I have stayed at Le croix twice before. It is a very nice site in a beautiful setting. Useful for Paris and Eurodisney. It is a bit of a jaunt off the motorway (about 1 hour off the A1 going down) and at least a couple of hours from the Autoroute on the way north IIRC.

You also have quite a drive ahead from there down to Vias. It looks like you have elected to go via Paris althogh it is possible to bypass Paris by taking the A106 after CdeGaulle airport on the A1.

When I did the journey I broke it a bit further down at Vanderness not far from Dijon going down. Coming back we stoped at Le Croix but is was one heck of a long drive!

I would suggest that you take the A26 A4 A5 A31 route via Reims and Troyes. This is a much quieter motorway and by passes Paris altogether. Beak the journey a bit further South say between Dijon and Lyon. Lyon is easily doable from Calais if you have an early crossing. Last twice we went across we hit the French roads at about 8am and reached Valence, South of Lyon by tea time. (without hammering the car to death as well). In fact Birmingham to Valence is about 1 tank of Diesel in our car.

Enjoy your holiday.

We are not doing Europe this year. We are doing Canada and Alaska and letting someone else do the driving!

I should add that I have not used Keycamp before but have used Canvas loads of times. I dount there is much differencr between them. You daughter may be a little young for the children's club though, check the brochure.

The children's clubs with Keycamp/Eurocamp (jointly run club) are 5+ and Canvas are 4+. Our little one was 4 in November and this is the first year we have been able to use the club for her as we're going with Canvas for the first time. The Fun Station for All at Vias Plage is 5+ I'm afraid and they don't bend the rules as they aren't insured for younger children.
Some of the other sites may have a toddler club (I think they call it Mini World) till the end of June. We used this last year and although we had to stay with the little one, there were crafts, toys, games, books, etc to keep her occupied.

Thanks for the tips. Not actually booked yet so am going to take your advice Hi de Hi and look into changing the stopover to somewhere around Lyon.

Glad to help, enjoy your holiday.

Hi De Hi wrote:

I would suggest that you take the A26 A4 A5 A31 route via Reims and Troyes. This is a much quieter motorway and by passes Paris altogether. Beak the journey a bit further South say between Dijon and Lyon. Lyon is easily doable from Calais if you have an early crossing. Last twice we went across we hit the French roads at about 8am and reached Valence, South of Lyon by tea time. (without hammering the car to death as well). In fact Birmingham to Valence is about 1 tank of Diesel in our car.

Much better route especially for bypassing that horrible Paris place We did this route with the caravan only 4 weeks ago and motored easily though not at full Autoroute speeds because we weren't rushing
(French Speed limits for towing are different to ours as long as your trailer weighs less than the car then there are no restrictions unless signposted)
A couple of years ago we did a three stop strategy and did Calais to Montpelier in 11 hours (7 hours actual driving time) so a leisurely jaunt to Lyon is easy though suggest AFTER Lyon rather than before