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Welcome, if it were me I'd go Portsmouth to St Malo. It's an overnight ferry then a nice easy run down to Carcassonne. The Santander ferry is overnight but around 35 hours depending on which time of day you cross. While Santander crossing would save you 200 mls I would say the St Malo crossing and the drive down would be nicer. 

Travelling by MH in France is a delight, easy to drive and park almost anywhere. Enjoy

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InSeptember 2019 we did more or less the above. We couldn’t get on the St Malo crossing as we booked late due to problems with paperwork for our new MH. So used the Portsmouth Cherbourg crossing. As the weather was good we went down to the Atlantic  coast just north of Biarritz for a few days, then onto Lourdes, before making our way to Carcassonne. I would recommend investigating thecamping carpark Aires, most of which have 6 amp EHU. All of which were a high standard and very easy to access.

If you are heading for Carcassonne will there be much advantage in taking the longer sea crossing to Spain and then a drive across Spain and into France? As far as I can see you will only be saving about 155 miles on each leg of the journey, if for example you went via St Malo. Obviously if you wanted to see some of Northern Spain and perhaps the South West coast of France then I can see the logic of going via Santander but if it's straight down to Carcassonne and back I am not so sure.

David

Tina, Good morning.

Tina initials can mean There is no alternative, but in fact you have all sorts of possible alternatives - for example going one way and coming back a different way. There’s no need to drive straight there and back again - get a couple of good guide books and a road atlas and mark the places you want to see on the journey.

I hope it all goes well.

If you are travelling in May (and returning a few weeks later?) then there is plenty to see both in north/mid France (one way) and southern France and northern Spain in the other, including the Pyrenees.

as others have said, there isn't one 'best' way but I'd suggest a combination of the western crossing to, say, Cherboug or Caen, heading one way and the Santander/Bilbao trip the other.

which way round will be personal preference but this first trip will help you gain confidence to travel in a relaxed way knowing there are literally thousands of stopping places for you to pull in at along your, perhaps winding, route.

In a MH, dont get hung up on which sites are open, don't limit yourself to the 'club' sites and don't even consider booking...

Camping Car Parks is a good system and definitely worth having the app, but there aren't that many sites (looks like 200-300 on my map) and there may not be one in the area you wish to stop. So don't be driven by one collection.

similarly, ACSI camping card is a great cheap out of season camping discount scheme which many folk carry each year....fab sites from €18 or so...

what there always will be (certainly within a few km) will be a village/town aire, there are about 8000 last time I looked all over France.

apps like Campercontact and park4night allow you to get a good view (coupled with google maps) of any potential stopping place.

Caracassone os a great place to visit but you have a great opportunity to dawdle and drink in the wonders of France as you travel.

good luck, you'll love it.

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Hi T&D, We don’t have a MH but we nearly bought one and the main vision in our heads was being able to tour France in a way that’s different from our usual caravan trips.

As said, cant see any advantage to a Spanish route, but would thoroughly recommend an overnight from Plymouth on a Tuesday aboard the Pont Aven-we will be on it in May!

Have a great trip.

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hello everyone overwhelmed by responses , thank you so much, I now  feel a little  more  confident  in organising our  trip