Our chosen route to Spain through France
There are two main ways to transit France to Spain: slow and leisurely or direct and progressive in our world. Of course, there are grey areas in between, but we seem to either do one or the other. In wintertime, we normally choose the latter, and if you read our previous blogs, you’ll know that we normally head down the West Coast of France and head towards the border just south of Biarritz. That said, our video this week discloses that this wasn’t our chosen route, triggering some interesting questions worthy of time to answer.
Let me start by saying that our existing travel philosophy has not changed; based on weather calculations, the West Coast route is always going to be our first-choice route, but you’ll know we always have an option B, being the planners we are. On this trip, as late as 24 hours before, it was clear we had a weather window which would allow us to take the route down the Eastern side and visit a location at Pont Du Gard we had always wanted to see. The term 'window' is appropriate; within 48 hours of us passing into Spain, it closed; the snow fell and the AP7 was closed just over the border while the clearing operation clicked into place. So, a calculated decision based on a short-range weather forecast , saw us change plan. Using both toll roads and Camping Car Park Aires in order to move through France in the window of opportunity presented. The Toll Roads cost £188 through France.
Is-sur-Tille
Setting out from Calais, a five-hour drive to this location is 540 kms, which is longer than usual for us. However, as this site has a supermarket within 5 minutes' walk and a field at the side to exercise Poppy, we were happy to travel there.
2. Remoulins
The Camping Car Park Aire at Remoulins placed us less than 30 mins from this amazing structure and the drive from the previous Aire was less then 5 hours.
The Pont Du Gard is incredible, but just a warning: we pre-booked this Camping Car Park Aire, as we noticed that it was full for the previous week (every night) and the night we stayed there.
3. Elne
This location was a shorter drive, just under three hours in the Catalan region of France. 243 km in total. The Aire is just outside the town and an easy walk to get into the historic centre.
We got up early and headed off on foot to explore. It was quiet but well worth the time to walk around and check out the history and culture of what was a significant player in its time.
4. Vilanova Park Campsite
Our first stop in Spain and the end of transiting through France was Camping Vilanova Park, a substantial Camp Site about 3 hours and 250 kms from Elne, where we enjoyed the hot showers and Estrella beer in the bar.
So there you have it, a change of plan taking the opportunities presented. More condensed driving than perhaps we would normally do, but not excessive in the context of two experienced drivers.
The video of this section of our trip is now live, and if you haven’t seen it, the link is below.
Hope you found this helpful. Best wishes to you, Helen and Martin.
