Camping in France - CCI?

BrookeHender

Hello,

I am off to France for three weeks in June (Brittany/Normandy) and will be camping for the first time. I have read about the CCI which can be used instead of a passport at sites and can provide discounts, but I have also read that it is falling out of favour and a passport is still required (obviously I do have one!).

Can anyone shed any light on this? Should I not worry about getting hold of one (which it seems can only be done by joining the CCC (not the CTC anymore sadly) or should I not worry about it at all?

Oh, and if anyone has any tips and advice for a cycle camping/touring newbie in France then please feel free to pass them on.

Many thanks,

Brooke

andymiller

BrookeHender wrote:

Oh, and if anyone has any tips and advice for a cycle camping/touring newbie in France then please feel free to pass them on.

Get one of those flat universal plugs - for some reason french campsites never have sink plugs (or toilet seats for that matter but you can't carry one of them with you).

I haven't done a whole lot of camping in France (and ethen only in Corsica) I can't recall ever being asked to leave my passport. They usually rely on getting you to pay your money upfront.

GeorgeShaw

1. Get a Michelin camp site guide.
2. Choose a Camping Municipal where you can. Much cheaper but guaranteed to have enough facilities and be well looked after.

Or use Logis de France instead and avoid carrying all that weight.

andymiller

If you read French then the Guide Routard would be the one I'd recommend.

The Bienvenue à la ferme network is extremely useful. If you want an alternative to camping then chambres d'hôtes and gites d'étape are the way to go.

xilios

Here are a couple sites I came across a few days ago, they show all municipal campings in France.
http://www.geotour.com/camping/cartes/F ... hp?pays=en
http://www.campingfrance.com/index.jsp?lg=uk
cheers

BrookeHender

Many thanks for the responses - much appreciated and I will check out the links, etc. Certainly seems wise to get a guide of some kind (oh how i wish I spoke decent French). Does anyone know whether any card provides discounts for municipal sites, or any sites for that matter? I really would like to know what people have done. I don't want to find myself having to hand over my passport - call me old-fashioned, or do they just want to see it for validation purposes? Apologies if these are obvious questions, but I haven't found clear cut answers through searching (if such things exists).

Thanks again,

Brooke

xilios

Any discounts would probably be for older people and low season times, haven't seen or heard of any other.
You don't need to speak perfect French a few words and/or sentences would help though, just print out some phrases you'll probably need most and keep them handy.
Most places just want some details (so big brother could keep track of you ) but some places might insist for your passport. No problem, you'll get it back the next day.

andymiller

IME going rate for one person with a bike and tent is 7€. I wouldn't worry about discounts.

BrookeHender

That's good news. Thanks again for the responses. I really can't wait to go and when the weather improves a little I'll have a shakedown run.

Many thanks all those who took the time to respond - very helpful.

pneumatic

Not sure whether the CCI card is the same thing that we looked into a few years back, but there was something regularly advertised in CTC magazine that promised discounts on camp site rates for holders.

Three of us toured across France and into Spain for three weeks. Two had the card, one (me) didn't. On the first few nights my fellow pilgrims produced their cards and asked for the discount. All they got was a gallic shrug. Nobody had heard of it. After that they stopped bothering to ask.

In any case, the sites were mostly so cheap that it didn't really matter. Prices do vary though. For all three of us, the cheapest was 4 euros a night, the most expensive about 30 (but that place had two pools, a sauna, a restaurant, a bar, and was mostly frequented by people with huge caravans and mobile homes. We looked a bit lost in our wee tents.)

vernonlevy

BrookeHender wrote:

Many thanks for the responses - much appreciated and I will check out the links, etc. Certainly seems wise to get a guide of some kind (oh how i wish I spoke decent French). Does anyone know whether any card provides discounts for municipal sites, or any sites for that matter? I really would like to know what people have done. I don't want to find myself having to hand over my passport - call me old-fashioned, or do they just want to see it for validation purposes? Apologies if these are obvious questions, but I haven't found clear cut answers through searching (if such things exists).

Thanks again,

Brooke

I used around a dozen camp sites in France last year and there wasa 50:50 split on the site owner/operator asking for a CCI. Some insisted on the passport. I never bothered with a guide. There are lots of camp sites apart from when you really want one and are miles form the nearest town and there's no hedges or walls for stealth camping....

The average pitch fee was arond 8 Euros so the discount will be insignificant - probably not emough to recoup the cost of the card. I don't recall getting a discount and fewer and fewer camp sites offer a discount for the CCI card.

The Michelin maps show the approx location of camp sites (black triangles) municipal camp sites are well run and cheapper than their privately run counterparts.

Lonely Planet or Rogh Guide do a cycling book for France. I have one somewhere and it was worth it's purchase price when i wanted a replacement wheel. I could tell them that my hub was broken along with a couple of spokes and that I'd like a replacementwheel. I also purchased a pair of cycling shoes and could specify the type and size in French.

You don't have to speak decent French - half decent French is well received. I managed to get by without any English and my schoolboy French improved daily. At the end of the first week I could hold basic conversations and by the end of the second week I could share wisecracks.

I didn't worry about handing over my passport. Apparently you can avoid it by paying the site fee up front especially if you want to leave early the nexty morning.

I found the camp site owners to be wonderful. One site owner found me a pitch in a quiet spot in an overflowing site - they will generally go out of their way to make sure that you are accommodated. One site owner's family even bought me beer.

I'll be going back to France in the next year or so.

One final tip - ration your visits to the patisseries. Their wares are soooooo tempting

BrookeHender

That's great information. I have tried to get hold of that Lonely Planet book and it is unfortunately out of print and is rather expensive second hand, but I'll keep looking.
Thanks for replying.

Brooke

andymiller

There are French-English cycling vocabularies on both the Sheldon Brown and the Park Tools websites.