🇫🇷 Motorhoming in France: 5 essential things to know

Are you taking your motorhome or campervan to France? Here are 5 essential things you need to be aware of. Hey, I'm Kat from Wandering Bird and I share tips and tricks for motorhoming and van life. If you are doing some touring around the UK and Europe in your motorhome and want more videos about tips, places to go and how to make the most of your time on the road, then consider subscribing. But let's dive in to 5 things to know when you are motorhoming around France. Number 1. Remember which side of the vehicle your habitation door is on. If you have a British built motorhome, the likelihood is that your habitation door will be on the left hand side of your van. Because obviously when we are driving on the left, that opens out onto the pavement. In France, it will mean that it opens out onto the main street. So if you are travelling with young children or with dogs, be really, really careful if you have a habitation door on the left hand side because it will open out into where the traffic is. Obviously if you have a vehicle on the right hand side, you have that issue in the UK. But in France, you will have no problem at all. But just something to be aware of. Number 2. Be aware of reverse polarity. Now this is no longer such a big issue as it used to be. Many campsites have had their electrics updated and certainly more modern campsites never had the issue in the first place. But if you enjoy staying at more rustic campsites or places which definitely look like they haven't had their electrics done, you might come across reverse polarity. I think in all the time that I have been touring Europe, I've had it twice, maybe three times. It's really not that big a deal. Now if you do find that you are on a campsite that has got reverse polarity, so it has got an issue, and if you want to know more about reverse polarity, I am not a trained electrician. It basically means that the way that it is wired is different to what we have over in the UK and indeed around most of Europe. And it means that if you have got an appliance plugged into your three pin socket, it will always be live. So obviously you can just unplug everything. But if you want to be a little bit more sure about that, there are a couple of things you can do. Now first thing you can do is not plug in your electric cable at all. You can stay on the campsite, just use it as if you were staying off grid and that way it's not got any issue at all. Second thing you can do is buy a reverse polarity checker. You can get these from places like Amazon. I will leave a link in the notes for you. And what you do then is when you've plugged in, if you're not sure and you want to see what the polarity is like, you can plug your little device into any of the three pin sockets on your van and it will tell you if reverse polarity is present. If it is present, there are a couple of things that you can do. My van is dead, dead easy. It has got a little button that you can press on the main circuit breaker switchboardy thing. Mine's under the wardrobe in my Swift. And I literally press that button and it sorts out the reverse polarity issue for me. I know that many motorhomes have got that built in. If you have got a custom built van or if you bought it yourself, then you'll need to find another way of dealing with it. But again, I'm not the electrician or the person to ask about that. So make sure you get some professional help if you are not sure. Just jumping in here whilst I am editing this video, I forgot to mention you can actually buy a reverse polarity kit, which like a little adapter that goes in the bottom of your or the end of your mains electric cable. So you can plug that in as well. I've never used one of those, never had one of those. But I do know that they are available to buy if you wish to look further into them. Number three, remember that there are laws about kit that you have to carry with you in your vehicle. Laws that we do not have over here in the UK. So France and indeed many other countries around your insist on you having high visibility jackets for everybody that you are travelling with. Things like warning triangles, first aid kits. If you want an entire list of all the required kit that you must travel in. And if you are stopped by the gendarme for any reason, they could well ask to see some of this kit. I will drop the link to the checklist in the notes for you. So you can download that and make sure you've got everything that you need. Number four, be aware of priority adroit roundabouts. Now these are nowhere near as common as they used to be. Most modern roundabouts, certainly on the big main roads have removed that. If you go into Paris and you can actually go up. I don't recommend driving into Paris in your motorhome or your campervan because it's crazy. But if you park outside, get public transport in, you can actually go into the Arc de Triomphe and go up to the roof. And you can see the roundabout that goes around the Arc de Triomphe. And you will see on that roundabout priority adroit. It basically means that people on the roundabout who are going around waiting for their exit. Have to stop when somebody else is coming from one of the exits or entrances onto the roundabout. So they're on, they have to stop, they have to go. But they can't move because the person in front of them has stopped, let somebody else come in from another. It's insane. So like I say, France has removed this. But in some of the more rural areas, I've seen a couple in Brittany. I've seen a couple near Bordeaux. Some of the more rural roads still have this. There is generally a sign that you need to be aware of to look for. Because there's generally nothing on the roundabout. The sign's like, I don't know, 50 feet or something before there. And if you miss it, you could easily find a little person in some French Renault, Clio, whatever. Sailing onto the roundabout having expected you to stop for them. If in doubt, if you're not sure, go very slowly round the roundabouts. And people will just figure it out and miss you anyway. But that's definitely something to be aware of when you are motorhoming around France. Number five, if your vehicle is over three and a half tonnes. There are some special considerations and requirements that you need to do. Firstly, speed limits are going to be different for you. So you need to make sure you know what those are. You also need to display the speed stickers on the back of your vehicle. And you need to put on the angle more stickers. So make sure that you've got all of those things if your vehicle is over three and a half tonnes. Of course, the angle more stickers you only need to do if you're going into built up areas in France. So if you're just getting off at Calais or Dover and driving through into Belgium. But as this video is about motorhoming in France, I will assume that you're going touring around France. So make sure that you have got those ready to attach to your vehicle as and when they are needed. A couple of bonus things I've just thought about. Crit air stickers. You do not need a crit air sticker unless you're planning to enter one of the low emission zones in France. I have been touring around France for years in a van. I've never had a crit air sticker on my van because I avoid all the low emission zones. I've got no desire to drive my motorhome anywhere near a city, which is generally what the zones are around. So if you do not have one or if you're already going to France, you haven't got time to order one, don't worry about it. Just make sure you avoid the zones and you'll be absolutely fine. And last little bonus tip is don't be scared to use the airs. And they are fantastic. I wish we had more of them over here in the UK. It's a brilliant way I've been able to tour and explore the country without booking up campsites and things months in advance. If you want to know more about airs, how to use them, what they might be looking like, this is the video to watch. And again, I've also got an extra resource that I will leave the link for in the notes. I hope you found those tips useful. And if you are motorhome in France, I hope you have absolutely incredible adventure. If you want to see more videos like this, then do hit subscribe and I will see you on the next video. Take care. Bye.