Top Tips for visiting France

We are so excited, we are counting down to our first family holiday to France next week for half term.

Mummy is busy panicking planning for what is going to be a new experience for us all. We are driving from our home in West Wales to Dover, which will take about five hours. Make that nearer seven for us, as we do like to stop on the way to stretch our legs and break the journey! It is a good job then, that we have a brand new, shiny Peugeot 3008 Allure to take us! Eeeeek! We are so excited!

We are holidaying to France courtesy of Eurocamp and Peugeot, staying 90 minutes from Paris at La Croix du Vieux Pont Campsite.

As we make our plans, here are our Top Tips:

1. Book a hotel for a stop over as soon as you can. Booking.com allows you to book most rooms without paying and offer free cancellation. You can book rooms in France too!

2. You can use Google Maps , download your route, zoom in and out offline, but obviously can’t check the route in real time. It will save a load of mobile data usage though.

3. Set up your mobile phone for using abroad before you leave home – most companies offer a daily package of minutes / data. EE do a great daily data package for £3 per day. it is only for the days you use it, and you get a text if it is about to run out so no nasty surprise bills. You may have to set up in the UK, so do check.

4. In France there are certain compulsory items you have to carry in your car. These include: a Hi-Vis jacket, warning triangle, breathalyser, headlamp adjusters, your insurance and the cars original registration document. The AA have a detailed checklist.

5. Don’t forget your EHIC Health Insurance cards, passports and all tickets.

Mummy has also gathered some tips from other bloggers to share with you:

Mandi from Big Family Little Adventures shares her top tip: ‘When you arrive drive to the nearest hypermarket and stock up, so much cheaper than the local shops. Also make sure you budget for the tolls driving through France.’ We have already searched online and discovered that Cora is a large French supermarket, and there is one in Soissons, about twenty five minutes away. We have also found by checking our route on Google Maps, an easy looking route that avoids tolls.

Emma from The Mini Mees and Me  says: ‘Book tickets to attractions before you go – it’s often a lot cheaper than paying on the day of your visit at the gate’. We are super excited to be going to Disney Land Paris, with Attraction Tickets Direct, they have a super brilliant Summer Saver ticket that is only available in the UK before you travel. You can visit for the day from just£29 (Child) £35 (Adult).

Kara from ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ shares: ‘Make sure you are covered by breakdown cover.’ This is so important and Mummy is double checking ours this week. Kara has also written this great post about driving in France.

Another fab post about driving in France is from Jen at Mum in the Madhouse.

Jessica from Catch a Single Thought has a great tip: ‘If you’ve space in your car stock up on jars/tins etc so you know that you’ve got something to feed the kids, even if it’s just a basic pasta and sauce meal. The services are expensive and often really busy so if you can take your own snacks it helps too.’

So, armed with all these tips, we are almost ready to go! Have you any top tips for visiting France?