Southern France Camping Trip Report

[SteveS]

Thought a few of you would be interested in our recent tripto the south of France. This was a fairly standard camping holiday, hardly anyoff road, but really to start shaking down the truck and fittings, see whatworks and what doesn’t etc. Next shake down is Iceland next year followed byoverland to southern Greece…..and then onto more substantial and longeroverlanding trips the following year.
So, we don’t much care for northern France as we are keenhill walkers and mountain types and thus we normally head straight for theAlps. On this occasion we travelled and stopped through the Auvergne, then downto the Cevennes, into Provence, Alps Maritimes/Cote d’Azure, Mercantour, andthe Vercors
Basic Trip Stats:
MPG – running 24-25 mpg
Miles – 3353
As you can see from the photos I quite like heading for theinteresting mountain passes and revisited some routes that we last did 15 yearsago in the Vercours (these are the rock arch photos). Also included below is alink to a video of some footage of driving through that section.
A good test of the truck which threw up a few minorquestions:
1 – a chirping noise from the rear shocks/axle going overpot holes and sleeping policemen
2 – a little bit of transmission shunt: probably nothing toworry about but will check this through in case all that on/off of the variouspedals through the mountains loosened something up
3 – squeaking brake pads – again worth a quick check butthey only made a noise when hot;



Other than that the truck was a joy to drive and mopped up themiles in comfort. The EMU shocks and springs were well matched and compliantwhen a decent amount of weight was in the truck. The truck for this trip wassitting level and thus I will need to upgrade the rear springs to take theextra weight which will be added in due course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y31mRSPTPMs&list=UUWY3zKMYw1u2VBjLzSgyqug







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[AndyCook]

Looks like a great drive along that cliff edge!
Where did you go in Auvergne ?


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[Chris]

Nice tent. I like that.

I'd like to push down further into France next time too but we had limited time this trip. Great pics.

 

[SteveS]

Looks like a great drive along that cliff edge!
Where did you go in Auvergne ?


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We stayed at Camping le vallee verte, St Nectaire, Puy-de-Dome for 4 nights and travelled throughout the region. We usually stick to 3* and 2* location ratings in the Michelin green guides. The map below gives some idea of where we went - unfortunately a lot of place names are missing but we went to Mont Dore, Puy Sancy, Puy Mary, bombed out on Puy de Dome as far too busy, Murol and popped in to see our friends in Cantal. We put our campsite in the north of the region as it was central to most of the main sights. We've been to this region a few times for a day or so on the way down but it is such a beautiful and under-rated area that we thought we would do it justice this time. Photo is from the top of Mont Dore which was a pretty nice walk but was quite busy at the top in the middle of the French holidays


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[SteveS]

Nice tent. I like that.

I'd like to push down further into France next time too but we had limited time this trip. Great pics.

Thanks Chris - that tent (Tentipi) has been to some pretty challenging locations over the years and has done us proud. Generally we like to use the RTT but as I haven't yet received the roof rack we had to default to the tent this time. We also have a wood burning stove that goes inside.....which we needed in the Arctic at -25C.


Couple of pics of it in action in the arctic

 

[froggy Steve]

looks nice over there! I am going to add that to my list of must doo's when I get the truck back!

 

[Chris]

Lovely. I have one of these. Same kinda thing. I have the wood burner in mine too. Would love to camp in the snow with it.

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[AndyCook]

Interesting
We are heading to that area shortly
For a 2week trip

Starting off at puy Mary area, then doing a week of trails through la lozere region

Great to hear you enjoyed it
We drove through area on the autoroute on return from Pyrenees and thought it looked worth a visit

We stayed at Camping le vallee verte, St Nectaire, Puy-de-Dome for 4 nights and travelled throughout the region. We usually stick to 3* and 2* location ratings in the Michelin green guides. The map below gives some idea of where we went - unfortunately a lot of place names are missing but we went to Mont Dore, Puy Sancy, Puy Mary, bombed out on Puy de Dome as far too busy, Murol and popped in to see our friends in Cantal. We put our campsite in the north of the region as it was central to most of the main sights. We've been to this region a few times for a day or so on the way down but it is such a beautiful and under-rated area that we thought we would do it justice this time. Photo is from the top of Mont Dore which was a pretty nice walk but was quite busy at the top in the middle of the French holidays


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[Gary820]

Great pics.

 

[clivehorridge]

Wonderful pics and I like the loo etiquette sign! You're gonna enjoy your 100 to the full