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Hi,

We are planning a trip to Portiragnes-Plage in the South of France in July, travelling from Dover to Calais towing a caravan. We have travelled in France a few times but never this distance or having an overnight stop. The distance is approx 650 miles from Calais and my orriginal plan is to get an early start and do most of the journey before stopping overnight. I would be grateful if anyone can suggest a place to stop overnight and whether i need to pre-book. I have previously avoided stopping overnight before because it seemed to be a lot of hassle, but now wishing to travel to the south its something i will have to try. Any advice on how to make an overnight stop as simple as possible or best route would also be apprecited.

Thanks in advance

Andy

Welcome to UKCS.  This is the place to come for help and good, friendly, advice.

Look on this website - gives all sites within 15 kilometres of major routes.  http://users.pandora.be/leo.huybrechts/camp1.htm, select the country, then your chosen route.  I would say whether to book or not depends on the date/time of your travel.  If you're going the weekend the world moves, in France (ie nearest weekend after 13th July) then possibly yes you should book - otherwise there are plenty of municipal sites where you can just turn up.  If possible it's best to stop around 4.00 pm to ensure you get a pitch, especially in peak season like July.   You're obviously going down the Rhone Valley and there are loads of sites, all the way down.  Almost every town and village of any site has a municipal - and there are usually fine for an overnight stop.   Lots of people stop at the Castels site of Chateau l'Eperviere at Gigny sur Saone - and highly recommend it.  There are lots of other lovely sites in Burgundy, which is about as far as I would want to travel from Calais before stopping.  The municipal in Beaune is good, (but fills quickly), La Grappe d'Or is also good (but you may need to think about booking), there's a municipal in Dijon which is fine, Lac de Panthier at Vandenesse is good - but tends to get busy.

From what you say, however, you intend to get further south, in which case the municipal in Macon is good, and there's another just to the north of Lyon which is easily accessible from the autoroute.  Another we've stayed at is at Villefranche sur Saone (basic, but acceptable for overnight).  

A good tip is to highlight your route, then mark sites along the route, so that whenever you start to feel you need to stop and find a site you know where the next one is!