Mobile homes in France

Whereas at one time many years ago France used to be the ultimate venue for camping holidays - it still is in Europe - there is a plethora of sites offering holidays in mobile homes. They all have the comfort which no tent can offer; toilet, shower and washing area, never mind the fridge and freezer, a proper cooker and space...that last is important especially if yours is a medium to large family. Space is at a premium in most holiday accommodation but in some of the largest mobile homes we have seen in France you could literally have a ball in the lounge!

They do differ though; they differ in age, the amount of use they have had, the amount of abuse they have received in their lives for not all holidaymakers are careful with other people's property by any means, and of course they differ vastly in size. It is important to enquire of the owners what the state of their mobile home is if you are about to rent it for a couple of weeks in deepest France.

When you stay on a camping site in France you may notice the odd Sky TV aerial now and then on some mobile homes, and these are usually privately owned. When the owners stay there several weeks a year they like to have their creature comforts, and for the other weeks they may rent it out so having the option of Sky TV is an added attraction.

Now here is something to watch out for:- There are many large mobile home and camping holiday companies in France which often advertise in the UK press and send brochures to you through the post. Now we have tested several of them and whilst the quality is roughly the same as the mobiles offered by their British owned counterparts there are some not too subtle differences.

The first one we tried belonged to Homair, France, and we stayed for a week in one of their mobile homes in Quiberon, Brittany. We had read their brochure carefully before booking so we were fully aware of the conditions such as handing over a 110 Euro deposit (a very odd amount we thought) against any breakages AND for not cleaning the mobile before we left it. Now then, we always make a point of leaving things spic and span before we leave but we have experienced Brits not doing that, in fact in my experience you would never, ever get a Brit family to clean it thoughly because they have never had to. The holiday rep is paid to do that for them. Try that with a French company and it will lose you a nice wedge of your deposit.

Their mobile home was tiny and far smaller than we had anticipated, so I told them in no uncertain terms that they were out of order, and that it was really too small for just the two of us even though it had a nice breakfast balcony outside. It seemed that I hadn't got my point across by the time we left and went on to St Jean de Monts for the second week of the holiday with the same company. We had booked a different type of mobile home for this week and when we were shown around it all the disappoinment of the previous week just disappeared. It was massive! One of the Cottage type of mobile homes with enough room for a dance, and of course it was totally immaculate. Heaven.

There are some other differences between British and Franch owned mobiles and they can affect your holiday though not by a lot. In France they don't seem to have kettles for a start as they use pans to boil water for their coffee. This of course means that they don't normally have what we call "proper teacups" because they drink much more coffee than tea so they tend to use the demi-tasse, or tiny cups for concentrated coffee. Tip; take a none electic kettle and some mugs!

Their electricity supply is normally 110 Volt against what the Brit owned mobiles supply which is what we use at home, 220 - 240 Volts.

One more thing; In France the mobile homes are well equipped with utensils but their idea of a tin opener may not match yours, so take one with you. Their tin openers are virtually a spike on a handle and when not used by an expert may well result in a visit to their equivavlent of A & E. Be warned.