I'm currently heading for Calais to get the ferry home and arrived at an aire in Mesnieres-en-Bray in northern France today. My neighbours are a British couple, Mark and Helen, who have been here a few days and we got on talking as you do. Mark was spending a lot of time securing his bikes onto the rear external bike rack and he told me that they had a bad experience a few days ago in Wissant. Apparently they arrived at the aire in Wissant only to find it full so they found another parking place nearby where there were a few other vans parked up. All was fine until during the night when they were awoken by the van rocking around a bit. He tried to go outside only to find a number of males holding the cab and hab doors shut while another male used bolt croppers on the bike cable locks. They had four bikes stolen and have had to buy two new bikes to use while they continue their trip. I've never heard of a brazen theft like this and Mark said it was probably just as well he couldn't get out of the van as if these people were prepared to go to these lengths, where would they stop? Its also something that's hard to combat, one of the bike locks was alarmed but that didn't deter them, if you climb out of a window then you're in a confrontational situation with people who may be carrying weapons and outnumbered. Just thought I'd better post this so people are aware, I'm not trying to put people off using aires as I've not had any problems. I've stayed at Wissant aire twice overnight before getting the ferry and had no problems but even that has pathways leading into it.
