Hello peeps. We are taking the Udderlets and all our bikes to the Vendee later this year, and that will entail a layover somewhere along the way, and that will entail having somewhere secure to store our bikes – which I’ll be on a carrier on the back of the car – overnight.

Not normally a problem in the past, as I’ve either been with friends or Mrs Udder and just driven a whole trip, usually to the Alps or Southeast in one go, or been with the monkeys and without bikes, but this time we will be with the Udderlets and all of the bikes, from a Cnoc 14 up.

What do people recommend for mid-way stopover? We are looking ideally at a half decent hotel with secure bike storage somewhere closeish to the a28 south of Rouen. It doesn’t need to be in the thriving hub of the city, or be great for a romantic weekend break, Because Three Year Olds.

As the children are full of beans even when they’ve not been cooped up in a car all day, the chance to exercise them with a brief ride or swimming pool action would be smashing. There’s a rather dated Novotel south of Rouen, but any other options would be very welcome. Many thanks in advance!

You could have a look at a Logis – often small family run places with a set menu restaurant
Alasdar Sawdays site has many good places, B&B or with dinner

If you haven’t booked crossing yet you could look at overnight Portsmouth Caen ferry and do the French drive in one hit ?

Book a eurocamp/keycamp caravan for one night, safe secure parking and room for the kids to dash about or take a swim.

We stopped at the Novatel Rouen Sud, just south on the outskirts of Rouen. It has a very good fenced car park, and barriers at the entrance. We’ve used it several times, for exactly the reason you are looking for.

I’d avoid the standard hotel chains and look for something more private/isolated where you can just park up no worries.

This kinda thing?

http://en.relaisdusilence.com/charming-hotel/france/loire-valley/l-auberge-du-moulin-a-vent

What do people recommend for mid-way stopover? We are looking ideally at a half decent hotel with secure bike storage somewhere closeish to the a28 south of Rouen. It doesn’t need to be in the thriving hub of the city, or be great for a romantic weekend break, Because Three Year Olds.

I’ve done a couple of cycle tours in France, and never had a problem with getting secure storage: there’s usually a locked garage or shed they’ll let you use. That includes the usual chains – Ibis, Premiere classe etc.

Alternatively, if you have a towbar mounted rack then locking your bikes to the rack is fairly secure.

We stopped at the Novatel Rouen Sud, just south on the outskirts of Rouen. It has a very good fenced car park, and barriers at the entrance. We’ve used it several times, for exactly the reason you are looking for.

Good to know! I’m stopping there en route to Ile de Re in August.

Alternatively, if you have a towbar mounted rack then locking your bikes to the rack is fairly secure.

Yer, right…

FWIW I’ve one of these kinda wires looped underneath the car and through the towbar bracing with the ‘loop’ popping out at the towbar. I can then attached a lock/chain etc to this and loop it around the bikes.

http://www.lockout-lock.com/masterlock-72-looped-end-locking-cable-w-size-choice?fee=6&fep=9130&gclid=CJP9kfvPhs0CFQ4TGwodLGAM9Q

Yer, right…

If the bikes are d-locked or chained to the rack then it’s not a simple matter to steal them. I’m not sure it’s a worse solution than putting them in a hotel outbuilding.

I’ve done as ransos suggested. Just made sure I booked a hotel with a gated (Iocked) car park.

Spent 3 days parked in a hotel in Paris with bikes. Admittedly we now have a van, which I reversed up to a wall.

Thanks all! Mrs Udder not a massive fan of cross channel ferries, otherwise I would be totally with you on Caen.
The Rouen Sud option is one we were looking at, so good to hear it is a goer.

You know you can find an answer to ANYTHING on STW. Planning this very trip, but as we are only a couple of hours from Folkestone, expecting to do it in one hit with an early train / ferry. Thinking 7 hours the other side does that sound right (I don’t mind paying tolls)?

Q Quick for the knowledgeable – may be chopping the car in for a van before we go. Does a Transporter Kombi / Vito size van with bike rack fit under Euro Tunnels ‘normal’ definition? There was some weight warning that popped up but as I don’t own it yet I couldn’t answer it?

Q Quick for the knowledgeable – may be chopping the car in for a van before we go. Does a Transporter Kombi / Vito size van with bike rack fit under Euro Tunnels ‘normal’ definition? There was some weight warning that popped up but as I don’t own it yet I couldn’t answer it?

I can’t answer that but the price for my car with a roofbox & bike rack was the same as the “normal” price.

We’ve done the Novotel Rouen Sud about three times with bikes on the back – as mentioned secure gated car park (many cars have bikes on) and hotel is good for an overnight stay with family rooms.

Book through quidco for c. 8% off.

We’ve done the Novotel Rouen Sud about three times with bikes on the back – as mentioned secure gated car park (many cars have bikes on) and hotel is good for an overnight stay with family rooms.

Was going to write almost exactly that – stayed there when we had young kids and bikes. Other alternative (that we use now) is to take the overnight ferry to St Malo or Caen and drive to the Vendee from there. Wife not a huge fan of ferries, but we’ve only had one rough crossing in 10+ years

Was going to write almost exactly that – stayed there when we had young kids and bikes. Other alternative (that we use now) is to take the overnight ferry to St Malo or Caen and drive to the Vendee from there. Wife not a huge fan of ferries, but we’ve only had one rough crossing in 10+ years

We did that last year, before we were restricted by school holidays. The cost of a return ticket in August is £800. The tunnel, hotels and some extra fuel/ tolls is about £350.

I’ve stopped in a few places of a chain called ‘Hotel B&B’ before on the way to the Alps. They’ve all been spotlessly clean, very cheap and featured gated car parks.

The majority are next to Industrial Estates (you get what you pay for) but a few have been near local swimming pools etc.

@brassneck high vehicles are defined as 1.8m there is also a length issue. You should get some measurements and call them. A car with a roof box is under 1.8m usually I think.

You can experiment with drive time using Google or Waze (very good, popular in France) also worth checking what dates for school holiday / factory close downs. If you post here I will ask Mrs B (French) to check for you

Google says 6hrs driving so 7 with stop should be fine. I use Coquelles as place name for tunnel exit as Google and others can do strange mid-channel things with “eurotunnel” the A16 to Rouen is pretty quite relative to A26 towards Troyes

Thanks, useful. Dates are unfortunately slightly fixed by my work and school hols anyway, but around 15/8 – 27/8 was the region (some or all thereof).
I’m aware from my French colleagues silence August is probably not the best month to holiday there, but it can’t be worse than Devon surely 😀

I’m aware from my French colleagues silence August is probably not the best month to holiday there, but it can’t be worse than Devon surely

I might see you there! If you see a ridiculously overloaded knackered old C-Max with bikes hanging off the back, do give us a wave.

A car with a roof box is under 1.8m usually I think.

Unlikely – a bog standard hatch at say 1.5 metres, plus roof bars plus roof box is going to be higher than that.

Hi all,
probably worth me updating following our trip. As we went at the tail end of August / first week of September, the autoroutes were lovely and quiet for the most part. We stopped on the way down at the Hôtel Première Classe Rouen Val de Reuil, which was cheap, basic, and clean – ideal, in fact. We were able to sneak the three bikes we had on the outside of the car (the smallest Udderlet is on a Cnoc 14 that fitted happily in the boot) into the back office area of the hotel after asking nicely – but the car park was secure and gated. It was in an industrial estate-type place, but felt secure and safe.
On the way back, we did it in one go, setting off at 8.30 in the morning and getting home at 7pm local time, so 11.5 hours door to door with a six year old and a four year old who, improbably, were totally well behaved. We’d consider doing it in one go both ways in future, assuming we could check in late at night at our destination – and bearing in mind how bike and child friendly it was, we’ll probably be doing that!
I hope this is helpful further down the line.
By the way, we ended up Eurotunnelling it with bikes on the roof as a towbar ended up being out of the question – we’re probably going to sell the car soon, so it wasn’t a cost effective option. Tunnel was quick and easy and probably saved us from sharing our car with feral children. 🙂

One last thing – thank you to everyone who offered advice. I really appreciate it, and it made our trip much, much easier.

Just to echo the thanks to all on here – went swimmingly and will be back next year. Did it in 1 hit both ways, including a wee stop for me @ 03:30 leaving the engine running so as not to wake the car. 12:30 from Calais, 07:30 was buying croissant from Amelie (looked like her anyway) in Julien des Landes.
Would have been better in the planned van, as the camping gear really put us over the ‘acceptable’ level of luggage cramming.

Car is classed as under 1.8M and booked as such, but with the roof box on we had to follow the oversize queue on to the train (logical, but not 100% obvious).
The tunnel system is excellent, we were an hour late and just automagically rebooked on to the next available train. Number plate recognition, collected out tag and rolled on.

Toll tags – wouldn’t bother, didn’t ever queue. I think you’d know if you needed one, a CC is fine for the rest of us.

Only issue was the car packing up at the peage kiosk outside Rouen. Pushed it through with the nice lady from the kiosk 🙂 .. used bad french to persuade a gendarme parked the other side to call a garage as it was still technically motorway so need to be recovered by the motorway owners to a ‘normal’ road (explained by my breakdown cover) .. garage didn’t show up, but an hour later the car restarted and we baralled on, riding the throttle through Rouen and hoing it didn’t stall. Last check was to fill up again, but luckily all was well .. suspect it got a bit hot on the first leg.

We had a good trip too – ish. Traffic from Rouen to Ile de Re was horrendous, thankfully we’d had the air con recharged as it hit 35 C as we queued for the toll bridge onto the island. I’d be tempted to go through the night next time as it would make the journey considerably quicker. No problems at all on the way back.

Eurotunnel is so much easier than the Dover – Calais ferry.

The Sanef toll tag was pointless- most of the time spent in queues happens before the lanes separate out for the different booths.

We love an update

As I posted before none of my French friends / relatives bother with a tag, they just use a card. Most of them are using a toll road most weekends and for vacations. As above if there is a real queue it blocks the whole road.

Sanef toll tag was pointless

I disagree. I travelled down to near toulouse, but I was by myself and it saved me having to jump out of the car at every toll booth on the way down, which after about 23hr door to door was useful.

Also the ‘Here’ sat nav app and spotify worked wonders and kept me entertained.

Might have to do it again next year as the road cycling was fantastic.

I disagree. I travelled down to near toulouse, but I was by myself and it saved me having to jump out of the car at every toll booth on the way down,

Sure – but that wasn’t relevant for us.