I have, on occasion, given in to moaning about the cost of camping and how it has gone up. Way back in 2018, in the black bus, when prices were more modest than now, there was still the occasional shout of ‘owww muuch!!!’ if the price per night got up above 25 quid.

Fast forward through covid and self contained camping at a huge cost with no facilities, to the boom in vans and motorhomes and glamping and it’s not unusual to see sites asking for north of 50 or 60 quid (C&CC Skye I’m looking at you).

Ferry crossings outside of Dover – Calais have gone the same way, meaning that if you’re partial to a couple of weeks en France 🇫🇷 o bien en España 🇪🇦 as I am, its a much costlier business.

We have never yet, in 6 years of van ownership, settled on the best kind of trip for us – 2 weeks in one place, a tour from A to B, a mixture of the 2, we always come back saying ‘next time we should…’ but one thing we’ve never got away from is using campsites. Because we love them. A bit of green space, sitting out barbecuing food and drinking wine, taking time over things is what we like. So probably not surprising when we’ve tried to move around too much or see too much stuff we end up worn out or missing out on some things.

We do know the kind of campsites we like – and they don’t have to be fancy. In fact, the huge, industrial holiday farms are absolutely not for us. Simple is often the best, but views of crowded lines of white boxes don’t appeal at all, neither do car parks; but this year that has changed a bit.

I blogged about a previous foray to the Canterbury Park and Ride overnight scenario on the Road to Paris and we made a satisfactory return on the way out to Brittany this year. Because of the need for a long drive both sides of the Channel before reaching our main destination, on the Frnch side we had decided to check out Camping Car Park for 2 nights on the way over, stopping off at Le Mont St Michel. Their location at Beauvoir just down the road was a 30-minute stroll to the Tourist Centre, so ideal. The plan was to arrive late ish after putting in the kms from Calais and then enjoying a full day’s tourisme at the Mont and setting off fresh the following day.

With this in mind I downloaded the app, pre-credited my account to cover the cost of the stay, and paid the extra €14 or so for the facility to pre-book a pitch. The card that you need to access the area is €5 and available from a machine at the entrance to any aire, so you can swipe in and out at the barrier.

So it was done,  booked, and anticipated in a mildly kind of anxious way about whether it really could be so simple. 180 pitches meant that it would be huge, but the promise of power, water, drainage, and elsan for €16 a night on what had to be marked and allocated pitches was an intriguing idea.

Their app shows you in real time how many pitches were available, so when I checked on the approach and saw 0 free pitches I was glad we had pre-booked. We put in 480 kms and arrived around 8pm. Surprisingly, there was a staff representative who, after telling me they were full, and then relenting when I showed him the booking confirmation, helped me get the card and shooed us through the barrier.

There were no numbered pitches, in fact, no free pitches, and people were coming in the barrier behind us, which was worrying. I accosted the little mester again and he parked us up on what was a driveway in front of a gate, by the fence, but we still had access to power,  and even better we had room to put chairs out.

There was a pizza shack in the next car park so we decided to enjoy €40 worth of freshly made doughy goodness and a couple of cold frothy drinks as the sun went down.

Le petit m’sieu assured me that in the morning, loads of people would be leaving and we could have our pick of the pitches. He was actually really helpful, and even warned off another moho who wanted my spot when KB drove round the corner to get water. Mais non, là c’est pour Madame! he exclaimed. I felt bad for the guy, he was waiting for pizzas with me in the queue and we had a good chat. They had pre-booked too and were shoved in a corner with no power.  He said campsites are une perte de temps pour les camping-cars nowadays. Thing is, it’s very rare that if you book a campsite you can’t get on, but c’est la vie.

We waited for the parade of vehicles to subside before we moved all of 15m across to a lovely, flat, grassy, fenced in spot backing on to a gravel area with electricity bollard, tap and drain. Other than the annoying pigeon in the tree above, it was a really great spot.

The smallest child had brought his scooter so he was off, closely tailed by Madame, who insisted on having a go, and showing off, and then promptly fell off, getting a lovely gravel rash for her trouble. I’m not going to describe the day out to the mount, I’ll save that for another post.

One thing I can’t leave out is the bread arrangements, Mother would be displeased. I had seen a boulangerie on the way in, about a 5 minute walk up the road, so me and the youngster went and queued (in a v.long queue!) for our ration of baguettes, croissants and pains au chocolat. €4.90 for the price fiends. Tuesdays is the baker’s day off, so you have to use the vending machine. No thanks.

Ice creams were available at the caramel shop next to the aire €12.80 for 4 single scoops.

The aire was surprisingly quiet at night, and by the time we left, I’d almost forgotten the upheaval of our arrival.

Rush hour started early for the elsan, so we had to queue for that before hitting the road.

It was a much shorter hop to the campsite than we had done from Calais so we took a leisurely drive via the Super U in Yffignac to get supplies.

And so to compare with the journey back.

We had decided that we’d do a longer stretch from Locquirec on the return aiming for Le Tréport, giving us a shorter drive to get to the ferry in good time. I know there is an aire by the funicular at Le Tréport, but having still got some credit on my Camping Car Park card, I booked us in at Flocques, just short of the town.

It was a much smaller aire – 30 pitches – with the elsan and water outside the barrier, and again I saw the availability at 0 on approach, but surprisingly when we got through the barrier there were 3 or 4 unoccupied bays, clearly for pre-booked spots. No little mester supervising, but a campsite (and circus 🥴) next door.

The electricity was 6A, so we had to be careful about what we plugged in, and it was a bit sloped and much more of a car park, but at €13 it was fine.

Would we use them again? Probably yes, for the odd night or two en route to somewhere else. You can’t expect to be able to put out chairs and tables, so you need to plan for that eventuality, but despite the hiccups I think they proved to be pretty good value, and I’ll definitely consider booking us into another one.

Looking at their app, they have a category called Camping de Mon Village, which seems to include traditional campsite facilities, which might be worth a look.

Mont St Michel is up next.