From Le Touquet, you could follow the coast west (eventually cutting the Cottentin, eg take a direct Caen Mont-StMichel). You have Etretat as a first interesting point to overfly with its famous cliff, then the D-Day beaches, then the Mont, Saint-Malo and Saint Brieux. The next part is called “Côte de Granit rose” and that is also very nice to see from the air. You could then continue all the way to Ouessant and then back to follow the mainland’s coast south bound via Bénodet Lorient, Quiberon …
Lots to see on this routing, and quite a few airports on the way.
At the moment I am thinking Quimper, La Rochelle and Tours. Le Touquet might drop off the list.
Le Castellet LFMQ is expensive for parking and quite some distance from england…
Aubenas LFHN is center France, in a very nice region to visit from nature and landscape (Ardeche), free landing, nice restaurant, avgas 24/24 by credit card, so nice that all from Dijon to Cannes clubs are regularly flying there. The city is not far by taxi, and sometime you can take lunch looking at firemen trainings (1 Dash and 2 trakker). It’s also close to Northern Alpes, south of France… A nice pitstop I recommend.
And If you like mountains, you can push to Gap-Tallard LFNA, also very friendly place with a lot of sun, avgas, paragliding and PC6… Access is done by the south, valley of the Durance or the north west, valley of Champsaur, it’s a really scenic place and famous burgers just over the airfield office.
we are currently in honflour. Wonderful place. And our new favorite. Taxi35 from deaville. Had problems getting fuel again in Quiberon, ¡! so thats a shame. Got it in Vanne. Belle Isle. Is delightful. Dinard can be. Tricky when easyJet land.
It’s usually difficult or impossible to get a taxi to pick you up at an airfield in the middle of nowhere in France unless you booked before, and sometimes the taxidriver won’t accept bookings for a short trip because it would prevent him or her to accept a more profitable one (Most French country taxi drivers make their living out of Social Security funds driving people to/from the regional hospital).
And of course their bank card reader is permanently inoperative: you need cash.
Call in advance the local aeroclub or browse their website to collect local taxi phone numbers and other local information.
Sometimes you’ll have a good surprise: for instance in Royan there are bicycles available at the tower, but nobody will tell you if you don’t ask..
Yes, sure, but it‘s different in other countries. Notably in Germany, where getting a taxi, almost anywhere, is usually not a problem, and the prices are, well, fair. When we come to France, it‘s quite a shock, in terms of availability, willingness of the drivers to work for their money, and the prices they extract from you…
That’s why to visit an area, sometimes a bigger but further airport is more convenient for ground transportation than a smaller but closer one. Like Tours instead of Ambroise for the Loire chateaux.
Graham’s plan looks very good to me.
Yet small airfields can be pleasant, but you must make a through preparation.
