Dordogne camping: Camping and mobile home holidays in the Dordogne or Perigord

The Dordogne, or Perigord which is the French name for the area, is where Brits have emigrated to by the thousand in the past, possibly because the climate is so much better than in the UK at any given time of the year. One thing leads to another and as one family escapes to the Dordogne they tell their family and frinds who follow suit until soon you find that there are nearly as many Brits living there as French. Sadly, due to the global financial situation a great many of our countrymen and women who emigrated there on fixed incomes are suffering badly right now as they have lost roughly 40% of their income in the past 18 months due to the £ Pound Sterling dipping against the Euro, and unable to sell their houses thay are in deep trouble. There you go: Take a camping trip to the Dordogne and buy a cheap house from another Brit at the same time!

The same applies to camping and there is no finer advert than recommendation by someone who has taken a holiday there. Camping in the Dordogne, Perigord, is a delight and there are masses of camping sites to choose from, and when you get there you will find that the history of the area is something you simply must dig into while you're there.

Wherever your chosen camping area is in the Dordogne it is still a fair old trek from the UK, indeed, from where we live in the Midlands it is another 240 miles or so to any of the UK's southern ports. All this makes for a longish day and to be safe it is probably best to budget for an overnight stay somewhere, so with that in mind we have linked to a map of the Dordogne area. The same site also provides an insight into certain other aspects of life in the Dordogne, and whilst we are on the subject of travel we have compiled a page about  European driving laws and regulations, some of which are quite recent and well worth making a note of if you want to avoid a stiff on the spot fine by the French police - they have made a fortune out of the latest one (high visibility clothing to be kept in the car) since it was introduced in the Summer of 2008, so a few ££'s spent now could save you a lot of money if you are caught in spot checks by the police.

Getting to your camping site in the Dordogne:

If like most people you are buyinhg a "package" camping holiday, ie. you buy a couple of weeks in a mobile home froma camping tour operator and they throw in a return ferry crossing. Nearly all the tour operators give you the Dover/Calais ferry option in your package, but Calais is a long way from the Dordogne even though it is a lovely drive down there.

You must do the maths on this because again, it depends to a certain extent how much driving you have to do to your UK port, and also back again on the return trip, but the journey from Calais is quite a long way and will drink a fair amount of fuel so it is worth investigating how much extra your tour operator will charge you to take a longer ferry which at the same time will mean a lot less driving in France and, therefore, using a lot less fuel. Diesel is cheaper in France at present but petrol is about the same as in the UK. It could well work out that your expenses on a longer ferry are negated by using less fuel

The port of Le Havre is one option to consider, but Caen is a better bet again, though in my estimation you can't beat taking the St Malo ferry. It's horses for courses and as aforesaid, you will have to do the individual maths  and calculate roughly how much fuel you will use for the journey, taking into account things like roof racks which reduce your mpg by about 25%, or towing trailers which makes a mockery of the words fuel economy. I'm uncertain about roof boxes but they also reduce your mpg by a good margin, and strangely enough driving with a window open can knock 25% off your mpg as well, so use the air con if you have it as that only reduces it by about 10%.