Well - just got back after a 2500 mile drive to France and back over a couple of weeks on hols with the family...

Went to some lovely places, with some great people and had a great time. best of all, the car was faultless for the entire journey...

The only problem (if you can call it that) was a spurious air bag light which I put down to the mrs' putting her cheesy feet on the dash where the passenger airbag is (why this would do it I do not know but it happened twice after she put her feet up and both times it cleared when resetting the ignition) may be its a fail safe so her feet do not blow back snapping her in two ?

The other was an annoying rattle from the passenger door when doing around 70 - 80mph which turned out to be loose plastic trim at the bottom which was easily fixed by banging the 2 or three clips back in.

Otherwise it was possibly the most comfy trip to France we have done and the kids loved the rear headrest TV's and an 18GB iPod full of videos.

Also for anyone in doubt, we managed a two week trip with clothes, food, travel cot & buggy and 3 kids in tow (1, 5 & and the boot was big enough (OK so I had to ditch the cover) and we had no roof box.. Oh and before anyone asks, we stopped in proper holiday gites - non of this tin metal stuff

Perhaps the only downside was the fuel bill - €400 . I only achieved 33mph combined for the entire 2500 miles. Admittedly it was a mixture of d roads (small country roads) and fast motorways which when doing 80 – 85 has a real negative effect on economy

Overall

Need to get it serviced now  Freelander 2 TD4 Auto, SE, Narvik Black, Alpaca full leather, Rear Headrest Entertainment System, 6 CD, 18 HSE Wheels, Privicy tints

Captain Worm wrote:

Otherwise it was possibly the most comfy trip to France we have done and the kids loved the rear headrest TV's and an 18GB iPod full of videos.

Also for anyone in doubt, we managed a two week trip with clothes, food, travel cot & buggy and 3 kids in tow (1, 5 & and the boot was big enough (OK so I had to ditch the cover) and we had no roof box.. Oh and before anyone asks, we stopped in proper holiday gites - non of this tin metal stuff

It's alright this holiday site caper, but your restricted to being in certain places at certain times, and if the site is a hole your stuck unless you can find some where else that's not fully booked, where as Tin Metal stuff, you can do as you please, stay a bit longer or go elsewhere and all you need is behind you not crammed in with you

In the Dordogne just now and loving every minute of it  ______________________
2011 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8
2012 FL2 SD4 Auto HSE
2013 Kawasaki Versys 650

well I have been taking my tin hut to France and Spain for twenty + years. I usually travel through Switzerland, then the Med, then Spain then back up the West side over a period of 4 weeks.
My Landrover is the first car that has deveoped 14 faults on its first holiday, had to hire a vehicle for the 2nd holiday and this years its third holiday developed 3 more faults including failing to start !!!!!!!!!!!
and although i returned 6 weeks ago now the L/r is back off to the dealer again on Tuesday ! and yet another cancelled weekend away with the van.
I love France but not sure i would trust a Landy for the trip when going for 4 weeks.
I agree with the previous post, if you arrive at a place and dont like it you tend to be stuck with it whereas with the van I go anywhere I want when i want !

Do you pay in a different way in France? In the UK you arrive and pay your X nights, but if you need to leave for Y reason, you are hard pushed to get a refund ....  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Hi
We just pay as we go, tend to do 5am tunnel crossing and drive till Lunch time ! wherever we are we find a site and book the night, if its great we stay longer, if not we move on. We just tend to turn up on spec and pay 1 or two nights, if its great we extend. 2-3 of the very top sites book up 6 months in advance so we book 4 nights at these.
Only once in 20 years have I moved on 1 day early , very choosy about sites and most of the Dutch owned sites are very high standard as rule of thumb.
French sites tend to be much more user friendly than UK sites ! They seem to understand about customer service !
Turned up at one site the other year and the pitch was too small for access with my 8 mtr van so he said no problem and dug the hedge up between pitches and said use 2 !!!!!!!! I can put money on it the Caravan club wouldn't !
Also most sites in France have choice of XL or XXL pitches 150sq mtrs ! some even offer a shed on pitch with Fridge freezer/BBQ/sun-loungers/table & 6 chairs and parasols !never get that in the UK !
In 20 years never had a bad holiday, if my EGR valve hadn't failed this years and the dash failed and some sensor and column we would of had great holiday this year but had to forgo Spain thanks to my FR2 piece of junk!

cheers for explaining, not done anywhere but the UK but keep thinking about heading over that way, but I like to plan, also it would be two weeks as work & kids limit time I can take Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

if you ever want recommended sites and routes and times to travel your welcome. I have loads of spread sheets with trips and mileage, so you can budget fuel cost etc. I have trips with no more than 400 miles south of calais to 1300 miles south of Calais. load of tip into how to get cheap tunnel crossings.
To be honest once you have been you will never want to caravan in the UK !
As long as you go more than 400 miles south of Calais shorts and T-shirt and swim wear is all you need even for a months trip ! and with average temp of 33-44 getting swimwear and washing dry is a dodle ! Our Kids have grown up with it and my youngest was 6 weeks old the first time ! The only down side is they both still come with us now !!!
One of the sites we went this year had 7 pools , chutes, slides karting, horse riding, cycle hire,animal farm,and restaurants to die for !
We have plenty of sites we can recommend and plenty that we dont ! but we are fussy as they must be very clean

Quote:

One of the sites we went this year had 7 pools , chutes, slides karting, horse riding, cycle hire,animal farm,and restaurants to die for !

Sounds interesting, could you let me have those details  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

nothing wrong with the gites we've been stopping in - in fact all of them have been top notch for the past 5 - 6 yrs we have been doing it....

Agree with OG though about the weather - we did south brittany and the dordogne. South brittany was shorts and t's weather, dordogne was around 37degrees when we got there!

 Freelander 2 TD4 Auto, SE, Narvik Black, Alpaca full leather, Rear Headrest Entertainment System, 6 CD, 18 HSE Wheels, Privicy tints

Just did 4000 km driving thru Denmark, Switzerland and France to Provence - and back. A wonderfully comfortable ride, and not for a second did the kids complain or otherwise make the lengthy trip a pain in the a**.

No problems whatsoever, the vehicle performed flawlessly and returned between 7,9 and 8,9 l/100km, with pretty much all of the distance covered between 130-160 km/h.

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Funnily enough, I saw several relatively new M-B's and BMW's in need of roadside assistance driving thru Germany, maybe that was a fluke, but I remember being a bit puzzled by the -presumable - faults caused by "The Pinnacle of German Engineering"... Leopard tank drivers never stop at anything.

2007 TD4 HSE Moon Roof Ebony Leather Navi...

Really fancy a trip abroad and Im looking into some detail OG has emailed me, but I'm bit unsure wether to tow the 'van this sort of distance with the kids in tow too, 2 reasons

1) kids getting bored traveling even with my TVs playing

2) towing from Cornwall I had a blow out after a long stint, and I feel my hubs get hot, even though check 4 times I am still very causation about it

Anybody know good villa, cottages or maybe luxury tents types places? Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Lots! We've been to a few places that we would recommend, mostly gites in South Brittany but I would also recommend the are we just stopped down in the dordogne.

Depends on what you are after really? how far are you prepared to travel? what crossing you do? do you want a beach or happy with pool? cottages vs statics or glamping? etc etc

I can thoroughly recommend http://www.brittanythatchedcottages.com/ if you are after somewhere classy. Freelander 2 TD4 Auto, SE, Narvik Black, Alpaca full leather, Rear Headrest Entertainment System, 6 CD, 18 HSE Wheels, Privicy tints

Nice looking cottage

I like the idea of a villa/cottage but Mrs NP is wanting hotel with pool/beach and other kids for ours to play with

Can't win sometimes  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Thats exactly why we go to these places.... more often than not they are usually 2 / 3 and sometimes more gites on the same plot, all full of children prepared to corrupt your own. Also most places have a pool, games room etc to keep em quiet.

Best of all they are usually so secluded and private that you dont need to worry about them. You just let em get on with it whilst you enjoy the local supermarche cheap wine.

The only think is you do need to be able to BBQ!

Best holidays I've ever been on with children Freelander 2 TD4 Auto, SE, Narvik Black, Alpaca full leather, Rear Headrest Entertainment System, 6 CD, 18 HSE Wheels, Privicy tints