Longer trip to Europe

[JoannaLesley]

Now I have retired, we are thinking about a longer trip next year and I know many of you already do this, so your advice would be welcome.
We are thinking of, say, 6-8 weeks in the Spring, as we have to be back for a wedding in early July. Most of the travelling will be in France, although we do plan to spend a week or so with relatives in Murcia, Spain. I'd also like to revisit the Italian Lakes, but that may not be possible this trip.
The main purpose of the trip is to begin house hunting - or at least narrowing down the area(s) we want to settle in. We are pretty certain that we prefer inland Aude, but there are some areas that we haven't looked at in terms of living.
We will be taking 2 dogs with us - both with passposts, of course.
We have already broached the idea with our household insurers, but what else do we need to be mindful of? Are there time limits that it would be best to stick to and why.
We will get an ACSI card (thanks, Val for the heads-up on this). What else will keep the costs down? We will potter quite slowly (the dogs will dictate this anyway) and are unlikely to use the toll roads.
The dogs will need to be wormed before we return. What tips for this? Also, do most sites accept dogs? These are whippets.
Jo

 

[RayS]

Can't help about the dogs but sure plenty of others will. 6 to 8 weeks should not be a problem; longer periods running over 3 months can be. Many household isurance policies limit time house can be unoccupied to quite short periods and have some strange rules about what counts as 'unoccupied' needing family members to be there one night etc. The CC house insurance through Devett is much more understanding and offers 90 days which can be extended slightly if certain reasonable conditions are met. We have found they are competitive particularly when it comes to insuring possessions like laptops.
Another long stay problem may be if your need prescription medicines = many practices will only provide a maximum of two months supply in advance. There was also a potential problem in that if your GP knew you were going to be out of the country for more than 3 months they were supposed to notify the Primary Care Trust and take you of the GP list with no undertaking about re-admission. This was clearly a total nonsense for tourists like us but arose from the fact that the per capita fee to GPs was actually being paid out for around 3 million more 'patients' than actually existed, so the usual sledgehammer was taken to crack all the nuts, not just the bad ones. So if going away for a long time be careful what you tell your GP unless you know them very well.

I suppose gas may be a possible problem but we get about 6 weeks out of a 6kg propane bottle and cook quite a lot. If you are seriously looking at France it would probably be worth taking only one UK bottle and buying one in France which could be exchanged easily.

Hope this is some help and the best of luck - I nearly did it some years ago but never quite got there

 

[otherclive]

Dogs are not really a problem with the recent simplifcation to just worming and the longer time between treatment and return journey. Check out via UK Pet Passport links. IIt means that you can have a vet treat for worms down in France and not have the mad dash back to the port, or can now avoid exhorbitant vet fees from the vets near to the ports.
If you are going when its warm make sure the dogs have protection against ticks and sandfly. Vets can advise. Most French site take dogs as do restaurants but we always ask/check first. Some ferry companies requier the dog out of the car on return to check microchips. They may require muzzles to be fitted. Check first.
Watch for different electrical connectors to the EHU point. We take an assortment. Also have a reverse polarity detector to make sure polarity is okay. if not then you will need to call upon your made up 'reversed connector'
I would buy the CC European handbook that covers gives lots of information about France and is invaluable when looking for sites especially when internet 3G is poor. Unless you have a very lightweight outfit make sure you know the French speed limits for caravans. If your outfit, whether loaded or not, theoreticaly exceeds the max train weight of 3500kg then the lower limits apply. Its all in the CC handbook. So for example a Mondeo with an empty 1400 MTPLM van will be above the limit. Its what the outfit could weigh not what it does weigh.
If you break down on autoroutes only authorised agents can attend. Your European recovery/breakdown policy will advise. I would go with CC or C&CC they are excellent when the worst happens.
French tolls can be paid in cash or with cards. On some minor exits the toll booths are unmanned and may only take cards. Make sure you have at least two cards. We have three.
Fuel is cheaper in supermarkets off the autoroutes but many/most shut at lunchtimes and you can still access fuel albeit with cards.
Lots of ATMs so carrying wads of cash not an issue.
Dont stay overnight in Aires even the big ones.
When en route in the south we never leave the van unattended for security reasons. One always wanders around it whilst the other goes and pays.
Friends of ours moved down to Dordogne and really enjoy the new lifestyle, although they shut dwon the farmhouse and gite and migrate back to their house in UK from November to March. Too cold and quiet they say!!

Good luck

 

[JohnGriffiths]

Re: what sites will take dogs, the answer is most if you are using ACSI. Camping cheques is really poor, for some reason many of their sites either have no dogs or limit you to one which caused us some problems this year. Also be aware that ACSI allow owners to charge for a 2nd dog, although this seems to be a bit random whether they bother or not, it can make a difference of up to 5 euros per night. We don't normally prebook any sites other than the 1st and last day, but this year we found some CC offers of 21 day for 14 surpassed even ACSI for cheapness, approx £10 pn for 5* sites.
Even cooking hot meals virtually every day we only use 0.5 kg of gas per week, but we never use it for heating or water. Which reminds me, take something warm for May, it may be further South but this year it was really cold, 7 degrees C max for several days in the Dordogne when it was 13 in the UK. We really needed hats and gloves for dog walking but hadn't taken any.

 

[anotherDavid]

We travel for longer periods than this and by using an electrical hotplate get through about 4 months on a small Camping Gaz cylinder. You might find that although toll roads can be avoided in France we almost always use them in Spain as the alternatives are not great.
I have a list of the sites we have used over the years here
David

 

[emmerson]

Some good replies for you there, Joanne. The only thing I can add is that we take 3x6kg propane bottles, and even on 14 week jaunts have never run out of gas. In fact this year is the first time we've tapped the third bottle, so gas should not be a problem.
Like you, we tend to avoid tolls, and try to get lost in rural areas. It's much more fun that way!
Also, don't worry about the language barrier. Even if you don't have any French, there is a lot of fun to be had trying to converse with the locals in most bars and cafes.
Just go, hang loose, with the absolute intention of having fun, and you will.

 

[JoannaLesley]

Thank you for all your tips so far. I should perhaps have said that we have been visiting France for over 25 years, 15 of those with a caravan, so we are comfortable with all the usual "tourist" things such as travelling, money, campsites, shopping and so on. We have sufficient language skills for everyday camping, shopping etc. etc., although hope to improve these once we are living there. We are also quite happy with not planning our stays in advance, but just turning up and getting a pitch - it will be early in the year, anyway. However, we haven't undertaken such a long trip as this before and haven't taken the dogs.
Thanks for the advice about gas. We tend not to use a great deal, as we have an electric steamer and a George Foreman that we often use in preference to gas when we have already paid for electricity.
Tips which would be helpful include -
-how do we go about finding a vet with some English language skills? Is there a list we can access, or are there vets that any of you would particularly recommend? Do we need to book ahead and, if so, how far in advance? Is it better to visit a vet near Calais, or is it OK to do so further into France on the way back north?
-Are there any additional innoculations you would advise for dogs visiting southern France and also southern Spain? Are these easily obtainable in the UK?
-Do UK car insurers place time restrictions on longer trips? Ditto breakdown companies.
-Ditto travel insurance ( we have no health issues or medication currently)
-Is it possible to be flexible about return dates? It seems to me that Eurotunnel (we will use them due to Tesco points and dogs!) require a return date as well as an outward date.
Anything else specific to a longer trip?
Jo

 

[otherclive]

Re medical precautions for your dogs into southern Spain I would talk to your own vet. We take precautions against sandfly with collars and tablets, plus lungworms and heart worms too. Not forgetting ticks and fleas too. As far as vets are concerned near the ports can be more expensive than down in the regions. But the former speak English and charge more. Now you get longer after the treatment we have it done in say Montignac before travelling back. Local vets can see you quite quickly whereas the ones near Dunkerque had quite a lot of advance bookings with Brits but it may have eased a bit given the longer time now available between treatment and travel.

 

[JoannaLesley]

Thanks Clive. That's really, really helpful.
Jo

 

[anotherDavid]

Re your question about insurance. Yes the insurers do place limits, car insurance is often only for shorter periods typically 30-60 days, for recovery, health and roadside assistance the Caravan Club Red Pennant offers a is a comprehensive cover for almost all eventualities whilst not cheap it is well regarded by those who have had cause to claim.