Beat the credit-crunch - doing France the old way

[Editor - France Magazine]

Bonjour Forum-users,

There seems to be a trend that people are choosing to go to France in the same way their parents chose to when they were children - ie. pack up the car, on to the ferry and off to the campsite.

For my  regular Times Online column, I'm keen to hear from people who, because of financial contraints, they are reconsidering their usual holiday plans and copying their own childhood holidays. What are the advantages of doing this nowadays? Are the campsites better now than then?

Let me  know!

Best wishes,

Carolyn

Carolyn Boyd, Editor, France Magazine

 

[5-element]

Sounds like you are only interested in people who "do France", i.e. go to France, for holidays.

So presumably, this is aimed at people who live and work in the UK, and not at all at British expats or immigrants in France?

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="5-element"]

Sounds like you are only interested in people who "do France", i.e. go to France, for holidays.

So presumably, this is aimed at people who live and work in the UK, and not at all at British expats or immigrants in France?

[/quote]

Yes believe it or not  some of us on this forum STILL live in the UK[:D] and before we bought our holiday home there we 'did France' in just that way.

First camping , then gites then caravanning, but I did not 'do France' as a child so cannot make any comparisons to how it was and now sorry.

[Russethouse]

[quote user="5-element"]

Sounds like you are only interested in people who "do France", i.e. go to France, for holidays.

So presumably, this is aimed at people who live and work in the UK, and not at all at British expats or immigrants in France?

[/quote]

The forum is not only for people living in France or with second homes there, but also for Francophiles who may also be France magazine readers [:)]

[5-element]

 So it is. I just found the "doing France" expression a little jarring, but it must be me being over-sensitive.

Vive la diversité.[kiss]

[Graham & Brenda]

We live in France and "do France" for our holidays. We still use gites, as we did when we lived in the UK. Lots of choice in style and in budget.

[Coppi]

Hi Carolyn

I found your enquiry interesting. Ignoring the "doing France" comments, yes, camp sites are much much better in 2008 than in 1967 when I (we) first camped in France. We had an A35 van and an Igloo tent. These were held up by means of 4 pneumatic tubes. Inflating this was just what you wanted after a long hard days drive at a max. speed of 45mph. I forget what the exchange rate was then but we allowed ourselves £5 a day for everything.

Since then we have camped with frame tents, caravans, backpacking in the Alps, and cycle camping. We have also had many gite and hotel holidays, it's not been under canvas every time. However this year I had cause to spend a few days in the Loire and I bought a new tent. I must admit that my wife is somewhat lacking in the enthusiasm which she displayed in earlier days. We do now have a maison secondaire  in Normandy. What a difference.

There is I feel a certain social attitude which prevails with some people regarding camping but then cycling suffered from the same thing for a long time untill recent years.

In aswer to your question. Yes, facilities are very much improved. As for the cost. The cost per night can be less than 10€ through to over 50€ for the emplacement.

For a number of years I had a professional interest in this form of vacation.

I could go on, and on, and on...............but I thinks that's enough.

C

[Théière]

Generally I find France does me a lot more [:D]

[PaulT]

[quote user="Coppi"]

Hi Carolyn

We had an A35 van..............................after a long hard days drive at a max. speed of 45mph.

C

[/quote]

You obviously had the supercharged version then [:D]

[Clair]

Carolyn's article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article5280929.ece