We take a look at St Raphael which is on the Cote d'Azur, the French Riviera region of the south of France

As you can see above, St Raphael is in two places at once which takes some doing! It is slap bang on the Mediterranean coast next Frejus which is another camping holiday haven for Brits and French people alike. We have linked to a map of the whole area which will allow you to get your bearings. It is seriously nice down there and I can well remember my first visit to both Frejus and St Raphael in 1965 with three other lads when I was but 18 years old and driving my beloved Hillman Imp.

In those days both these two towns, which are now quite large and sprawling, were little more than dusty, sleepy little villages with the odd shop or two and a few camping sites here and there. They were totally individual then but are now joined at the hip as are so many other towns when they both expand.

There were no pre-erected tents for hire then, no mobile homes to hire either, and the only form of camping was with your own tent and equipment. The one thing which camping sites had then in common with modern ones waqs their cleanliness, which is surprising because in the 1960's France in general was not the clean place it is now by any means.

Getting to your camping site in or near to St Raphael is simple and we like to think that you will be able to follow these directions virtually to the door of your resort without the aid of any map. Sadly, this journey will involve you in travelling on autoroutes for which you will have to pay. The upside to this (outside of the very high season) is that they carry very little traffic and are superb to use.

For this trip we recommend that you take the Dover/Calais ferry or Eurotunnel and when you are out of the built up area there you get onto the A26 and follow signs for Reims and then Troyes. After that head for Dijon which is famous for its mustard, Lyon and then Valance, by which time you are pretty well south. Then follow signs for Orange and Aix-en-Provence which is well worth taking a serious look at, then follow the A8 to St Raphael. There is an alternative route from Lyon but we think that ours is quicker even though you may cover a few more KM.

There are a great many camping sites in the St Raphael area, and lots of them are just a stone's throw from the beach. You will find that the beaches are long with lots and lots of lovely golden sand, but at weekends and certauinly in the high season they will be crowded to the gills with both visitors and locals who also want to get a tan on their days off.

Probably the cheapest thing you will find in the St Raphael area is your camping holiday which should cost the same as anywhere else in France. Other than that I'm afraid that you will need deep pockets if you even think of doing anything other than window shopping because the Cote d'Azur is tres expensive for anything outside a supermarket. Best tip: Buy your food and drinks in supermarkets and take them back to your campsite, or go on picnics to the beach etc, but if you eat and drink out then you will need plenty of shekels.