France West coast

[Mags]

Hi All, I'm taking the Bus on it's first (in my ownership at least) trip abroad to Classic Le Mans in early July and then looking to go over to the French west coast for the following week so any recommendations on where to go/camp would be gratefully received.
I've never camped in France and we are more interested in finding 1 or 2 places to stay for a few days each and not spend day after day driving just to get to as many places as possible so I doubt I'll be heading too far south.
Any other advice on taking the bus to France other than tools/spares would also be helpful, cheers!

Mark

 

[Clem]

On the West Coast the area around La Rochelle is pretty popular and not too far to go to. The Ile de Re is very popular and has lots of campsites, a bit further down is the Ile de Oleron - both nature reserve type places.
A bit further down is the Arcachon area, the largest sand dune in Europe which is pretty cool and is lined with campsites.

Obvs, further down is the big surf area but maybe further than you are thinking?

 

[mike202]

Ile de Re was lovely we stayed at camping Essi. It was a little bit too hot for us in June (can’t take the heat[emoji23]) so we moved to Noirmoutier en Ile where it was a little bit cooler, stayed at what is now Camping Huttopia. That was in 2016.
We went to Brittany in 2018 which maybe is further north than you want.
I would like to go back at some point and go a bit further south to dune de Pilat where there are forests and huge sand dunes. [emoji3]

 

[SiDev]

I was just south of Le Mans last week for work, I stayed a night in La Chatre Sur Le Loir at a hotel called Hotel de France which was Le Mans themed, tastefully. Sleepy little village with a few bars and restaurants, apparently some of the teams used to stay there. I drove past a campsite which looked pretty good, link here:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&hl=en-gb&ei=PmInXq7sE5SDhbIP3Z2CyAI&q=la+chartre+sur+le+loir+camping&oq=la+chartre+sur+le+loir+camping&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.3..0i22i30l8.18419.21366..22990...0.1..0.218.923.7j1j1......0....1.........0i71j46i275j0j0i30j0i19j0i22i30i19.ntb0cJfhcQc#trex=m_t:lcl_akp,rc_f:,rc_ludocids:16119031109025762766,rc_q:Camping%2520du%2520Vieux%2520Moulin,ru_q:Camping%2520du%2520Vieux%2520Moulin
The west coast is pretty nice, La Rochelle and Granville would be my recommendations.

 

[Mags]

Thanks for the replies, that's good to hear, a guy at work recommended Ile de Re so around there/La Rochelle was where I was aiming for.
I've read in the past French campsites are good, does anyone have a recommendation on how I can work out the good from the not so good?
We don't have kids and appreciate it's peak season when we would usually try to avoid the masses so if there's a way of avoiding where there will be a high volume of kids/families that would be ideal. Flippin 'eck I sound like a right miserable git!

 

[SiDev]

If you want to work out the good from the not so good, I use an app called ACSI, the actual app is free and then you pay per country, from memory I paid 99p for Belgium and 1.99 for the Netherlands, and 99p for Germany, France won’t be more than a couple of quid. The app shows all the camp sites and you can see star ratings as well as the facilities they offer and expected cost per night. It’s always served me well.

 

[Mags]

If you want to work out the good from the not so good, I use an app called ACSI, the actual app is free and then you pay per country, from memory I paid 99p for Belgium and 1.99 for the Netherlands, and 99p for Germany, France won’t be more than a couple of quid. The app shows all the camp sites and you can see star ratings as well as the facilities they offer and expected cost per night. It’s always served me well.

Thanks, will take a look.

 

[weeboll]

we did ile de oleron on our first French trip then came back to Calais via a few nights in Blois and did some good cycle rides along the Loire visiting chateuxs etc

on trip to le mans we stayed overnight at a tiny place called durtal which has a nice little campsite for the night

other times we have stayed in a little place called combourg which is lovely, if going via Cherbourg, on the way to Brittany - crozon peninsula very nice as is the north cost.

above la Rochelle we found places like st nazzaire worth skipping over but it depends what the weather is doing north of the loire

touristy campsites will be such as on ile de oleron will be pricey and need booking in peak seasons, best campsites are the little ones off the track a bit but you probably already know that and its france so you cant really go wrong

 

[mike202]

I liked Combourg when we last went, lovely historic town. It’s a short drive to a campsite we’ve stayed at a couple of times as it’s not to far to get the morning ferry from St Malo back to Portsmouth. It’s called Le Bois Coudrais and is a basic but quiet and peaceful campsite.

 

[weeboll]

we stayed at the same one, highly recommended

amazing night skies from what i remember

 

[Mags]

That's all really helpful, thanks very much!

 

[KlausRSA]

Which port are looking at using to get across ?

I’ve been toying with the idea as well

 

[Mags]

Which port are looking at using to get across ?

I’ve been toying with the idea as well

We are going Portsmouth - Caen, I was going to take the overnight crossing but no cabins were available so am doing the morning crossing on Friday 3rd.We've booked through a company called 1st tickets who run a private campsite at Le Mans. I've been wanting to go for several years so am really looking forward to it.