France: Where to Camp in France - The North Coast: Part 1

Due to their closeness to England, the French regions of Normandy and Brittany make very popular destinations for people taking camping and self catering holidays in France. There are numerous ferry routes available to these regions as well as Euro Tunnel. Ferry ports can be found at Roscoff, Cherbourg, St Malo, Le Havre, Caen, Calais, Boulogne, Dieppe and Dunkerque. Euro Tunnel terminates at Calais. Some crossings take a little over ninety minutes, though of course some are considerably longer. Many tourists use these ports as stepping off destinations to tour much deeper into France, though there is no real need to venture further if you don't wish to as there are plenty of attractions to entertain you here.

Normandy has almost four hundred miles of coastline. It was from this shoreline that the invasion force that conquered England was launched. Led by William the Conqueror, those Viking descendents, the Normans brought England to its knees in the famous Battle of Hastings in 1066. If we fast forward to a different era of history, the same beaches from which the defeat of England was launched, saw a reversal of role as they were stormed by allied forces during 1944 in Operation Overlord that was to become the beginning of the end of the Second World War. Relics of that battle and ruined coastal defences are in places observable to this day. There are two quite different parts to Normandy which as known as Basse Normandy and Haute Normandy. The Haute Normandy region includes the mouth of The Seine which empties into the English Channel. Its capital is Rouen, a medieval city where can be found Notre Dame, one of the most well known cathedrals in France. This is also the town in which Joan of Arc perished at the stake. The other region is Basse Normandy. This is the one from which the apple liqueur Calvados derives. Here is spoken a different language from that spoken in the rest of France; the language is Norman and was the official language of administrative England following the Norman invasion.