Key Post: Camping in France.

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Learner

If you are landing in Nantes, you might like the campsite we stayed in at St Jean de Monts called Camping les Amiaux http://www.amiaux.fr/. If you are looking for large campsite, loads of irish and English, big pool, great slides and a ton that appeals to teenagers, then it might be for you. However, I do not peronally like the town much; it is big and brash rather than French and understated, compared to smaller townsd around.

Irrespective, when go there, you must go the amusement park Puy de Fou, which is the best amusement park I have been in. It's not a traditional amusement park; ut teenageers like it; stay for the absolutely spectacular night show with 1,000 actors etc. Worth driving 50km for.

Propman

Agree - Puy du Fou is an absolute must.

Went this year to the day event (be there before 10 a.m) and bring a picnic. You w'ont be leaving till 7 that evening.

Went this year to the night show and i highly recommend that too.

Best value is to book the night show and the day show and make two trips.

Book on www.puydufou.com I think is the link but you'll find it in a search anyhow.

Believe me do not go to France and be so close without going to see these shows.
All in french but it's spectacular in any case - headsets can be purchased and I would recommend them for the night show.

Fab tip about Puy Du Fou. We're planning to stay in La Baule next September (Cork/Roscoff with the wonderful Brittany Ferries - although the price of the deluxe cabins have shot up for 2007) & then 12 nights in

Our family 2 + 2 children (11, 8) are planning a holiday in South West of France in late June 08, flying into Biarritz. Can anyone please recommend a good campsite in this region? Nothing too lively, would enjoy activities like cycling, horse riding, canooing, walking. Woodlands, also near (few miles) from sea. Any suggestions please.

Rosebudd said:

Our family 2 + 2 children (11, 8) are planning a holiday in South West of France in late June 08, flying into Biarritz. Can anyone please recommend a good campsite in this region? Nothing too lively, would enjoy activities like cycling, horse riding, canooing, walking. Woodlands, also near (few miles) from sea. Any suggestions please.

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I've heard Le Vieux Port or Sylvamar is one of the best down there

Propman said:

[broken link removed]

Learner

If you are landing in Nantes, you might like the campsite we stayed in at St Jean de Monts called Camping les Amiaux http://www.amiaux.fr/. If you are looking for large campsite, loads of irish and English, big pool, great slides and a ton that appeals to teenagers, then it might be for you. However, I do not peronally like the town much; it is big and brash rather than French and understated, compared to smaller townsd around.

Irrespective, when go there, you must go the amusement park Puy de Fou, which is the best amusement park I have been in. It's not a traditional amusement park; ut teenageers like it; stay for the absolutely spectacular night show with 1,000 actors etc. Worth driving 50km for.

Propman

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I would agree with the above but would also go to the trouble of going to futuroscope
it is brilliant.

Hi all,

Am not sure if i can post here or start a new thread, but am wondering from all the posters that have travelled to brittany in france can ye tell me what to budget? for example price of meals, drinks, petrol seems to be alot more expensive? Any tips, things not to forget etc? its my first time travelling/driving in france and first time on these camping holdays. i got a very good deal on Canvas and from reading this am very glad i booked my ferry seperatley!

its 2 adults on child

Any info/ tips wud be great, thanks in advance

Hi all,

Just another vote for St John de Monts!

I worked on a large camp site there for a couple of months and would highly recommend it to anyone.

A word of advice, definately phone/email the site directly as the price difference can be crazy. We had French, UK and Irish brochures, French having the cheapest prices by far and you can guess who had the dearest!

On Puy de Fou, one of the best days of my life, absolutely amazing. We managed to get night show tickets as a guest that couldn't travel left them into us at reception to sell. Used to be very hard to get and booked up way in advance. We went and did the whole thing day and night, crazy long day and then drove back to St Jean but definately worth it. See can you book the night show tickets in advance.

St Giles Croix de Ville is a beautiful village nearby and definately worth the trip.

I agree St Jean is not the most beautiful French village but it can be an amazing holiday and you can travel around to see the other local towns.

I'm not sure if I can post up the name of the site I worked as but if anyone wants details maybe I can PM them (although haven't quite figured that one out yet!!)

Booked La Garangeoire [broken link removed] for about 12 days next Summer. Got rave reviews by friends who are repeat visitors and clear bills of health from TripAdvisor and Zoomer (French campsite version of trip adv). Its about 15 minutes inland from Les Sables d'Olonne in the Vendee (south of St. Jean de Monts, 1.5hrs north of La Rochelle). While ideally I'd like to be on the beach we eventually went for the peace of mind of a good site - hopefully that 15 minutes is realistic!

Looking forward to exploring La Rochelle and even further south to around Royan, stayed in Jean de Monts before and while was grand wasnt blown away - June v quiet there. 2 nigths to book near Puy du Fou (did 1 day before, loved it. Now 2 days and night show hopefully), and about 3 nights in La Cote de Nacre in Normandy on the way home (see a bit of historical stuff). Sailing Celtic Link from Rosslare to Cherbourg, with caravan, all indepedently booked.

Betsy, you can't go wrong. Great area and it looks like a great site. You may not have time to get as far as Royan. It's quite a spin down. La Rochelle has a great Aquarium on the harbour front and is a lovely old town. Great deals on Celtic Link at the moment. we did the same area by caravan 6 years ago. It will be very busy in July early August.

The campsites in France are excellent and very cheap.I did a tour of France by motorcycle in August 2010 and went again in August 2011.The cost per person per night in most of the sites we stayed at was 7.50 euro ,for fabulous conditions and surroundings,and these contained swimming pools cafes and other amenities for kids..

I'm new to this and can't find where to post a new thread so all I want to know if anyone has heard if a new ferry service will be up and running this year from Cork in Ireland to Gijon or Santander in Spain?This would be brilliant if it happened,anyone hear or know anything?

Betsy Og said:

3 nights in La Cote de Nacre in Normandy on the way home (see a bit of historical stuff).

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WE stayed in La Cote de Nacre a few years ago. Top class camp site.
I found the area disappointing compared to Brittany but the historical sites make it worth a short trip.

I remember this thread running recently. I've copied and pasted the main point.

Google translated this

http://www.elcomercio.es/20111118/as...111180630.html

seems like a once a week cork-gijon may be on the cards for 2012


The highway of the sea is about to take a new step in its development. By the end of this year will enter service the second ship of the maritime connection between El Musel and Nantes-Saint Nazaire. But not the only novelty, and that the second ship will also cover the line between Gijón and the port of Cork, located in the South of Ireland. This will be the first direct maritime connection between the island and the Iberian Peninsula.