Our campervan was broken into and robbed in southern France - twice.
I researched everything for our dream trip to France, including where to park and how to be safe. I had read about not parking our campervan on the toll roads because there were thieves present. Even though I thought I had taken all the necessary preventative measures, we were just very unlucky…twice…robbed two days in a row.
Break in #1
I was ecstatic to visit the Arc de Triomphe and the ancient Roman Theatre in Orange, France. We arrived early, at 10:30 on a Monday morning. We easily found a parking spot right next to the Arc de Triomphe. To find parking, I always use the park4night app. The lot we chose was rated 4.23 out of 5, and all the reviews were positive. We parked and set off to visit the ancient Roman sites.
We returned to the campervan at 12:30. Sam sat down in the driver’s seat and I noticed that the strap of an extra purse I had brought was hanging down. He happened to look back and noticed that the large dining room window was dangling open. Within minutes, we realized we had been robbed.
After searching through the van, we found the only thing that was stolen was Sam’s prescription medications. Thankfully, we always carry all our money and passports with us in our secure backpack, so that wasn’t a concern.
We knew we had to get a police report for our travel insurance, so we called 112 (the emergency number in France). They directed us to drive to the police station. The officer was very nice and tried to communicate in English (as we speak no French). He looked at the damage, pulled the video of where we were parked (we couldn’t see anything because of a tree), and wrote an incident report.
While getting broken into was upsetting, we had a positive attitude that it happens, we could replace what was taken, and that it was just a blip in our anniversary trip.
The following day, we got replacement prescriptions from a pharmacy. Prior to leaving, I had Sam’s doctor write down all his medication and dosage. At the pharmacy, all we had to do was hand the pharmacist the medication sheet. The pharmacist spoke perfect English. He easily recognized all the medications and told Sam how the dosage was different and how much to take. In ten minutes, we had all but two. He had to order those, and they would be in by 4:00 THAT day! The total cost was only 110€ (which, coming from the United States, was extremely cheap!)
Break in #2
After we got the prescriptions, we drove the few minutes to where we were parking for the day in Nîmes, France. This was in a public parking lot that was recommended in the France guidebook by Rick Steves, and had a park4night rating of 4.22. It was right next to the public T1 transportation. We had no worries when we left the campervan and were only excited to explore Nimes. It was noon when we took the bus into the city.
We returned to the campervan at 4:30, only to discover that we were broken into – again. The thieves came in through the small kitchen window. This time the robbers completely ransacked everything. They took 75% of my clothes, the perfume that we had carefully picked out for our daughters in Grasse, and a fan I had brought.
There was also a campervan from Germany parked just across from us that got broken into as well. The thieves broke their door lock and stole all the gentleman’s clothes and their sausage (how random?).
We called 112 (again) and found the police station in Nîmes and sat there for a couple of hours, with Bernd, the man from Germany. We had to wait to file a report (they actually wanted us to come back the next day). The officer said, “welcome to France” and that the crime in Nimes was “catastrophic.”
I had a really hard time keeping a positive attitude with the second break in. I had spent so much time and thought about getting a cute wardrobe, and they had stolen all of my favorite clothes.
Looking back, and knowing what was to come, it all turned out for the better. One of our favorite days ever was our first day watching the Tour, and that wouldn’t have happened had the robbery not occurred.
Lessons
- From what I have learned since, in the south of France, the crime rate is a lot higher. When in a large city (especially in the south of France), we will never park in an unattended lot. When we visited Carcassone in 2025, we actually paid for a campsite so we could visit worry free (even if only for a couple of hours).
- I now only bring clothes that I don’t care about if they get stolen. I also don’t bring my favorite jewelry, and if I do, I carry it with us.
- When packing, I divide up our clothes into 2 sets, and keep the spare set in the garage, so everything isn’t all in one spot.
- I put our souvenirs in the suitcases in the garage, that way they aren’t as accessible to potential robbers.
- And always, always, always, keep your passport, money and credit cards on you at all times. The robbery would have ended much differently if they had stolen those items. I use these purses/bags and haven’t had any trouble yet.
And, to actually SEE us talk about our experience on national TV, check us out being interviewed by Steve Porino on NBC Sports!
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