Motorhome trips with a family: from Alicourts to Chamonix

We have moved on through France to eventually land in Chamonix, on the borders of almost half of the countries in Western Europe.

I guess we need a synopsis of the last few campsites, starting with Parc des Alicourts. In our opinion it was good enough for us to stay on for 17 days, bearing in mind we wanted to settle for a while to recharge and get to grips with what motorhoming is all about. More drastically expensive than most in the high season, the park is fully equipped with all the necessary facilities.

Personally we felt that the camp was too busy at this time of the year to cater for toddlers, but for the 7 to 15-year-olds it was well catered for, including “late nights” at the site disco. I say too busy, because both Sally and I had to keep the twins on a short leash to avoid them getting lost among all the holidaymakers.

Nevertheless, we have met great people here. We tied up with the Dutch more easily than the Brits. Our big bellied, shaven-head friend Jaap came over every day for a chat and even offered to take some pictures for us while we were sorting out the camera issue. And then there was John and Marianne with their two kids. They took over the nanny duties and it was a pleasure to see how Jari and Christiaan bonded.

Eventually, after serious “negotiations” between the Government and I, we finally went further east into the great unknown.

As our confidence grew, we felt it necessary to try out the “French Passion Project“.

French Passion is a membership company that allows you to search for French farmers in your area. Then one can simply “pitch up” at a farm for a 24-hour stay. The vineyards were the most appealing option for us so we headed to Domaine de la Martiniere, close to Roanne in the Rhone-Alps region.

The sign for the pitch was clearly marked, but I missed it (obviously) to end up like a real tourist in front of the farm workshop. Even so, the Government side-stepped an argument and I met with our host‘s wife, waving our French Passion membership card around and asking the standard question “Do you speak English?”. She responded warmly and we tongue twisted for a few minutes to make the necessary arrangements for our stopover.

Our experience here was absolutely fantastic. After a quick setup, we were invited for a wine tasting, and even though the farmer had only been producing wine for three years, we found it good enough to buy a rose and a red wine. We then returned back to the MH to find ourselves in total peace and tranquillity. For the first time since we embarked on the this journey, we felt that peace had set in and that we were eventually beginning to relax.

With the success of our first stay and plenty of farms in the Lyon area to choose from, we decided that the French Passion site Domain Berger Des Vines, located in the Pommiers area near the pleasant town of Villefranche, was next on our list.

A quick row (lasting 100 odd kilometres) put us back into the driving spirit to eventually arrive about 50km short of our destination at a deserted town called La Londagne. Eventually I was able to turn from the main road, and found what I could only hope to be a sign directing us to a campsite.

This was our first non-planned site and looking at the motorhome’s dashboard clock, I realised that we had no choice but to make this campsite work.

Luckily our first nonplanned site turned out to be a cracker. It was very rural with unlevelled grounds and faraway power points, but an absolute gem for a stopover. It even had proper loos rather than those disgusting holes in the ground.

We set off the next day for Villefranche, and were once again captivated by the clean and friendly atmosphere. Definitely one of the best places to visit as a tourist! We spent most of the afternoon here before setting off into the hills to our new host. Again I ended up in front of the farm house by accident of course!

We were welcomed by Claude Berger, a pleasant chap with more than 20 years experience in wine producing. He too has a set of twin boys and after he drove the fear of god into us about how difficult life with twins will get, we set off to test his produce. Claude’s vineyard tour was frankly mind blowing, and we ended up with one white, two rose and three red bottles of his wine. Claude is a fantastic host and we relaxed into the night at very well organised pitch with a fantastic view over Villefranche.

Early the next day Claude met with us to say farewell and we set off to Lyon in an attempt to get a child seat for Sally’s bike, a point of confrontation between us that has up to now lasted for more than 2 weeks… All I am prepared to say is that we again did not succeed in getting it done...

This eventually brings us to Chamonix, and about time as well. A stop at the Municipal Aire landed us close to the town – just a 7 minute walk from our MH front door to the town centre.

We were surrounded by real “British weather” for the first few days but even this could not dampen our spirits. We bought the boys the best welly boots ever and explored this town in the heart of two mountain ranges.

On the 3rd day of our visit we got our chance to see Mont Blanc by cable car. With clouds surrounding the top of the mountain, we found ourselves in a different world - and what an experience this was. Lucas turned out to be truly on top form by crying constantly all over the alps. Eventually Christiaan joined in and we eventually decided to go back down the mountain, with Daddy hanging onto a sleeping Lucas who by now weighed half a ton. Sally, wisely, decided to apply psychology on Christiaan and therefore managed to carry him only bits of the trip down from the mountain.

All in all I have to say that this place is a must-visit for any one of any age. Our experiences were so wonderful here that I would recommend it to anyone.

“Groetnis van huis tot huis”

Christiaan

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