🇫🇷 Motorhoming in France: 7 things I didn't expect (and how to handle them!)

When you're planning your first motorhome or campervan trip to France, there are things that you know you need to sort out. You know that you need some kit, you know that you need to drive on the other side of the road, you know that you need to figure out routes and tolls and perhaps things like Crit'Air stickers. And then there are things that nobody tells you about until you're actually there, which can be quite surprising. I know that was certainly my experience when I first started touring in France, so today I'm going to share with you 7 things that nobody else really talks about so that you are more prepared for your France road trip. If you're new here, hi and welcome. My name is Kat and I am here to help motorhome and campervan owners feel more prepared for their road trips. And today we are focusing on France. If you're ready, let's dive in. Now the first thing is campsite charges, and these can be different to what you are used to in the UK. In the UK, we generally get one price for a pitch. Now that can include up to 2 adults. You might get some campsites in the UK that charge you per person. In France, you are going to be charged for a few extra things. So again, you might be charged for the pitch for the van, and then you might be charged for extra people, extra children. Dogs are always generally an extra charge, but you might also be charged for electricity that you use, which is great because if, like me, you're self-contained, you don't actually have to plug into a campsite every single night. It means that you can keep the price that little bit lower. But the other thing that you might be charged for is to use the showers. Toilets are generally free, but if you want to use the showers, you might be asked to either use €1 coins— so save those as you are going around— or you might need to use tokens, which you then pay for at the reception. And the reception isn't always open, so if you do know you're going to want a shower either first thing in the morning or perhaps later at night, make sure when you check in you find out if you need any tokens and you can buy them there and then so that they're ready for when you need them. Talking of campsites, the thing that really surprised me when I started touring in France with my motorhome is that a lot of the campsites keep your passport. And this is obviously a safety measure for them because a lot of them will charge you for any extras when you check out at the end of your stay. So if they're charging you, for example, electric and you pay what you use, they will check the electric that you've used, you pay that, and then you get your passport back. Now it is really weird to hand over your passport. It's something that in the UK we just never do. It's a sacred And somebody else then keep it and then put it in a cubbyhole behind the desk where anybody could take it is quite scary. It's generally only one passport per van, but it is so easy, so easy when you're used to just driving off when you've finished your stay, to drive off and be 50 or 100 miles down the road and realize that you haven't actually checked out and you haven't taken your passport back. I have done that quite a few times, so I recommend if that has happened, put something on your driver's seat, something on your steering wheel, a big sign. Saying, get passport, anything like that, so you remember to actually go into the reception and get your passport back again. This can also be a problem if you're going to be leaving really early. Then you— sometimes the reception isn't open till, say, 9 AM, and if you're planning to leave earlier than that, you need to talk to them and find a way of getting your passport back. They may ask you to prepay for things like electric, and you may find that you lose €5 or €10, but that is a way of doing that so that you can still leave early. Another thing while we're talking about campsites is a lot of them in France have bread deliveries, and they're amazing. And you can get this lovely fresh bread and croissants and all the stuff, but you need to put your order in the night before. So generally when you check in, they will explain this all to you, but if they're busy or distracted, they might forget or just assume that you know. So normally there is some sort of list of the types of bread that you can order. You will then give either your surname or your pitch number and say what of everything you want. So for example, 2 croissants, 2 pains au chocolat, a baguette, and there are generally like 6 different types of baguette, so guess if you don't know. And then you usually have to pay for the bread delivery when you order it, and they often like that to be in cash. That's something else that surprised me about touring in France. Quite a few places still use cash. Now, bread orders is one example. If you're going to be using things like the service points for your motorhomes or some car parks, they still like you to have Physical coins. Some of them have been updated where you can actually pay and tap with your phone or your watch, but a lot of the places, especially things like service points where you can empty out your toilet and get fresh drinking water, they still like you to put in 1 or 2 euro coins. So my tip for that is to make sure you save them as you go along. And if you find that you aren't getting many coins, if you're mostly using your card everywhere, then I would suggest you go into a shop or perhaps a service station forecourt, buy a bar of chocolate or a drink or something along those lines, and you will get cash back. And you can ask for coins rather than for a note, and that will help as well. Another thing to be aware of is not every tap will be drinking water. So on campsites especially, there might only be one or two taps that have been filtered and are classed as safe for drinking. There will normally be some sort of sign with a glass and water being poured into it. It could also be called potable, but you will also see signs that say non-potable, which basically means that's not safe for drinking water. And these aren't just the taps which are perhaps near the toilet cassette. You definitely don't want to be drinking water from those, but sometimes just general taps in a field aren't marked as safe for drinking water. So be really sure before you fill up. Something that catches a lot of people out when you are touring in France is gas and LPG. Now, if you have got exchangeable bottles, so you give a bottle back and then get a new one, obviously you won't be able to do that in France. Because the bottles, the threads are not the same. So if you are going to be exchanging bottles, if you're in France for say a month or more, or in a shorter period of time but it's perhaps coming into autumn or winter and you're going to use your gas for heating, then you will need to be prepared to change the little pigtail that is the hose that connects your gas bottle into your UK motorhome. Now you can buy these pigtails from motorhome shops, you can order them online, but you also will need to take the appropriate spanner, and also I would some of that gas leak spray because obviously you're going to be taking off a hosepipe, putting on the new one, and you want to make sure that you have tightened it up properly. You're also going to need to go through the whole rigmarole of going into a shop. Most supermarkets in France will sell the gas bottles, so you'll need to go and ask somebody in the main supermarket. They will then come out. You will then need to explain that you need to buy it. You can point at your motorhome, they will get the idea, but they will probably ask you to sign some sort of contract, and you'll need to put down a deposit as well. So Make sure you're prepared to do all of that. If you need an address to put on the contract, you can put a local campsite address. That's normally absolutely fine. If you use LPG refillable gas tanks or bottles, you will need to have the connectors. Now, I've got Gaslow. When I bought the set, it came with the 3 little adapter connectors. There are 3 different sizes. I can't remember off my head which one France uses, but the 2 that I have used the most across Europe are the tiny little circular one that's got like an almost flat edge on it, and then the bigger circular one. So I would recommend you carry all 3 of them in your motorhome at all times and be prepared to use them. Now, you might have heard all about toll roads and getting toll boxes and how they all work, and that's great, but one thing to be aware of is that France is trialing free-flow toll roads as of 2026. In fact, they actually started coming in in 2025. And what this means, it's basically like the Dartford Tunnel, or if you're from Ireland, the M50 around Dublin, where you drive down the road, there are no There are no physical toll barriers or booths or anything like that, but you have a set period of time, normally 48 hours, after you've driven down that toll section to log online and pay it. Now, there are huge signs— when I last did this a few months ago in France, massive signs all across the gantries. Pay attention to those, and then you have to log on to that website once you've finished your journey, or if you've got a passenger, get them to do it as you're going. It does normally take a couple of hours for it to actually register your vehicle has gone through the camera, so you might need to do it in a few hours' time anyway, and then just log on and pay with a card. You can actually, on the SANEF website, which is S-A-N-E-F, you can actually log on and set up your card. I have done that. You have to put in your vehicle, or vehicles if like me you also travel by motorbike, and then whenever that goes through one of those gantries, then it will just charge your card automatically. At least that's how I hope it works. I've not actually driven back down since I registered the vehicle, but just be aware that they are now coming online in France, and you might be driving down one of them. The other thing to be aware of that a lot of people forget when they are planning their trips into France, particularly in the summer, is when are the cycle races. If you're going to go anywhere near the Alps or the Pyrenees, but frankly quite a lot of towns in France also have massive cycle races, or indeed are stage points in something like the Tour de France, and these cycle races can absolutely Stop an area dead. They will close roads, towns will be blocked off, it will be utter chaos. You won't be able to get into aires or campsites that you might have planned or maybe even booked. They should tell you if you have booked, but sometimes the roads can literally be closed for several hours at a time. So it is worth checking when the main— particularly the Tour de France— but when other of the main cycle races are going on around France and if any of those clash with your itinerary. So there we go, a few bonus tips that you might not have otherwise heard. If you would like to know things like the basic kit that you need to get when you go to France, I will leave the link to my checklist below. I have also got an entire France road trip planner which is currently on sale. I will leave the link for that as well. That's got itineraries and routes and places to visit and things to do and see and also places to stay. So again, I'll leave the link for that in the notes. And I am doing a live France workshop where you Come on, I'm going to be sharing some of my favourite places and things to do around France, and you can also ask me your questions or anything that is confusing about touring in France, and I will do my very best to help you live. Spaces that are limited, so if you do want to grab a space, then you can register for it below. Again, I will leave the link there for you. I hope you found that useful. If you'd like to know more about touring in France, you'll find this video helpful, and I'll see you there. Take care, bye!