This page is devoted to exploring the differences between taking a holiday with a French mobile home company and a British one: Indeed, it is a tongue in cheek guide if you like and complements other pages of guides and tips for holidays in our humble site. I have not named any of the companies involved lest they sue me, my wife or any of my family, a fact that some of them most certainly would do if they knew the barbs were directed at them.

You may be well aware by now that not all mobile homes are the same by any means, and neither are the companies which own them as I will explain in due course. Years and years ago when we were younger and more naive we believed that they were all fairly similar but we have learned more sense since then.

For starters there is the size to consider when you are looking through all the holiday brochures which have popped through your letterbox since Christmas. We fell foul of this some years back when my wife and I chose a mobile home holiday in Quiberon with a very, very well known French company who had been actively advertising for customers in the UK. The mobile we booked looked and sounded superb in the write up and photos but when we actually arrived, tired and ready for a brew I could hardly believe it was the same animal! It was shabby, it was tiny and if it were not for the small decked balcony thing which came attached to it then I would have described it as a small to medium sized touring caravan - not what we booked at all.

Now then, this guide is not about knocking either the French mobile home operators or British ones, it is all about the difference between the two, something which we will discuss very shortly. Now when you are faced with a situation as I have described above just what would you do? The holiday rep was French and spoke very little English. The manager spoke no English at all, and neither did the rest of his office staff. Fortunately for us I speak reasonably fluent French and was able to give the manager a 'ollicking and make him upgrade us, but if the two parties can't make each other understood then it can get a little difficult.

But let us now take a look at the differences between taking a holiday in a mobile home owned and operated with a French company as opposed to the same deal with a Brit owned and operated outfit, assuming that the mobile homes are pretty much like for like.

Book your mobile home holiday with a Brit company and you can opt to pay what they call a damage waiver of roughly £10 Sterling which is an insurance against any damage or breakages, but if you don't break anything by the end of your holiday then you don't get your £10 back. Set that against the French way of doing things where they will charge you approximately 100 - 120 Euros which is refundable if there is no damage/breakages etc, AND if the mobile home must be cleaned out as well! They insist that you clean your accommodation prior to leaving for the last time, which brings us neatly to the second difference between the two because we have never yet been asked to clean out a mobile from a British company after use as that is partly what your holiday Rep is paid to do, though it goes without saying that the more responsible of us do it without being asked.

Our guide doesn't delve into things like BBQ's or what sort of swimming gear us men are or are not allowed to use, car parking, taking pets on holiday etc, etc because these things are decisions which the campsite owners make rather than the tour operators.

What we have noticed is that the French company will give you very small cups (demi-tasse) and saucers which are absolutely useless to any Brit who wants a half decent cup of tea. Brit operators meanwhile will supply proper sized cups and sometimes mugs as well.

The French rarely supply a kettle, especially an electric one, as they rarely drink tea and usually boil their water for coffee in a pan, so you could easily get an electric coffee maker and no teapot. To be fair these differences are changing slowly as they are beginning to realise we have some small cultural differences. If you take an electric kettle with you as we did once then you can expect that you will blow a fuse somewhere because the French are on 110 voltage whereas all our kit is 200 - 240 volts, all of which brings us on to what electrical bits and pieces you can and can't take with you.

You certainly need an adaptor so that your hairdrier etc can be plugged in though it may take some time for any of our electrical appliances to get up to speed because of the voltage difference, but Brit companies supply 220/240 volt systems so you can use any electrical gadgets abroad just as you would at home.

Finally there is the language barrier problem to get over. Our holiday Reps speak English of course and they have to be able to converse in French as well - at least enough to be able to carry on a resasonable conversation, but strangely enough the French Reps that I have met have never spoken more than a few words of English and that had to be dragged out of them. As I said above, I am fluent in French and the one time we booked to go with a French company showed me that had I not been we would have had to endure a holiday in a very poor example of a mobile home because if you don't speak French in France, or at least make a gallant effort to do so then they tend to lose interest in you PDQ, unless you have a wad of money in your hand and then they will find a translator PDQ too.