Camping and mobile home holidays in the South of France:
Like everywhere else in France there seems to be an inexhaustable supply of camping and mobile home holiday accommodation in the South of the country both inland and near the beaches.

The South of France has always beed a firm favourite for Brits taking camping holidays, even though it is a fair old trek from Calais and there is certainly a higher cost of living in that area generally, but campers and families staying in mobile homes don't usually live the high life on holiday so the extra expense means very little to them.

That the South of France is popular for British campers is not in doubt but the distance tends to put some of us off making the journey as the distance we have to travel to Dover area for the ferry/tunnel can be quite a trip in itself - we are in the Midlands, for instance, and our journey to the S coast is 240 miles + the ferry + the distance from Calais to the S of France. So all in all, most people are certainly not going to make it to their camping site the same day. As this is going to be a lengthy journey we think it is well worth your while taking a look at our page about European driving laws, some of which have changed in the past 12 months and one new one brought in the Summer of 2008 which will catch out (has already caught out) a great many non French drivers. For the sake of a few ££'s spent before you depart you may well avoid a large on the spot fine during your driving holiday in France.

We fully appreciate that this year (2009) is proving a difficult time for many families in terms of spending power but we still firmly believe that a self drive camping holiday in France, even the South of France, is still a better option than the equivalent holiday in rip off UK - proof of this lies in the offer made by Matthews Holidays who have recently sent out brochures to past clients for 2 weeks in one of their mobile homes until mid/late July for approx £530 GBP including the return Poole/Cherbourg ferry. If any UK company can beat that then please let me know! Our page on holiday savings might come in useful to you.

Planning your camping holiday in the South of France needs a little thought because the South covers a vast area, so we have linked to a map of the whole country to help you decide. The South West coast is really between Royan,  Bordeaux areas down to Biarritz and this includes the ever popular resort of Lacanau Ocean, plus dozens and dozens of other camping areas to numerous to mention here.

The true South of France adjoins the border with Spain and extends to Cerbere and then to Perpignan on the Med coast, but the area most Brits refer to as the South of France is really the South East of the country, and that's where it all happens in terms of camping holidays, starting with Cap D'Agde, probably the most famous naturist/nudist spot in Europe, and carrying on round the Med coast past Marseilles, St Trpoez, St Raphael and Nice, and all the hundreds of camping sites in between.

We have just come across a useful site which calculates distances and the distance from Calais to Nice is 561 miles or 902.65 km, a distance which could be covered in between 8 and 14 hours at average speeds of between 40 and 70 mph, but please note that this distance is as the crow flies so you are likely to cover considerably more by road.