Security on French Campsites

JoeyEmma

OH and I are going to France for the summer. We are spending a week mountain biking in the Alps (already have accommodation booked for this) and will be spending a week in Burgundy and Champagne.

We had thought about camping but will have out mountain bikes with us, which are worth a few bob. How safe is it to camp with bikes? Do French campsites routinely have places where you can safely lock up bikes or will they have to spend the night on the back of a car rack, which isn't really that safe?

Any tips or advice would be more than welcome!

bryanb

Locking them to a tree or lamp post should be pretty secure, I doubt that you'll find lockups large enough to take a couple of bikes. Some sites do have them though.

buyitall

We have never come across lock-ups on campsites. There are usually metal bike stands outside the campsite shop/bar, but they don't tend to be used for bikes overnight. We always have expensive-ish mtbs with us, and just have to lock them against a tree. French campsites are usually separated by trees/hedge into individual pitches so there is always a handy tree to lock your bike against. You could always put the wheels in the boot to make them less easy to pedal off with.

JoeyEmma

buyitall wrote: »

We have never come across lock-ups on campsites. There are usually metal bike stands outside the campsite shop/bar, but they don't tend to be used for bikes overnight. We always have expensive-ish mtbs with us, and just have to lock them against a tree. French campsites are usually separated by trees/hedge into individual pitches so there is always a handy tree to lock your bike against. You could always put the wheels in the boot to make them less easy to pedal off with.

Thanks for the advice!

Can you recommend any good campsites to us?

buyitall

Sorry, have never camped in Champagne or Dordogne so can't recommend a campsite. www.ukcampsite.co.uk is the best forum for advice, or www.alanrogers.co.uk gives detailed reviews. Have a fantastic time in the Alps, we were meant to go to Les Gets last August but had to cancel due to family ill-health, the mountainbiking looks fantastic, v jealous! xx

RedBern

buy a 6foot length of chain from an ironmongers and a couple of big padlocks and chain your bikes to a tree. We have never had problems on campsites although did have bikes pinched from a Formula1 hotel car park when travelling to Alps a few years ago. If you buy a nice heavy chain it is noisy as well - in case anyone does have a go at thieving!

JoeyEmma

buyitall wrote: »

Sorry, have never camped in Champagne or Dordogne so can't recommend a campsite. www.ukcampsite.co.uk is the best forum for advice, or www.alanrogers.co.uk gives detailed reviews. Have a fantastic time in the Alps, we were meant to go to Les Gets last August but had to cancel due to family ill-health, the mountainbiking looks fantastic, v jealous! xx

We couldn't decide between Les Gets and Morzine and stumped for Morzine in the end!

buyitall

Sure Morzine will be fab, it is the centre of the mountain biking world in the Alps! Since then we have discovered that MTB is more widespread in the alps in the summer than we had ORIGINALLY thought. When we went skiing in Austria in February, one of the instructors had a great place in Kitzbuhl, it seems quite normal in many ski stations that you can take your bikes on the lifts, I had been under the impression that you had to go to a dedicated mtb resort. Have fun, sure you will! x