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Hi,

 we have just returned from France, we spent 3 weeks travelling all over the place and never once pre- booked a pitch and we were also never turned away.

This was our fourth holiday in France and have now pretty much covered most of the country and have never booked a pitch yet and we alway go in high season.  We also like to feel we are not committed to a schedule and like the freedom, you just travel where the best weather seems to be.  This has never failed us yet and we have had some fantastic holidays which we will never forget.  Be brave and just go for it, if you were unlucky to be turned away, there is usually another site within 30minutes, so there is no stress anyway.

Hope you enjoy your holiday.

Sandra.

If you can go during the last two weeks of August rather than mid-July to mid-August then you shouldn't have to book at almost every site.  Even the biggest sites will have pitches coming free - so the best thing is to try to arrive on site early afternoon rather than late evening - that way you get the pick of that day's empty pitches!

Site fees often come down a little (or even a lot) during the last couple of weeks in August so you may also make a little saving.

Booking depends IMHO first and foremost on when you travel, outside of 15/7-18/8 you probably won't need to. Next dependency would be area. Then sites popular with Brits tend to book up. Next how long do you intend staying? If only a a few nights (less than say 5) you might be lucky anywhere, anytime eg our 'pet' site n the Dordogne was full early August BUT if you were in a motorhome and didn't mind changing pitch mid-week you would have been found some space.

So I'm not really surprised eg that 'nutgone' didn't need to book when staying at 111 sites in 5 weeks or that Sndra didn't book because if she has just returned then her holiday was very end of Aug and Sept.

Personally I always book the main sites - ie those being used for more than a week and leave the others to chance and the FFCC guide. So our main sites for next year ( our habitual stops) are already booked up to make sure we gat the desired pitches.

Generally, if you are going to 'holiday sites' from mid-July to mid-August (i.e. the main holiday/busy areas; sites with lots of amenities etc), then I would book these sites.  I would not book an 'over-night municipal site' at any time - you can usually get in.  Outside the main holiday dates, I would have thought it would be possible to get in.

There will always be a site somewhere with the odd vacancy, but you may have to search them out during the main holiday period in popular areas.  After having travelled, quite a distance, I would hate trudging around to even a handful of sites in the area before getting a pitch - and then not necessarily getting a pitch that ideal.  You also run the risk of the 'well we've only got this pitch for 5 nights' when you really want 10, scenario.