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New to camping in France,travelling to dordogne in august 2011. Looking for overnight stop about 3 hours from calais in the direction of the dordogne, require hotel in a pretty village or town. If somebody gives me the village i'll find hotel. On the way back looking for pretty village or town half way between limeuil and Lille.

Thanks for responses x

Hi Kellies

It would be an idea to know which route you're planning to take.  Have you had a look at the route planning options, such as viamichelin.co.uk?  Actually viamichelin recommends a route around Paris, which is perhaps not what I would recommend.  After years of going that way, we now go west of Paris, via Rouen, (which many of us on here do to get to the Dordogne or down to the Mediterranean).  In which case three hours from Calais will be south of Rouen somewhere. 

It isn't a pretty part of France, in that area, though - flat with only small 'farming' type villages, then you've the cities of Evreux and Dreux and neither of them could remotely be described as pretty either!  In three and a half hours (or a bit longer as route planners are always a bit optimistic), you could get to Chartres, where at least there are things to see - the Cathedral, a park, a historic centre, etc.  That's if your proposed route takes you that way, of course.  It all really depends on which 'end' of the Dordogne you're intending to reach, it's a very long river, and there are various choices of route.

Many on here recommend the Rouen route - but I know others prefer to go around Paris and join the A10 just south of Paris.  In which case three hours would take you just about to Paris!  Pretty - but very busy, and perhaps not the best place to negotiate your way to a hotel on a first motoring trip to France!

We did the Rouen route and it was superb, although Rouen itself was a little tricky to get through - I'd strongly recommend a sat-nav for that bit at least.

We had friends who went to a site south of Paris - they got lost on the Perepherique (Paris ring road) and the supposedly 5 hour journey took them 9 hours!! They didn't have a sat-nav and, unfortunately, the wife doesn't drive but she can't map-read either (her own admission, not mine)!!

There is an excellent municipal site at Beaumont-sur-Sarthe (lots of people on here will know it) which is about 5 hours from Calais (thats towing so would be less for you) and about 20 miles north of Le Mans. Very pretty site on the edge of a very quaint French town. Only about 10 euros for the night - highly recommended.

EDIT: Sorry, just re-read your post and realised you wanted a hotel - DOH . I think there was one in Beaumont but not sure and couldn't tell you if it was any good...