Europe Caravaning

Enroute back home to Canada for the summer, we took advantage of stopping off in Frankfurt for 2 weeks to tour around parts of France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. This was our first trip to Europe (long overdue) and it was great to cruise around these countries from campground to campground. Camping in Europe is a little different than home. The campsites are reasonably priced to park your caravan and hook up to electricity for the night. There are always hot showers, laundry facilities, a cafe and food store. In Italy especially, the campground cafes served some of the best espressos (and cheapest!) along with pastries and pizza - but the fresh cafe was always perfectly strong and only around a euro. A favorite spot to camp in Italy was in Florence called 'Camping Michelangelo'. It was just across the Arno river from the city and below the famous Michelango piazza where you had a great view across to the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio bridge.
Another favorite camp spot was in Versailles called Huttopia. Tucked away at the far end of a small village was this campsite complete with a pool, very clean washing huts, and lots of choices for camping. You could park your caravan, pitch a tent, sleep in a permanent tent with a platform, or rent various sizes of beautiful wooden cabins. We could walk to Versaille from here, about 3 km or get on the train into Paris about 20 mins. away. We did a tour of Versaille one day and then Paris the next day. First time in Paris, it's hard not to do the typical tourist things such as visit Notre Dame cathedral, walk through the Jardin de Touilliers to the Place de la Concorde and stare up at the obilisik from Luxor. Had a baguette and brie picnic by the Louvre (have to actually go in next time) and carry on up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe and then the Tour de Eiffel. It was a packed Parisien day that was topped off with a light tapas sidewalk break (for only $70cdn!) and a stroll through St. Germaine de Pres area.
After making our way back to Huttopia, we packed up the caravan and drove out of Paris at dusk with the Eiffel tour lights twinkling away.