A journey through France

the longest stage of the journey. From the French entrance of the Mont Blanc tunnel to Troyes it is 510 kilometres, about six hours by motorhome, and the road from Italy to the tunnel comes on top. You sleep at the municipal stopover of Pont-Sainte-Marie, open all year, with electricity, water and emptying but no toilets: with the 2026 price list, from April 16 euros for 24 hours plus the tourist tax, and you enter and pay at the terminal by card. If you arrive in time, the cathedral is half an hour away on foot, or eleven minutes by bus 1 plus a stretch on foot; on the October 2026 timetable the bus runs from Monday to Saturday until 20:50, and does not run on Sundays.

from Troyes to Paris it is 189 kilometres, about two and a half hours. On Sundays the low emission zone does not apply to vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes, but the city's campsite, in the Bois de Boulogne, lies inside it, and the sticker is needed even when parked: with a Crit'Air 0, 1 or 2 you sleep here for two nights, with a 3 or older at the Maisons-Laffitte campsite, on the RER A. The campsite has to be booked, and from 3 April every booking carries 26 euros in fees; arrival is from 14:00. You go into the city with the campsite shuttle to metro line 1 at Porte Maillot. The museum to see today is Orsay, which is closed on Mondays: entry only with a booked time slot, even with the Paris Museum Pass, and on Sundays last entry is at 17:00. In the evening the Seine, on foot along the quais or by boat: from April the Bateaux-Mouches leave every half hour until 22:00.

a whole day in the city, with the motorhome parked. The Louvre is open on Mondays and closes on Tuesdays: from 9:00 to 18:00, with the time slot that the museum advises booking even for those who enter free, only on ticket.louvre.fr. From Porte Maillot metro line 1 gets there in a quarter of an hour. Then the Tuileries, and in the afternoon the Île de la Cité: the Sainte-Chapelle, which from April opens from 9:00 to 19:00 and requires a time slot, and Notre-Dame, where entry is free. In the evening Montmartre, with the basilica open until 22:30. Anyone who wants the Eiffel Tower buys the timed ticket on the official website; the Paris Museum Pass does not include it.

the palace is closed on Mondays, and that is why you go on a Tuesday. You leave the Paris campsite early and go to the Versailles one, in Porchefontaine: 14 kilometres, about twenty minutes (from Maisons-Laffitte it is nineteen). The campsite does not say from what time you can go onto the pitch, so you ask when booking. From the campsite the palace is 3.2 kilometres away, on foot or by bike, and the motorhome stays there. From April to October the palace opens from 9:00 to 18:30 and the Trianon from 12:00: in the morning the palace, with the time slot booked even with the Paris Museum Pass, then the gardens, and in the afternoon the Trianon. The Passeport, which covers them together, cost 35 euros in 2026, 32 for citizens and residents of the European Economic Area. In 2026 the April Tuesdays had the Jardins musicaux, and the Grandes Eaux, on Tuesdays, were only in May and June; the 2027 calendar is not out. The zone B schools are still on holiday: arrive at opening time.

from Versailles to Disneyland it is 62 kilometres. The motorhome sleeps in the motorhome section of the visitor car park, which opens at 8:00: 40 euros a day, and with the same rate you stay the night until 10:00 the next morning, and you walk to the parks. Water and waste disposal are done beforehand, because the Disneyland website does not mention them. Those who prefer a campsite have the one at Jablines, nine kilometres away, with bus 2263 to the parks in twenty minutes, open from Easter to All Saints. The ticket has a date and a price that changes with the day, and the opening hours for late April 2027 are not published: it is bought on the official website. It is a Wednesday of the zone B school holidays, so it is crowded: the quietest days would be 3 to 5 May, when this journey is already in Normandy and on the Loire. Dogs are not allowed in the parks.

you leave the Disneyland car park by 10:00, when the night ticket expires. To Dunkirk it is 317 kilometres, about four hours. The shortest road goes by the A1 and Lille, and the Lille low emission zone includes the A1 and the A25: anyone without the sticker leaves the A1 at Arras and takes the A26 as far as the A16, near Calais, and then the A16. You sleep at the rue des Chantiers de France stopover, open all year, with water and emptying but no electricity: 25 places, and in January 2026 it cost 8 euros for 24 hours. Next to it is the Dunkerque 1940 museum, the one about Operation Dynamo, which in 2026 opened every day from 10:00 to 18:00, with the ticket desk open until 17:00. During the zone B holidays the Duchesse Anne of the Musée portuaire can be visited every afternoon. In the evening the beach, five minutes away on foot, which further east becomes the digue of Malo-les-Bains. The city buses are free for everyone.

from Dunkirk to Calais it is 47 kilometres. A Friday at the end of April is a good day for Calais: the belfry, the Cité de la dentelle and the Musée des Beaux-Arts are open, and at the Cité the looms work in front of the visitors, which does not happen on Saturdays. In front of the town hall stand Rodin's Burghers. In the afternoon the two capes, moving the motorhome from one car park to the next: at the top of the Blanc-Nez the free car park on the D940, then the Gris-Nez. You cannot stay the night in the capes' car parks, and some of them have height barriers of 2.10 metres. You sleep in Wissant, the village between the two capes: the stopover has 50 places, 11 euros for 24 hours for two adults, including the tourist tax, and in the holidays it is worth buying the place in advance on Qipeo. The stopover's season is not written anywhere: if it were closed, there is the one at the Ferme de l'Horloge, in Tardinghen, open all year. On Friday evenings, from April to September, Wissant has its market, from 18:00 to 21:00.

from Wissant to Étretat it is 259 kilometres, about three and a half hours. 1 May is a public holiday, the only holiday on which, by law, almost all employed work stops in France: museums and shops may be closed. And it is the last weekend of the zone B holidays, so Étretat is full. The Espace Maupassant stopover has 35 places and cannot be booked: set off early, to get there in the morning. With the October 2026 price list it costs 14.32 euros for 24 hours for two adults, including the tourist tax. If it is full, the Villainville stopover has the bus to Étretat a hundred metres away. On crowded days the centre may close to cars from 10:00 to 19:00, and the motorhome does not go there anyway. The cliffs are climbed for free, by the steps and the paths: the falaise d'Aval with the Aiguille, the falaise d'Amont with the sailors' chapel. You do not go under the cliffs or within five metres of the edge: a municipal order forbids it.

from Étretat to Honfleur it is 44 kilometres, under an hour, crossing the Seine estuary on the Pont de Normandie, a toll bridge. The tolls change every 1 May: in the 2026 ones class 2, where most motorhomes fall, paid 7.10 euros, and class 3, for motorhomes taller than 3 metres or heavier than 3.5 tonnes, 7.60. Set off early today too: the motorhome car park at the bassin Carnot, 20 euros for 24 hours on the July 2026 price list, with water, emptying and electricity while they last, cannot be booked, and it is the last Sunday of the holidays. On Sundays all the museums in Honfleur are open: the musée Eugène-Boudin, the Maisons Satie, the Vieux Honfleur museums and the Lieutenance, which you can visit if you are at the door before 17:30. Fish is bought in the morning on the quai de la Quarantaine. Three houses on the quai Sainte-Catherine have been propped up since 1 April 2026: check on the commune's website how the building site stands before setting off.

from Honfleur to Mont-Saint-Michel it is 200 kilometres, about two and a half hours. The zone B schools go back today. You sleep at the Camping-Car Park stopover in Beauvoir, on the road to the Mont, open all year: 16.70 euros for 24 hours plus the tourist tax, with the PASS'ÉTAPES card that you get at the entrance. From the stopover place des Navettes is about two kilometres away, on the cycle path, and the shuttle to the Mont is free. From 2 May the abbey keeps its summer hours, from 9:00 to 19:00, with last entry at 18:00, and the timed ticket can be bought online from a month in advance. The Mont's public body advises arriving before 10:00 or after 15:00, and leaving Honfleur after lunch you arrive after 15:00. In the evening the village stays open, and you walk up the Grande Rue without the crowds. Check the tides before setting off: the Mont's public body should publish the 2027 calendar at the end of December, as it did the 2026 one, and when the water goes above 13 metres the footbridge closes for about an hour, longer with the highest tides. Away from the walls, in the bay, you only walk with a guide.

the stage that brings you to the Loire: from the Mont to Amboise it is 299 kilometres, about four hours. From 2027 Rennes bans vehicles without a class and Crit'Air 5 inside the ring road, which itself stays open to all. You sleep at the Camping-Car Park stopover on the Île d'Or, 24 places on grass, a few minutes' walk from the castle: 15.78 euros for 24 hours plus the tourist tax, booked in the network's app. In the afternoon the Château royal, open every day, which in 2026 from May kept its ticket office open until 18:30: the chapelle Saint-Hubert with Leonardo's tomb, the ramparts above the Loire, the gardens. If there is time, the Clos Lucé, where Leonardo spent his last three years, is nine minutes away on foot, with the ticket office open until 18:00. The Amboise market, on Fridays and Sundays, is not on these days.

Chenonceau on a Wednesday, outside the Ascension long weekend: in 2026, on the long weekends around public holidays, online booking was compulsory, and 5 May is the quietest day. The castle is about a dozen kilometres away: by motorhome, with the car park reserved for motorhomes, or with Rémi line C from Amboise Théâtre, which on the September 2026 timetable leaves at 9:58, arrives at 10:25 and leaves the castle again at 13:20 or at 18:05. The ticket is bought on the castle's website, with a time slot: in 2026 it cost 19 euros with the booklet. In the afternoon, by motorhome, the Cave de Vouvray, the producers' cellar, open every day, in the afternoon from 14:30 to 19:00, with a free tasting at the counter and the tour of the galleries at 15:00 and 17:00, 6 euros; inside it is thirteen degrees, and you need a jacket. The night again on the Île d'Or.

from Amboise to Sancerre it is 180 kilometres, about three hours. It is Ascension Day, a public holiday in France, and the long weekend that runs to Sunday 9 begins. You sleep at the Les Portes de Sancerre campsite, in Saint-Satur, on the Loire: in 2026 from 15 euros a night, plus electricity, 3 euros in booking fees and the tourist tax; the 2027 dates and price list come out at the start of the year. Book by phone or by email, saying it is for one night only, because on public holidays the campsite may turn it down. The village stands on the hill opposite, about a hundred and sixty metres higher up, and today the Rémi bus does not run: you climb on foot by the Casse-Cou, by bike, or by taxi. Up in the village the Maison des Sancerre, which in 2026 opened every day from 11:00 to 18:30, and Aux trésors de Bacchus, open on public holidays too; in Chavignol, three and a half kilometres further on, the crottin at Dubois-Boulay, also open.

in the morning, before leaving, the Tour des Fiefs in Sancerre, which in May 2026 opened from Friday to Sunday from 10:30, and the 2027 hours have to be asked for. Then from Sancerre to Beaune it is 205 kilometres, about three and a quarter hours. In Beaune you sleep at the municipal stopover on avenue Charles de Gaulle, five minutes' walk from the Hôtel-Dieu: 85 places, open all year, the first four hours free and then 11.70 euros for 20 hours, not 24, on the tourist office's price list, which does not give its year. It cannot be booked, and it is the Ascension long weekend: you arrive in mid-afternoon, and the Les Cent Vignes campsite is the alternative. The Hôtel-Dieu is open every day until 19:30, with the ticket office open until 18:30, and it takes an hour. Van der Weyden's Last Judgement is due to leave for restoration, and the date is not published: phone first, and a copy remains in the chapel. On Fridays, from 14:30 to 17:30, the choir tapestries can be seen at the collegiate church.

8 May is a public holiday in France. The morning is for Beaune: whether the Saturday market is also held on the public holiday is not written anywhere. Then the way home: from the Beaune stopover to the French entrance of the Mont Blanc tunnel it is 304 kilometres, about three and three quarter hours by motorhome, and both the motorway and the tunnel are paid.