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Ferry crosssing fantastic, Brittany ferries, short comfortable journey our dog Summer was priority for choosing this short crossing. Summer is very spoilt and also elderly at 13, but she certainly doesnt look it or act like it, even so the thought of putting her in a kennel/cage was not going to happen on other routes. The Cherbourg route was ideal so she stayed very happily in our car in her bed, happy dog therefore happy us. No problems with checking her in, this is our first time towing abroad and Summers first abroad adventure so we needed to plan it as stressfree as possible. The towing experience was fine, I was map reader with the help of Miss Sat nav (Ummm??) and we managed to get to our first stop a campsite Mont St Michel - having ventured through the tinest villages around to get there. We have an 8 metre caravan and a 5 metre car - Swift Conqueror 645 and Nissam pathfinder. This site was excellent - do remember that a lot of sites you have to pay for water, here it was 3 euros for 10 minutes of water we only used 2 minutes - but had no change so had to go off looking for change as reception was closed and after a long day and journey it wasnt ideal - a lesson learnt for next time! Many sites we have found were not open at this time of year (Dec 28th) and also many unsuitable for twin axle caravans. Coming of the motorway and hunting these sites down which we could find, was going to be very stressful, so we decided the only solution was the motorway aires. Also a warning about unmanned french petrol stations - Dont use them, they take 100 euros from your bank even if you only put in 50 euros, a few days later they take the 50 euros but hold onto your 100 euros for 2 weeks!!! This is apperently normal on debit cards so do beware of this - Spain is fine operates as in the UK - I had not read this on any foums anywhere - we thought we had been victims of fraud. This as I metioned is our first time towing abroad, Id read the forums the warnings and picked up tips on parking in the Aires. .. so we took a chance we had no other choice, they were ideal for us, you just pull in, park up then straight off again in the morning. We found that the 2 we parked in one being in France near Bordeaux and the other near Zaragoza, were absolutly fantastic and it is such a shame theres so much bad things experianced in these aires. We parked at the end of a lay by pull in, as advised no one can then block you in and rob you we parked close to lorries and other fellow campers. I also kept a light on all night so it was visable just slightly through the caravan blinds. It was all very quiet, not much noise, but it was New years eve maybe everyone was where they wanted to be. Will we do it again? - yes we will on the journey home. We arrived at Bennicasm around 4pm - first experience of a Spanish campsite. ... oh lordy. .. large twin axle caravan with no motor mover. ...um we will save that one for the next blog. ...till next time x Photos below Summer at the first campsite in France,

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Is it just me - but my biggest problem when towing these days seems to be motorhomes last weekend - two incidents in just one mile. .. 1. narrow road - motorhome just came thru with no consideration or thought about stopping and reversing and force me to pull my unit, into the junction of a side road. Every time I inched forward - the motorhome just edged closer to the back of my van. Don't they know the back end can swing out ? 2. parked cars on a hill - I'm towing up a steep hill overtaking parked cars which are normally there, I'm half way past the row of parked cars when a motorhome comes round the corner, at pace, down the hill. Does it stop ? no, does it slow down ? errrmm no. I've just got a suspicion that they drive - forgetting that they are not in their nissan micra