I would use your UK credit cards in our holes in the wall! You can use them for payment in many if not most supermarkets and restaurants but you will need to know your four digit pin number and enter it on the hand held machines.

I would warn that many visitors have problems with unmanned petrol pumps; if there is an assistant you can pay by card as you would for a meal, but if it's a card-only petrol pump there may be tears ahead!! So don't leave it till last thing at night or a Sunday to fill up!!

You can use Euros bought in the UK, but Euro travellers cheques will need to be changed at a bank ... and French banks are not open on Mondays!!!
Travellers cheques are NOT used as money as they are in the US. It might be worth finding out what your campsite will offer in the way of money exchange - the rate may not be the most competitive but it will take the worry out of changing Sterling in small amounts as required if you don't feel happy with other methods of getting Euros.

Have a wonderful time!

However be aware that if you use a credit card at an ATM it will be treated as a cash advance and interest will be charged at a high rate from the day you withdraw it. Better to take a bank debit/cash card to withdraw from ATM's. If you bank with the Nationwide there are no fees or charges unlike most other banks.

luci

We go camping in France every summer and take some Euros with us to last 10 days or so for coffees, ice creams etc. The rest of the time we use our Royal Bank Mastercard without any problems in supermarkets, restaurants, manned petrol stations, etc. There is sometimes a bit of a delay in the transaction processing because it is a foreign card but never a problem. We top up our cash later in the holiday from a bank ATM using our bank card (ours are Maestro cards and widely accepted) and try to avoid more than one withdrawal because of the bank charges. Many of the credit card companies charge interest on cash withdrawn from the date of the transaction so that could prove to be a more expensive way of doing it.

We bank with Nationwide.

We always take a couple of hundred euros to get us started, pay motorway tolls etc then use the debit card in ATms. Nationwide make no charge and also give a better exchange rate than just about anyone. Credit card for all other stuff, again no charges and a better than most exchange rate.

We take about 500euros cash with us, but use out Visa Electron debit card for everything else.
No problems at all!!!

Thanks for the advice folks

Get yourself a Nationwide credit card and Flexacount (which has a debit card). The credit card has no loading and fees (apart from if you use it to withdraw cash) and the debit card does not have lots of charges for foreign use. Anyway, the Nationwide cards are much cheaper to use than other cards. We just use ours on hols.

We arrive in France around 3:30 in the morning so fill up with petrol in Dover and take about 50 euros. We use credit the card and get cash out when we find an atm (get a few hundered out each time rather than lots of small amounts to cut the charges down).

just got back from France

take a little cash (for Autoroute tolls if you are driving)

and a Nationwide cashcard

that's all you need