Neufchâtel-en-Bray, that is.
Many years ago we always used to enter and exit France through Calais. When we did so, our favourite stopping point, about 2½ hours away from Calais (when towing) became an absolutely brilliantly run campsite at Neufchâtel-en-Bray. The owner managed it well and kept improving it with re-investment. The only eventual downside was that it became an ACSI campsite.
ACSI is a Dutch camping organization that arranges fixed, discounted prices, out of season, for its members, largely the Dutch who do like a deal. I am not a fan of ACSI, largely because it attracts many campers away from campsites that are not part of the organization, many of the classic French camping municipal sites, for example, and could adversely affect their income. The ACSI sites also tend to get filled up with Dutch. We are members ourselves but I generally prefer to be elsewhere.
The Neufchâtel-en-Bray site certainly became much busier once it was ACSI and I started finding it advisable to book pitches.
Then we started avoiding Calais as our route in. This was partly but not solely down to the P&O crewing debacle, making us swear not to use P&O again. We began using the longer sea routes to enter and leave France; they’re more expensive but, hey, it’s a holiday.
For this trip, however, we chose to use Eurotunnel Le Shuttle for a change, just on the return. That pushed us up near Calais again so I booked a pitch at Camping Sainte Claire in Neufchâtel-en-Bray for the first time in years.
It’s about a four hour drive up from near Cheverny. The satnav always wants to push you round Paris but we override that and go cross country via Chartres, Dreux and Evreux. We arrived mid afternoon on Friday 5th having stopped at the nearby Leclerc supermarket for booty and provisions.
I was quite surprised to find that the site was not that busy. Then I remembered that we were now in high season and that the ACSI discounts had ceased to be applicable. We were no longer swamped by the deal-seeking Dutch. We did have a few of Satan’s Little Disciples, though. We really must remember to end any future trips before July.
On Saturday morning the trip up to Le Shuttle was a very windy affair, with cross winds battering Frodo pretty much all the way. We got there safely though and went through the scary-for-the-first-time self check-in. We were offered an earlier train so accepted that, then got into a bit of a tangle navigating our way around the terminal to the embarkation point. Still, it worked out in the end and we were soon boarding and leaving the platform.
It’s a very good system and, after about 35 minutes, we arrived at the Folkestone terminal. Given the strength of the winds, I was quite grateful that were not on a ferry. The only downside is that you do have to deal with the Pas de Calais.
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