France Part 9 - So Many Choices!
Day 27, and we are just outside a town called ‘Die.’ Definitely not the best name for a place, though the site we are on looks okay, and I will ask how to pronounce the town name properly tomorrow. As I sit typing this, it is absolutely pouring down with rain, and so we are just chilling as you would at home, not going anywhere, drinking a cold beer and writing, before lasagna and garlic bread – French style!
We have driven from Alba-la-Romaine where we stayed last night, and where we arrived at our chosen site; we were told the restaurant would be closed as they were expecting 65 children from a local school to eat. Being older, that sounded a bit ominous to us, so we made a quick exit and found another site close by. Unfortunately, this site wasn’t great, but it was just outside the village, and a short walk meant finding a lovely local café serving what I would call a typical French platter, as you can see.
Wonderful, friendly staff, I can only describe it as quaint and very nice and quiet and somewhere I would recommend if you are ever down this way. Just don’t expect too much from a local campsite. Pitches for about 7/8 travelling vehicles. Very dated but clean facilities and, again, friendly staff! The grass on the pitches wasn’t too short either!
The only thing I would say here is that, again, this is where things can get a bit frustrating, depending on what you want. We needed facilities through choice so for €25 it was ‘okay.’ We have found better for less and as bad or worse for more. Unless you know everywhere you will get things wrong, as I assume the professionals have done too!
But not for the first time on this trip, we rocked up at the campsite to pay and to find there was free overnight parking right next door. (Would anyone notice if you sneaked onto site for a shower.) All the free parking sites seem to have waste and chemical water disposal and often a supply of fresh water. So, there is no difference between the free sites and the one I will come onto, with the exception of an electricity supply!
Would you pay €12-15 per night for an electricity supply when most motorhomes will wild park for at least two nights without a recharge? But again, it’s about everything else and what you want, and I will come onto ‘wild camping’ in a later post!
The day before, we had driven approximately 2.5 hours to get some miles travelled. We ended up on a site called Camping Les Rives du Lac Canteles. It is very quiet, probably as it’s out of season; it has full facilities, including a washing machine and dryer, and it cost us €5 more than a Camping Car Park site with next to nothing, something else, which is the one I will come onto, and once again, apologies for the chopping and changing, but there is so much going on and so much to write about.
And here in lies one of the problems. According to research and following our professional travel guide by using a book, you can pretty much park anywhere in France in a travelling vehicle, as long as there are no parking restrictions. On a pavement-style area as in one of my previous posts. Laybys, if you can find one, probably industrial estates, service stations on busier roads, and I have heard even restaurant and supermarket car parks, if you use their facilities and ask permission, so different from the UK, and so much better!
It’s all very much about what you want. If you’re happy to use your vehicle facilities every night, which a lot of people will do, then you can have a much cheaper holiday for sure. When you are driving and have a solar panel on your roof, the habitation battery will recharge just fine. If you are happy using the vehicle shower and toilet every time, then you will not have a problem, considering that is what they are designed for! We presently have an issue in the shower, as the part that holds the shower head holder and where it connects to the wall is damaged, but I am looking for somewhere to go on the travels to try to get it fixed.
Our ‘but’ is we do enjoy pitching up on the campsites, as we do, or pretty much have to do in the UK. We like the comforts of nice showers and toilet blocks, maybe a bar and a restaurant as we have tonight, even though it is closed probably due to the rain; we have electric hook-up (EHU in the traveling world,) and maybe a little bit of security too.
We wild camped the other night, as you can see from the photo, and that was it, just us and the fellow travellers! If we wanted water, we paid for it. I believe we got 10 minutes of water and an hour of electricity for €3, but nobody would really need an electrical boost for an hour. Just make sure you are filled up and good to go for a night!
The choices along with your preferences are massive, but now let me tell you about Camping Car Park, and this is where you can look and search and plan all you want, and things just don’t quite go right. We are using an app to find sites and come across theirs quite often, and their sites are basic and all automated; they have a variety of language choices at the entry terminal, so there isn’t a problem – usually!
We had stayed on one site previously, and it was fine, but all you get is wastewater disposal, chemical waste disposal, and fresh water top-up, which I believe you have to pay for!! So, you present the credit card you are given on your first stop, and if you have enough money on your card, you’re fine. If not, you just top it up at the entry terminal in increments of €5; however, you also have to have enough money on your card to get out, as that tells them how long you have stayed for; obviously, more nights cost more money! The problem after speaking to them the other day was that each site varies, but we’re still not sure how to find out. I’m sure we will, and as I write this, it’s on their app – silly me!
Anyway, we found their site we wanted at Saint-Leon-sur-Vezere, but we couldn’t get in. I assumed there wasn’t enough credit on our account, and so getting frustrated, I topped it up with €10, and still the barrier wouldn’t open, so I tried again with another €10 top-up and still no luck. Getting more frustrated, I eventually phoned them to find out they had a problem with the actual barrier opening, and the only way to get in was to ring them, which we didn’t know until we had no other option – silly me, again!
It wasn’t helped by following a French driver up to the gate (supposedly) just for him to sit there not moving. He was out of his vehicle talking to someone, but his motorhome was just sitting in front of me, not moving. After talking, we could understand he didn’t have a card, so obviously he couldn’t get in. I asked him if he could move so we could get in, and he showed me the other barrier, but I said I couldn’t go in the ‘out’ barrier. But he just kept walking about, and the vehicle just sat there.
I was being as patient as I could, and can’t quite remember how it came to light, but it seemed he had pulled over to the right of the barrier, I had followed him and parked in the supposed queue behind him, but there was only the one barrier in and out, so there’s me getting impatient, thinking he was pointing to the out barrier to get us in, but it was my silly fault for following him and sitting behind him thinking I was in the queue to get in. Anyway, an apology in my best French, a shake of the hands and all was well – silly me, again. I’m getting worried as there’s a bit of a theme here!!
There wasn’t a problem getting out as we certainly had enough credit on the card, but the worst part was taking the dogs for a walk the next morning to find breakfast. We wandered through a municipal parking site some 100m up the road. Found that both parking and the electricity were free, with nice pitches and better views right beside the river! You can imagine our frustrations at getting the queuing wrong and then paying for very little when it was all free 100m away. So, if you go to this lovely little village, look for the municipal parking and not the Camping Car Park Aire. We even saw a sign for toilets and showers in the municipal park, which we didn’t investigate.
And my advice after nearly four weeks is DON’T use ‘Camping Car Park’ sites, as there are many more options and free too. As mentioned, most free sites have waste chemical and waste water options, with free water top-up and some with EHU into the bargain.
All Camping Car Park sites have EHU, waste, and chemical water disposal, but do you need EHU? Definitely not for one night unless you need to plug appliances in. I don’t know about modern vehicles, but unless we have EHU, we can’t use plug points. But who really needs them?
We have a barbecue to cook; the fridge works for cold beers and wine; the wife can manage as she hasn't washed her hair, so she doesn’t need to dry it. We don’t need anything simply because we’re wild camping, and that’s what these vehicles were designed to do!
Thanks for reading
DJ
