France this year

bsb2000 · bsb2000 on Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:50 pm

Just been reflecting back on our recent trip and it's interesting to note that we bumped into hardly any Brits that were on holiday !! the majority were on long stay trips, either full timing, year out or retired, making our 23 nights a bit of a short stay Rolling Eyes

It may be the terrible Euro exchange rate that's responsible !! If that's something that is stopping you from going into a Euro country this year and, like us, you don't tend to eat out anymore than you would at home, consider taking as much with you as possible. We spent very little on food, certainly less than last year and we took quite a bit then.

It's not just about eating out, my theory was simple, if we spent every day looking for somewhere to buy a bag of rice or a bottle of milk we'd end up in a supermarket spending far more before we got to the till, instead we spent longer enjoying what we'd gone over there to do Very Happy

This isn't going to help those of you that like to eat out every night but we do enjoy relaxing by the 'van at some of the great places we stayed.

tanky · tanky on Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:37 pm

Thats sound advice Ian,
Whats the price of fuel per litre pale

bsb2000 · bsb2000 on Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:47 pm

As with a lot of places in France it varies quite a lot but, plan to refuel at the hypermarkets and you should be getting around 1.04Euro/litre for diesel (Their petrol is more expensive than diesel).

My advice would be to avoid the credit card pumps, only because we had a bad experience a couple of years ago and nearly ended up paying for some truckers (Yes I said that right) diesel bill affraid

Orange · Orange on Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:30 pm

bsb2000 wrote: nearly ended up paying for some truckers (Yes I said that right) diesel bill

I'll probably end up paying for some truckers beer (no I didn't say that right) Rolling Eyes

greenasthegrass · greenasthegrass on Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:40 pm

Am thinking you defo on the right track. We are taking all our provisions so then Widow Twanky can only go shopping every other day and keep me out of those supermarkets cos they bluddy boring!

We no I am going to pack our freezer to the rafters and taking a big plastic box with provisions. My hard earned is going to stay hard earned and in my purse.

Good tips there Eon am liking ya style!

Greenie Frog

Redsonja · Redsonja on Sun Jul 05, 2009 7:22 pm

Just back from two weeks in the Netherlands (It started off as a tour of Germany Shocked

) Saw very few Brits, but had a wonderful time God bless the ASCI Book. Didnt pay more than 15 Euros for a site and that included tourist tax and all the works. The sites were really good and in places I wouldnt have thought to go. Our biggest expense was that Kevin just had to have a new bike - so off we trot to Dirk Blok in Appledorn (He takes the old bike in part exchange) and 469 Euros later Kevin has a new bike and on his birthday too. All in All I think we would have spent far more on sites in this Country and I wouldnt have been made to cycle at least 8 - 15 miles a day. Kevins cunning weight loss plan for me. Anyway glad to be back I suppose although it looks like we brought the rain with us.

Sonja

zulurita · zulurita on Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:19 pm

We came home a week ago following 6 weeks in France.

Diesel is still cheaper than the UK. We took a lot of food with us this time so didn't spend as much on food this time. We did eat out a few times but chose midday when there were more reasonably priced meals available.

We stayed at an Aires which was a Farm site and bought fresh produce which was delivered to our mh at midday. Hows that a short carbon footprint and very tasty.

At Mont St. Michel Aire we walked to the village Beauvoir and found a lady selling fresh fruit & veg. Even though it was Sunday she invited us in, through her kitchen and out to the garden and shed and we bough more fresh produce. Fantastic.

All in all we had money to spare at the end of the trip. In the UK we would have spent it ALL and MORE!

RichardnGill · RichardnGill on Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:57 pm

Its good to here that stuff is not too expensive at the moment in France.

We are in France for the first 2 weeks in August and we are skint before we go but dont care Very Happy

Rich...

whistlinggypsy · whistlinggypsy on Wed Jul 22, 2009 4:46 am

Re: France this year

RichardnGill Yesterday at 10:57 pm

Its good to here that stuff is not too expensive at the moment in France.

We are in France for the first 2 weeks in August and we are skint before we go but dont care

Those poor Frenchies, they have just got over a Lanky n Yarky invasion and now a tight wad Geordie is invading them Wink

Hey ~~Rich,~~(sorry poor) if your going too annoy the French in August are you still coming to York meet Question

zulurita · zulurita on Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:58 pm

People we met said how expensive France was. However we can only say it wasn't as bad as we feared. Yes we did take a lot of food with us but we did also buy some food in supermarkets. We thought the menu du jour would be a lot higher or the plat du jour. Yes in some places they were very expensive.

However like at home we suss out the reasonable places and found that we could eat out from time to time. We found a great place at Tinteniac by the canal. They did a 9.90€ menu du jour which was very good, also did a 13€ (or was it 15€ not sure now) still we went for the cheapest and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We loved finding farm produce as it was so fresh and tasty and enjoyed our meals in the motorhome even more so.

Even though we are not getting a great exchange rate France is still Great and certainly we had better weather than what we are experiencing since arriving home.

Imbiber · Imbiber on Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:58 pm

Hi All,

Just back from our little jaunt to France and can add the following for those that may be going some time soon:

Diesel:
On average we paid 0.96 Euros a litre (paid as little as 0.94 down near Poitiers!).
Auchan in Calais is still the best bet if you need some on arrival at Calais. Thereafter, just look out for the usual Auchan, Carrefour, E.Leclerc hypermarkets or the little Champion, Shopi type places. We managed to get our 8m bus into all those we visited; but did have to back out of one small one Rolling Eyes

Food:
It can be quite scary the prices, especially if you indulge yourself in French bread, croissants and pain-au-chocolate every morning for breakfast Wink

We took as much as we could from these shores and it really paid off. Apparently the full-timers over in France seem to favour the Aldi and Netto supermarkets (not surprising really pricewise!). Netto seem to have a better range than the Aldi's and it’s certainly a lot cheaper than the Carrefour's etc.

Definitely places to consider stopping off at if you need extra supplies!