Rock & Camping in France

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This is not a "as it happened" daily blog, but a collective recap of our trip to France to attend the Download Paris music festival and then camp in Brittany. We didn't have enough data to really pull off daily uploads of photos and videos, so this seemed like a better option to still help us remember the awesome details of our 10 day adventure.

We took another extremely inexpensive direct overnight flight to Paris ($360RT on Primera Air) that actually left from Newark instead of JFK, so Hallelujah!! We landed in CDG around 1pm after a couple of delays and followed the directions our camper van rental company, Indie Campers, provided us to get ourselves out to a long term parking lot where they were waiting to pick us up in our adorable, little "petit camper!" They then drove us to their depot about 15 minutes from the airport to go over everything and get us set up. In many ways initially, the inside felt a little bigger than we expected, with the exception of the bathroom. Now don't get me wrong, I knew that it would be the world's tiniest shower likely standing over a toilet, but what I didn't expect was a small portable chemical toilet that was just placed in the bottom. There was no way in hell that door was closing at all if you were sitting on it, so as the extremely nice lady went over the instructions of how to use and empty it, I had all of these crazy anxiety ridden thoughts running through my head. She looked up at me and said "You look terrified." I replied with a "no, no" but my head was saying "yep, that's correct....that thing is terrifying!" Before we knew it, we were on the road with our first stop being the store Carrefore. It's the French equivalent to a Walmart and I found a location about 15 minutes from CDG to stop at first. Matt did beautifully driving right away, even though the camper was larger than we're used to and manual transmission. When we got to Carrefore, we found their entire parking lot had height restriction bars that were lower then we were (I am assuming this is because they don't want overnight camping like Walmart allows), so we had to park on a side street. The store was absolutely incredible. I will say it's the largest store I have ever been in, with aisles and aisles of everything. Think Costco size times two. Hundreds of feet of meats, cheeses, food.....it was mind-blowing. All of the employees who work on the floor wear rollerblades to get around, and as with all stores in France, the cashiers sit. We got our food and camping supplies and hit the road for night one, as I was late afternoon at this point.

Our plan for overnight parking/camping when initially planning this trip was to use a network called France Passion where you pay 30 Euro for a year membership and receive a guidebook, online search/planning tool, and a sticker for your camper that identifies you as a member. Essentially there are hundreds and hundreds of farmers & producers who invite you to stay on their property with the option to purchase some of their products (no obligation). The network is vast, with many wine, cider, cheese, produce, and meat producers on the list. This seemed like a fantastic idea as it was more cultural, and we didn't have to plan ahead on where we would be, etc.. So our first night, the closest option to Paris that would allow us to be close to the music fest location was about an hour east of Paris in the Champagne region....and you guessed it, they make Champagne!! With exact GPS coordinates it was easy to navigate to and our hosts, Brigitte & Emmanuel Hanneton, were actually already outside when we arrived. The book and website indicated they spoke English, but it was very very little. That's ok because we have the google translate app and both of us were getting by just fine with basic phrases and a little help from the Google. We got to park in this beautiful field where we set up our table and chairs, pulled out some evening snacks, and poured a glass of wine to toast our arrival. They invited us to come and sample some champagne with them in a half and hour, and again we used basic French/English and Google to have a nice chat. We did purchase a bottle of their champagne and they brought it out to us chilled about an hour later. We had the best night watching the wildlife (gigantic rabbits running around), drinking and getting toasty in the French countryside!

Thanks to jet lag (and a bottle of champagne), we slept a little late and then made our way to the medievel town of Provins which was beautiful. We walked around and went into a couple of cathedrals before stopping for lunch (nothing worth mentioning), then we made our way to Airbase 217, just about 40 min south of central Paris for the Download rock festival. This was my first music fest experience, and I'll admit as excited as I felt for the headliners, I was apprehensive about the whole festival experience. I just have visions of Woodstock 94's mud and crazy bathroom situation, and didn't know what to expect. When we arrived at the camping entrance, we were directed to a gated area across from all of the tent campers where we could park on level cement. The camping area was large in terms of it was tents for as far as the eye could see, but smaller in terms of the number of bathrooms & vendors we expected. Overall, we had a blast at the festival each day. With multiple stages, we were able to explore a lot of different music. We'd go listen to one band and if we weren't feeling it, just move to another stage and listen there (which is exactly what we love about New Orleans). The restrooms were actual real portable stalls with flushing toilets!! We paid extra to be VIP, meaning we had our own viewing areas of Main stages 1 & 2, where we could stand at an elevated height if we got there early enough before the main show (which we always did). We also had our own concession, bathroom, and hangout area which was very nice. Very easy during the main show as we didn't have to wait in line for bathrooms or drinks. The best part was at the end of the main shows where 20k people are exiting the festival to the right, and we dash a few hundred yards to the left to the VIP area where we could wait for 30-45 minutes and then just walk back to camp with wide open fields. I have to just mention here that the police in France, the Gendermerie, are scary as hell. I mean like one look and I will never, ever break the law. They carry huge automatic weapons clutched right across their chests at all times, and believe me there's no smiling. The camping area was pretty fun at night too, with a great DJ playing music and people singing and dancing. I think Matt enjoyed that almost as much 😊 We had planned on doing something during the days like driving somewhere, or taking the RER train into Paris, but we just didn't have it in us. Going to bed at almost 2am every night had us sleeping until 10am, and then we'd usually nap again before shows started up at 2-3pm. Basically, rocking out in the hot sun all day is exhausting for us 40 year olds! We had a really great time and would definitely do it again!!

When the music fest was over, we hit the road for Brittany, which was about a 4.5 hour drive. We arrived at our 2nd France Passion location, a seafood vendor who operates a small restaurant where you can eat their fresh oysters and shellfish. Well....they were closed 😞 So this is when we discovered that France Passion may not work for us, as most of them have arrival time deadlines around 5-7pm. Unfortunately in France, you literally can only get and find food during certain times of the day. Unless you want to live on crepes, 99% of establishments only serve lunch from 11:30a/12p to 2 or 3pm, with dinner not beginning until 7:30pm. This was not working with our driving and site seeing schedule, so we knew we might need to visit some regular campgrounds to allow us to arrive later after eating dinner. So that is exactly what we did on Tuesday night. We found a nice restaurant on the sea, ate some Fruits du Mer, and then found a campground nearby that was quite small and nice to park. PS - doesn't get dark until 11pm, so that makes it even harder to go to sleep early.

Wednesday we visited a few really great picturesque towns that make you feel like you're walking around on a movie set. We liked Auray a lot, and Locronan was an actual "preserved" town where they charged for parking and it was focused more on being a tourist destination. We had lunch in Port Aven (yep...all shellfish!) and from there we drove to the Crozon peninsula and drove around along the sea, where we found a WWII monument and bunkers. We stopped and pulled out our chairs and enjoyed a beer with the most amazing sea views. This is when we saw that campers were allowed to park there from 9pm to 8am, so we thought let's just stay right here. We weren't very hungry so set out to find a grocery store and get some bread & cheese. This is when we discovered another France annoyance. All grocery stores close at 7pm, and of course it was 7:30pm. Argh..... so we ended up stopping for a quick (you guessed it) crepe before heading to watch the sunset at our picture perfect spot.

Thursday we headed to Ploumanac'h, which is the heart of Brittany's pink granite coast. It was really beautiful, and Matt & I enjoyed the best lunch for only 22.50 Euros each. We both got starter plates of Fruits du Mer: his having oysters, crab, shrimps, langoustines, welks, and mussels; mine had smoked salmon, shrimp, langoustine, a salad and smoked fish dip with toast. That was just the starter. For the entree, I had fish & chips with the best fries ever, and Matt enjoyed a gigantic skate wing with mashed potatoes that was to die for. The last course was cheese, but we both could only have a few bites as we were stuffed. During lunch, we met a Belgian couple who sat next to us outside and had an English bulldog. They spoke English, so we started chatting. The husband especially was excited to talk to Americans as they really don't see many. They gave us all sorts of travel recommendations and also a restaurant to eat at the next day for the town we were going to. We walked along a couple of their trails to enjoy the rocky scenery and beautiful water before deciding to drive an hour to get us closer to our destination for Friday, Fort la Latte. Another thing about France is that eating takes FOREVER. Unless you get a crepe, you can count on being at a restaurant for a good two hours. The service is always slower, and they will not start your next dish in the kitchen until you've finished your first. They would never consider overlapping your courses in any way (la tragedie!). We ended up at a campsite in Euray which had a beautiful view of the sea and this small island that they call "La Petite Mont. St. Michel" because that's what it looks like in the distance. The campsite was just fantastic, we took a walk along the rocky beach and got to shower the next morning which was a treat on this trip LOL.

Friday we visited Fort La Latte, which was originally built in the 400s, with more construction in the 700s. It rests right on the edge of a giant cliffed peninsula and was really neat. From there we went to Dinan, which claims to be one of the best towns in Brittany and that it was! The historic center is a larger than life medieval village. It had many restaurants and shops, and was a fun (and hilly) walk. We did end up eating our lunch at Colibri as recommended and it again was 5-star food at an amazing price. We both had a 2-course lunch for 15 euro. Matt's started was a smoked salmon with burrata and nectarine (so yummy), mine was a seafood both with crunchy noodles, mussels, and peas. For our main course, I had black fish with a light oil herb sauce, cauliflower, and my favorite veg of all time...sea beans. Matt had boeuf with hoisin sauce, and a puree of fennel and potato. Both were lovely, along with our bottle of rose. We enjoyed the town for as long as we could before making our way to Mont. St. Michel where we wanted to visit Saturday before leaving for the airport. I found a campsite claiming to have views, and as usual we were blown away that we could just pull up and be right there in front of it for 10 euro a night!! In the office, the camp host spoke English and when she asked where we were from, and I answered America she was stunned. I had to repeat myself, and she said they'd never had an American camper, only Canadian. Our neighbors for the evening were a retired German couple who also were tickled to meet and talk to Americans (their English was impeccable). We had the best night sitting outside with them, drinking wine (they pulled out a box to share!), and just talking about everything from what it's like to live in our countries, travel, politics, etc. We have their contact information and they were sad we had to leave the next day, as they said "they waking up to American neighbors."

Saturday we got up as early as our old tired bodies would allow and made our way to Mont. St. Michel where we walked around the island until it was time to make the long 3.5 hour drive back to the airport to drop the camper. The trip was an experience I will never forget! The places we were able to stay with their views and people really overwhelmed us. We'd love to do it again, but know we'd need slightly bigger camper to survive as week as it was just too tiny and we hit our heads too much, LOL. France is truly a remarkably camper friendly country, with rest stops and parking areas everywhere...not to mention their fantastic campgrounds. I would highly recommend this experience to anyone! Driving is easy in France, and so are finding places to stop for the night.

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Comments

[Sue Rigos]

I so enjoyed your blog to Brittany. It sounded like you were happy driving a small camper and you ate well. You are super adventurers. I will tell Tom about your trip at dinner tonight.

[D MJ Binkley]

The joys of travel
Ah the joys of France.