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Hi everyone,

We have an opportunity to take a few more days holiday than we were expecting, so I need some advice about where to make the most of it.  We're heading down to St Gervais Le Bains but we don't have to be there until the Friday, but we can now catch the midnightish ferry on the monday night, arriving in France in the early hours of Tuesday.  So, should I try and extend the existing booking or use the three nights along the way?  We were thinking of a site near Lons le Saunier for an overnighter originally anyway.  We don't know this part of France at all, and I don't want to miss an opportunity.

What do you think?

Thanks, Mel

PS We will be towing.

Lons le Saunier looks a long way down France, were you going to do that straight after the ferry?

I suppose Cambs is a lot closer to the ferries than Leeds where I drove from but we did Leeds - Dover - Boulogne - Epernay.

This was enough driving for the 1st day (not towing) plus a little champagne tasting to kick off the holiday. We stayed here a couple of days as to let the alcohol get out of our system.

After leaving there we headed to nr Macon and stayed there for a night before heading to Seez nr Bourg-St-Maurice in the Alps.

Why not try going around the eastern side of France, Belgium and into Luxembourg?

I haven't been to Luxembourg myself, but we are considerring going there on our way back from the Alps this year. My in-laws love it there, and it does look nice in the pictures that I have seen. Also, some of the cheapest fuel in western Europe does make it attractive.

Then travel on down through a bit more of France, Switzerland, into the Chamonix area either via Geneva or Martigny & over the mountains.

Smudger

I stayed overnight at a place called Chilly-le-Vignoble on the way to Annecy some years ago. I remember leaving Calais just after 8am and getting there at 5.30pm. we did well over 400 miles and decided it was much to far. The total distance to Annecy was about 520 miles and we couldn't get on site before 2pm so really with only another 100 miles to do the next day it just was not worth that long hard slog on the first day. Lons-le-Saunier is just a little further on than our stop. I think you would be better off driving until just over half way and then stopping for a few days. Much more relaxed. you could probably get to Dijon for about tea time. It's in the Burgundy (Bourgogne) wine growing region so you could at least check out the local tipple.

harryb

We'll arrive in Calais about 4am and usually drive for a couple of hours and then pull over for a nap and something to eat - last year we made Annecy by 3pm but we weren't towing, our test trips with the 'van suggest that we'd probably average about 50 miles an hour, so maybe Dijon is looking good.  Although i think I'd prefer champagne to mustard!

In the past we found we quite like the 'big' drive on day 1 and then day 2, we can stock up at a supermarket/market and arrive more sedately at the site with all afternoon to put up the tent but now with our new arrangements we'd be better off splitting the drive into more equal parts? 

HarryB, Chilly-Le-Vignoble is the site we'd sort of picked - but I'm thinking that its just that bit too far now. But, just in case, did you like it?

Thanks everyone for your replies.