Photo4x4
Free Member
Hello all
Like some others on this forum we have just returned from our first trip to France in our MH. I must admit that I was a bit wary of using the aires so I thought it may be useful to post this for the information of anyone thinking of making their first trip over La Manche.
We like a bit of peace and quiet and security and were also worried about being gassed* so I was concerned about not being within the security of a campsite.
Our plan was a mixture of aires and sites but of course being in October about 80% of the campsites were closed.
We spent our first night in a campsite (pre-booked) so I could relax and get the hang of things. Our second night was to be in an aire which was described in the All The Aires - North as being quiet and peaceful.
We arrived late afternoon and found it was a pleasant spot just on the outskirts of a village, nice surroundings, next to fields and a church and there were two French registered MHs already there. It looked very promising so we settled in and SWMBO started preparing our evening meal.
Then a group of teenagers turned up with a moped. Buzz, buzz, whizz whizz. Hmmmm. Not so good now, I thought. However no doubt they'll get fed up and go after dark. Then two cars with older lads turned up. Boom, boom, boom went their stereos. The younger lads drifted away and the older ones took over. That was it. I was not going to sit and listen to that so we packed up and off we went to a campsite about 15 miles away (where we had a nice peaceful night).
Well, I thought, don't be put off, we'll give it another go tomorrow night.
The next day we arrived at the aire in a small town. Apart from accidentally driving down a 3.5 tonne restricted street we found it okay. We turned into the aire and...it was packed with 'travellers'! We quickly turned round and found a nearby campsite again.
Well that evening I was considering throwing the excess weight of the All The Aires - North (and south) away!
Not a good introduction to the aires.
I decided that after spending the money for the books I'd give aires one more try. We headed for one at a 'wine cave' next to a small village. I was rather excited about this as I love caves and geology, so you can imagine I was a little disappointed to find out upon our arrival that a wine 'cave' is actually a wine warehouse (ignorant me)! However we were pleased to find a nice open space on tarmac with toilet disposal facilities etc. amongst the vineyards under a cliff. It was most pleasant. We settled in for the night and hardly saw another car or person. After a nice peaceful night I emptied our waste and we had a visit to the 'cave' and SMBO purchased some wine (this is how aires work).
This gave us the impetus to try more aires and I'm glad to say that from then on the experience was good. We loved the huge aire at St. Marie Sur Mer down on the Med by Montpellier, so thanks go to this forum for members recommending that one. Some were better than others and at most we were not on our own as there were other, mainly French registered, vehicles there.
On one aire which cost us 6 euros to park and 2 euros for electric hook-up (after we worked out how to use the machine) I had to choose a Bourne so I just choose number 4 at random. When I actually read the notice I found that number 4 supplied electricity for 57 minutes (a bit random that) and the other 3 supplied it for 24 hours for the same price! Ah well we have a good leisure battery.
During our trip we stayed under the walls of medieval towns and villages, by canals and rivers and lakes. We (well mainly SWMBO) shopped locally and spoke to 'real' French locals.
So what do I think of the aires now, would we use them again?
The answer is yes. Next time we will again do a combination of aires and campsites and the aires are a definite part of the plan.
So, have a go, don't be put off by one not-so-good experience, be flexible and have a back-up plan.
* Only a JOKE but I wonder how many people will not read down this far?
KH
Like some others on this forum we have just returned from our first trip to France in our MH. I must admit that I was a bit wary of using the aires so I thought it may be useful to post this for the information of anyone thinking of making their first trip over La Manche.
We like a bit of peace and quiet and security and were also worried about being gassed* so I was concerned about not being within the security of a campsite.
Our plan was a mixture of aires and sites but of course being in October about 80% of the campsites were closed.
We spent our first night in a campsite (pre-booked) so I could relax and get the hang of things. Our second night was to be in an aire which was described in the All The Aires - North as being quiet and peaceful.
We arrived late afternoon and found it was a pleasant spot just on the outskirts of a village, nice surroundings, next to fields and a church and there were two French registered MHs already there. It looked very promising so we settled in and SWMBO started preparing our evening meal.
Then a group of teenagers turned up with a moped. Buzz, buzz, whizz whizz. Hmmmm. Not so good now, I thought. However no doubt they'll get fed up and go after dark. Then two cars with older lads turned up. Boom, boom, boom went their stereos. The younger lads drifted away and the older ones took over. That was it. I was not going to sit and listen to that so we packed up and off we went to a campsite about 15 miles away (where we had a nice peaceful night).
Well, I thought, don't be put off, we'll give it another go tomorrow night.
The next day we arrived at the aire in a small town. Apart from accidentally driving down a 3.5 tonne restricted street we found it okay. We turned into the aire and...it was packed with 'travellers'! We quickly turned round and found a nearby campsite again.
Well that evening I was considering throwing the excess weight of the All The Aires - North (and south) away!
Not a good introduction to the aires.
I decided that after spending the money for the books I'd give aires one more try. We headed for one at a 'wine cave' next to a small village. I was rather excited about this as I love caves and geology, so you can imagine I was a little disappointed to find out upon our arrival that a wine 'cave' is actually a wine warehouse (ignorant me)! However we were pleased to find a nice open space on tarmac with toilet disposal facilities etc. amongst the vineyards under a cliff. It was most pleasant. We settled in for the night and hardly saw another car or person. After a nice peaceful night I emptied our waste and we had a visit to the 'cave' and SMBO purchased some wine (this is how aires work).
This gave us the impetus to try more aires and I'm glad to say that from then on the experience was good. We loved the huge aire at St. Marie Sur Mer down on the Med by Montpellier, so thanks go to this forum for members recommending that one. Some were better than others and at most we were not on our own as there were other, mainly French registered, vehicles there.
On one aire which cost us 6 euros to park and 2 euros for electric hook-up (after we worked out how to use the machine) I had to choose a Bourne so I just choose number 4 at random. When I actually read the notice I found that number 4 supplied electricity for 57 minutes (a bit random that) and the other 3 supplied it for 24 hours for the same price! Ah well we have a good leisure battery.
During our trip we stayed under the walls of medieval towns and villages, by canals and rivers and lakes. We (well mainly SWMBO) shopped locally and spoke to 'real' French locals.
So what do I think of the aires now, would we use them again?
The answer is yes. Next time we will again do a combination of aires and campsites and the aires are a definite part of the plan.
So, have a go, don't be put off by one not-so-good experience, be flexible and have a back-up plan.
* Only a JOKE but I wonder how many people will not read down this far?
KH
