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I would certailnly go for the "German" option. 2 weeks starting from Santander means you will forever be thinking "have we got time". Between Santander and St Malo there is enought to fill almost a lifetime.

Best for me would be to head off towards Germany, certainly via Ardennes/Luxemobourg/Alsace ( the Voges mountains) and when it's time , you simply turn round and go back a different route via Champagne etc. That way if you see something that takes your fancy, you are not committed to 1000 kms for the ferry.

FM

I would cut out the St Malo and stick to northern Spain (or a trip to N Portugal or into the French Pyrenees). From Santander (quite a lot to do in that area) it's a short journey to the Picos de Europa - great walks and other outdoor activities - enough to keep anyone happy for a week. We had nearly three weeks just doing the coastal/near-coastal strip from the eastern Picos to the western Pyrenees - could have spent twice that time even without going far inland. Interesting cities/towns - especialy Bilbao and Guernica; lots of good beaches, many almost deserted most of the time. Nothing against western France but there's a huge variety of choices in northern Spain.

PS: food is good and meals with drinks are much cheaper than I've had elsewhere in western Europe.

Hi there, thought I would share with you our last 2 years camping expereinces in France with our T25 VW.

Year 1

Calais - Limoges-Sarlat(Dordogne)- Aguillion (Lot)- Landes (here we spent 5 nights in St Julien en Born and travelled up and down the coast between Messanges/Moliets/Biscarosse/Archachon- Lacanau (3 mights)- La Rochelle-back to Calais

Total 2500miles in 2 weeks

Year 2

Calais- Champagne (stayed just outside Troyes)- Lake Annency (Rhone-Alps)-Puy de Dome- Sarlat- Luzech (Lot) - St Julien en Born (yes again as we liked it!)- La Tranche sur Mer (Vendee - hated it)-  day driving up to Niormienter - Drain (yes odd name but lovely place by a lake - think this was the start of the Loire Valley)- Loire Valley (drove quite a lot of it and stopped at Saumur)- Chartres- Les Andelays (Normandy) then stayed at a site outside Boulogne - Calais

Think the total was 2750miles this time in 2 weeks

In honesty the first trip was really exciting as it was our first expereinece on France in the van. The second trip we knew what we were doing but wanted to try different areas. We were really disappointed by the Vendee and wished we had spent more time in Landes.

It really was a whistle stop tour last year. I would like to do the South of France but OH has to have 2 weeks in August off due to work and I refuse to do this area that time of year as it is so busy. We found last year too gruelling though as we only spent 2 nights in 1 place the whole time.

This year I am not taking the full 2 weeks off so we are having 11 nights. We are going to head to Landes as we love the coastline there and spent 21/2-3 days getting there and back with 5 days by the coast. Just trying to decided were to stop off on the way now!