it 'risky' we've stayed at plenty in our time, with no problems.  The website http://www.a75.com/as.html isn't in English, but does show the Aires around Clermont Ferrand, (from North to South) and lists the facilities available at each.  The Aire du Veyre has showers, as does the Aire de Authezat.

There's also a website devoted to motorhomes where restaurants, bars, etc., offer you an overnight stay if you buy a meal from them - someone on here will no doubt give you the details.

Just back from a trip to SW France, on the way back we stopped at Clermont and stayed in two different sites, I will be writing reviews for all six sites we stayed in while away but for now here is a guide on these two sites which may help:

1/Camping Les Loges  - http://www.lesloges.com/gb.html

Not the most central to Clermont but depending on your route probably not to far off track, The surrounding area is spectacular and a drive into the local village situated at the top of a very high hill is certainly a treat, the views are fantastic. As for the site, we hated it! However let me explain, the site had a good array of amenities - pizzeria - shop - bar - swimming pool - table tennis... We stayed here on a Tuesday, arriving at around 6pm with no booking, as is our way! The site looked nice and the drive in was great so we paid our 16 euros (2 people, 1 tent, 1 car) and pitched the tent then went off to explore the local area. When we returned at around 8.30pm it was a different place! An outside disco was now going on with what seemed to be the entire sites occupants; I credit them with having a fantastic sound system! This went on until midnight. Now we are 25 and 24 and love our music, but there was nothing to advise that this was going to be going on, we went to the site as a stopover to catch up on some sleep ready for an early start the next day! So be warned on that one. If had been the weekend we may have been more understanding of this, or if we had some sort of warning! The lady at reception did speak fairly good English.

We also felt that the site needed a good tidy up, especially around the reception and within the reception/bar areas, not so much dirty but just looked like nothing was ever put away and just made everywhere look rundown and unattractive. The toilet block would get 3 stars from us, not the best but certainly not the worst, quite clean but quite dated although there were English style toilets.

2/ Camping Municipal (Dompierre-sur-Besbre) - North of Clermont in Moullins

http://www.alanrogers.com/campsite-info.php?SiteARNo=FR03170

http://www.eurocampings.co.uk/en/europe/france/auvergne/allier/camp-site-municipal-103950/

Fantastico!!! We loved this site as a stopover site, you make a turn just after some shops becoming very concerned as to the area it seems to be in (pretty much in the middle of the village) but then you come up to the municipal sports ground (Rugby pitch - I’m rugby mad and so started smiling at this point!) then a small reception at the front of what I presume to be the wardens house, with an ultra friendly dog waiting to greet you! The whole place is impeccably maintained/presented with floral displays everywhere, at the reception desk there are signs to tell you everything translated into every language, these answered all our questions before we even spoke to the receptionist (for us a real sign of a very well thought out campsite) it cost 6.30 euros again for 2 people tent and car.

The pitches were all level or close to it, all of a good size and I believe all serviced by water and electricity should it be needed. Our pitch backed onto another sports ground and we could see the rugby pitch ahead of us, again floral displays all around the site. For the record the rugby pitch was the type of pitch any player would dream to play on! Such perfect condition!

The toilet block was very well maintained; there was also another block at the other side of the site. Very clean. A nice touch were the array of recycling bins available too. We would love to have had time to explore the area and to have walked around the sports grounds but unfortunately we again arrived quite late (8pm ish) and were leaving for Paris first thing. I'm sure you would be able to get supplies in the local area and a bread van comes round at 8am in the morning (be warned he honks to say he is there quite a bit!)

So probably the best presented site we have ever stayed in and one of the cheapest too! Of the six sites we stayed in while away two were municipals and they would be number one and two in my list of preference with this at number one!

Also Nath if you are using internet explorer it can translate pages for you, right click on the page you want translated and go to page info at the bottom and you can click on translate page to English, depends on the page as to how successful it is!

Try this website, too, for all sites within 15 kilometres of the A75

http://users.pandora.be/leo.huybrechts/00frame.htm

we stopped twice at the Du Mas site at issoire , cant fault it and really close to carrefour.

some pikeys on though but no problems at all

This is a nice campsite just a little south of Clermont Ferrand http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/details.asp?revid=6343 We stayed here for a few days last year.

David

Another vote for Camping de la Filature here and the owner's cooking is out of this world.

Ali

If you are staying near Clermont-Ferrand and looking for places to visit I would highly recommend Volvic - there is a visitor centre at the bottling plant which is excellent- has English translations - and it's free of charge !

Rod