Hi i am heading to Northern France at the end of August on a ww1 trip i have always planned on doing.And wondering can anyone give me advice on accomadation? I will be carrying my camping gear also, but will also stay in hotels too! What ever suits at the time.. I will be traveling alone so any other recomendations also be a great help like should i book these before i go or is there plenty to chose from when im there??
Just look up a nearest camp on your GPS when you need it and go there. They always gonna have spots. That's what we did on our Europe trip. As for hostels, we reserved them ahead of time in the cities, though.
a couple of places here you could try http://www.bikersbedsfrance.co.uk/ http://www.orchardfarmsomme.com/ Dave
most french towns have a 'camping municipal', a local coucil owned campsite. usually very basic but cheap, and normally sign posted from the edge og town.
Thanks so much for the help and i do like that Orchard Farm place!f any other recommendations would be much appreciated! Or must see places!
We use Rick Steves books as guides to European travel. They are a great source of information and, in most of the places you stay, if recommended by Steves, they will give you a discount if you show them your book. Thanks for the questions. I had the time to pull out the guide book and look at the pictures from the trip. We enjoyed Bayeux and stayed at this place: http://www.hotellebayeux.com (edit: My wife just reminded me that she, therefore, WE did not like this place.) We agreed that we did like Bayeux. Make sure you see the tapestry. It tells the story of another famous battle in that neighborhood. We also liked Honfleur a lot but could not recommend the hotel we stayed in. Mt. St. Michel is a place that is the place to go according to all the "experts." It was rather tacky. I am glad we saw it just to check that box but if time is tight, I would avoid it. St. Malo was fun. We loved Rouen but could not recommend that hotel either. If you get into Brittany, we loved Dinan and stayed here: http://www.hotel-dinan.fr/en We are sorry we did not make time for the German cemetery. Make sure you have some Calvados!
If this is part of your trip, i would recommend Northern Brittany, especially around St Malo. I'm giving a bit of an opinion here more than anything else but this is one of the most beautiful parts of France, particularly in the summer (when it doesn't rain...) You might want to check out the Mont StMichel, Dinan and the Rance valley too. Recently we stayed up in Combourg, a beautiful small town located about halfway between St-Malo and Rennes... what a pleasure! We stayed in a place called le Logis du lac, which i would recommend (well priced, very clean and beautifuly located in the centre of town.) you should be able to look it up. There are other good hotels/logis in town as well. Here's a teaser of the village's picturesque landscape, at sunrise....
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/61664897@N04/8750399175/" title="Combourg, France by MAX ATTAX, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7374/8750399175_0e67f411ee_c.jpg" width="800" height="534" alt="Combourg, France"></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/61664897@N04/8751522940/" title="Combourg, France by MAX ATTAX, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3718/8751522940_10c56bf69d_c.jpg" width="800" height="534" alt="Combourg, France"></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/61664897@N04/8750397299/" title="Combourg, France by MAX ATTAX, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2888/8750397299_9e51e17bbb_c.jpg" width="800" height="534" alt="Combourg, France"></a>
I'd pre-book hotels - August is vacation month in France and the cheaper hotels will probably fill up quick. Check out the chains http://www.fodors.com/news/story_4021.html
