Hi everybody

Retz: Welcome! You will have the time of your life. Ask questions as you embark on your planning. Donerail

Thanks, donerail! I’m sure I will have a lot of questions during this year of planning, and I’m also confident that I will get a lot of sensible answers on this forum.

And I got some people I know who came here from Chile and did rent a camping-car, I don’t know how much they paid but they had a blast!!! I can try to figurate that out if u need to…

ManuNice: That would be great! I’ve surfed the internet a bit, and have found some companies that rent out camper vans in Paris, – our start ans stop city – and the prices for 15-18 days varies from roughly 1800-2500 ¬.

We will start in Paris, then drive to the Alpes to catch up with the TdF there. The exact route can’t be planned before the 2005 TdF-route is official in October/November, but as parts of the tour always are predictable to some extent, we expect to go from the Alpes to Southern France, (hope the Mont Ventoux will be included in next years race!) then on to the Pyrenees and then follow the stages back to Paris.

We will need a good and detailed road map, so if you have any suggestions I will appreciate it!

Hmm, the euro symbol doesn’t seem to work. Well, after the 1800-2500 the should be a euro symbol, and not the strange little thing you see there now, he he.

A great road map is the Michelin "France Tourist and Motoring Atlas." It is a spiral bound atlas with every tiny road and village and it has a thorough index. It comes in two formats, one very large and the other about 9 X 12 inches. We prefer the smaller because it’s easier to pack.

You can get it at nearly any good bookstore or online at Amazon.com, Borders.com or whatever bookstore chain you have in Norway that is online.

Have you checked this web site for camper vans? Click on the blue and red France.com at the top of the page and over on the right of the home page you will see an auto rental button. Click there and see what you find.

Here are some other web sites for you to check.
http://www.renaultusa.com
http://www.peugeot-openeurope.com/html
http://www.kemwel.com
http://www.europebycar.com
http://www.autofrance.net

One of the above may be where you land from the France.com web site. We lease from Peugeot so I haven’t used any of these except the Peugeot site. We’ve had very good experiences leasing from them.

Sounds like a fun trip. Keep us posted.

Thank you so much, Sal B!

I’ll go for the Michelin "France Tourist and Motoring Atlas"!

None of the links you listed had camper vans for rental, but I have collected a few sites on surfing the internet:

http://goeurope.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.motorhome-hire-visitfrance.travel%2F

http://www.ideamerge.com/france.html

http://www.set-camping-car.com/english/motorhomes.htm

http://www.international-motorhome-hire.com/quote.htm

Have you any ecperience with these companies? I will do some more searching before ordering, but I think it is wise to order already this autumn to make sure we get one.

Another thing; Is it possible to park the camper van along the roadside or at a picnic area etc. in rural areas, or do we have to use regular camp sites?

Yes, you bet I will keep you posted! Have to express my entusiasm and joy somewhere!

Thanks for adding to the list of useful site. I’m sure others will use these.

We’ve never used a camper van. We’ve camped in France but we took our trusty tent with us. I’ve never seen anyone camped along the roadside in a camper but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. You need to check for regulations on camping. Camping vans are mostly used by British tourists in France. The French we’ve met seem to either have or rent very large tents at the campgrounds. These are super large! They are often two or more rooms, often have floors and even kitchens and are definitely for staying a couple weeks. We suspect some sort of bathroom facility in the tents because we’ve seen French gentlemen carrying bucket-type things to the restrooms early in the morning. This is only a suspicion as we never had courage to either ask or follow them.

There are lots and lots of campsites all over France so you won’t have trouble finding a place. I highly recommend the book "Camping and Caravaning in France." It gives you all the campgrounds, tells you what facilities they have, hours of operation, amenities, etc. One really nice thing about French campgrounds is they usually have a restaurant at the campground and they tend to be quite good.

On the down side, there weren’t a lot of picnic tables available. We did a lot of sitting on the ground and eating when we didn’t use the camp restaurant. This may be to encourage restaurant useage! They also didn’t have much in the way of barbecue facilities. One place near Gruissan had a communal barbecue, but the others had nothing available. The French even seem to carry their own table and chairs tucked into their car trunks. I suspect they are terrified of being caught out on the road with no place to have a "proper" meal with tablecloth and wine! At least this is my theory. In recent years we have noticed more tables available so perhaps this is changing.

The campgrounds we used were squeaky clean and the camp sites are usually rather large by American standards. There is a wonderful campground right in downtown Beaune (100 Vines Municipal Camping) that has a nice restaurant, clean laundry and bathrooms and the camp sites are all separated by very tall hedges so you feel like you’re out in the woods. However, you can easily walk to old town Beaune and you don’t have to worry about parking your car.

The bathrooms don’t usually have shelves so when you get to France, stop at a discount mall and purchase a small plastic footstool to put your things on in the shower. You can leave it at the last campground. Someone will deeply appreciate it! Also the French use bath mitts instead of wash cloths so if you don’t like mitts, take your own wash cloth. My husband hates the mitts!

You can stop at markets along the way and get the most wonderful fresh produce and even entire meals that will put a gourmet restaurant to shame. One thing you can do very inexpensively is eat extremely well.

Again, thanks for the web sites. We’re looking forward to more details about your trip.

This is truly amazing, SalB! To get such detailed information! Thanks again!

As we will follow the last 2 weeks of the Tour de France, we hope to park the camper van on a good spot on the mountain stages in the Alps and the Pyrenees. That is if we manage to get to the stages in time to find a good place. If not, we park in the foot hills and walk a few kilometres up the mountain. The perfect thing would be to arrive the evening before and mingle in with other TdF-supporters and take part in all the partying which are going on during the night! Well, at leat once, I’m to old for the more extreme kind of partying, but just to meet hundreds and thousands of people who share your deep passion for this race would be awesome!

I will certainly buy the camping book you recommend, as we plan to use campsites while following the flat stages of the TdF. Seems like the standard is high, and I just love the idea of restaurants on the campsites!

After following the TdF for years on tv, I’ve also seen a lot of the beautiful French landscape. In fact, if you want to get an impression of the different regions in France, one of the best ways is to watch the TdF on tv. From 3-8 hours a day for 3 weeks you really see a lot!

It’s really a shame that I – living in Norway – haven’t yet visited this beautiful country. Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain and more, yes, but never France. As for bringing your own picnic table, we tend to do the same thing here, even if the roadside are quite well equipped with picnik areas.

Hey i’m new to this site and i’m lookin’ for some friends!!!! i’m full Haitian and i truley adore Nelly other then that i’m a big fashion freak if there is anyone out there who can some how relate to me i’d appreciate it thanks!!!!