Staying at Aires in france (1 Viewer)

Paulfy4

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Is it ok/allowed to stay at an aire in France?? We have travelled many times to the south west were we had a mobile home for 5 years and have loved stopping to chill for a baguette and a stretch of the legs,but actually staying overnight ? Is it allowed/frowned upon what's the shower/toilet disposal procedure? Sorry for all the questions but we are extreme newbies

Regards and thanks paul
 
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evenng all

Is it ok/allowed to stay at an aire in France?? We have travelled many times to the south west were we had a mobile home for 5 years and have loved stopping to chill for a baguette and a stretch of the legs,but actually staying overnight ? Is it allowed/frowned upon what's the shower/toilet disposal procedure? Sorry for all the questions but we are extreme newbies

Regards and thanks paul
That's what they are for(y)
 

JJ

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Do you mean the "aires" you see by the side of the road, rather like big laybys or do you mean the motorhome "aires" which are just for campervans and often have water and emptying facilities and sometimes a price to pay?

JJ :cool:
 
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Paulfy4

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Wow motor home Aires please excuse my novice approach,but I am a complete newbie looking at buying my first MH and am after any advise I can collect

Regards and thankyou paul
 

Lot lover

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there are several threads on this subject. Th facilities vary enormously, some are just hard standing to park some are almost sites.

As a sweeping generalisation France wants motorhomers in their towns.

Perhaps you could consider take a look at campercontact or buying (some of the) aires of france from vicarious books for more info.

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aire just means area many towns and villages set aside an area for motorhomes called aire de camping car they range from free to around 20 euros a night most have services some even have electric you can find these either in the book all the aires or online using camping car info which is an app there are other apps
on all motorways and major roads you will find aire de repose these are realy glorified laybys but theres no restrictions on overnights often see lorries in them you will also find aire de service this is the equivelent to or motorway services and again you can overnight but can be a magnet to lowlifes especially near major cities
 
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It's what they are for. We never use anything else in France.

As has already been posted some are literally just car parks others are campsites in all but name.

Some are huge, taking 200 or 300 vans, some are small pieces of land in tiny villages and more often than not you will be on your own. Some will have no facilities at all, most have water and waste, some have electric.

For us it's the best way to camp. You can keep your "proper" sites.
 

Xabia

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When you mention stopping and having a baguette etc I gather that you are talking about the motorway Aires which are fine to stop at during the day but I certainly wouldn't stay overnight on one, it is just too risky from a security point of view.

Then there are motorway service stations, some people will say that it is risky to stop,on them but I have been doing precisely that for many years without a problem. I always part in the car area, as near as possible to the shop facilities. I avoid the lorry parking areas as you are sandwiched between large commercial vehicles, it is noisy if a fridge is parked near and any thief attacking your vehicle can use the lorries as cover.

Finally we have the Aires de Campong Cars which are situated in many towns and villages, specifically constructed for Motorhomes to stay overnight. They will usually have facilities for water , waste and toilet disposal, and sometimes electricity. Some free, most charging a few euros per night. You don't need to have security worries there.

I have a Strikeback alarm with additional led's on the basis that this will,put off a potential,thief who will look for an easier target.

Mike

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DBK

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Wow motor home Aires please excuse my novice approach,but I am a complete newbie looking at buying my first MH and am after any advise I can collect

Regards and thankyou paul
I think there is still a bit of confusion. :) If you drive down a French motorway you will see signs which have the word aire in them. These are generally what we would call motorway service areas though some are just rest/picnic areas.

Then there are the aires folk talk about here a lot, which are dedicated areas set aside, often in towns or the edge of villages, which are specifically designed for motorhomes. To make things difficult the signs to these places don't use the name aire! All you will see is a symbol of a MH dumping waste.

As a general rule avoid the motorway stops overnight - noisy and you might get broken into. The villages aires are to be sought out and cherished!
 
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We went for three weeks earlier this year and used nothing else , going again for September with the same plan, and don't know if this is right or not , but was told by someone who does a lot of traveling in France, that it is a law that every village finds somewhere for mhs to park and if they havnt got an aire it is quite legal to park for the night against the Marie .
 
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Paulfy4

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I can't thankyou enough for all the advise you are all posting,and apologies again for sounding so naive,just gathering as much info as possible to help us decide what to buy,only joined today but I am so so enjoying the site,makes a change from trawling through Facebook etc

Thanks again to everyone
Regards paul

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Anthea M

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I agree with @Xabia we stop during the day on motorway aires for respite but wouldn't sleep on one .
The aires in towns and villages all over France are great. They do vary. We have the vicarious book and have just come back from 2 weeks in Brittany and only stayed one night on a campsite and 13 nights on aires. Some are free some cost 5 Eros and the most expensive are usually near resorts that are popular. Honfleur was 12€ but worth being near the medieval town.
The first year we went I booked campsites the second year did a few aire s and this year much more confidently we did all aires bar one.

May be different with children as you will need more facilities and safe playing ares etc.
 
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:smiley: We went to France for 7weeks in April/May and used Aires the whole time we were there. It was the first time we had been there on our own and it was absolutely wonderful, motorhoming heaven in fact. We got all the info we needed and more from MHF plus lots of encouragement and support. We enjoyed it so much we're off again on 6th Sept for a month.

Ask as many questions as you need and use the resources on Fun and you'll have a great time, we did :smiley:

Your joining fee will be the best money you've spent in a long time :smiley:
 
Feb 16, 2013
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:smiley: We went to France for 7weeks in April/May and used Aires the whole time we were there. It was the first time we had been there on our own and it was absolutely wonderful, motorhoming heaven in fact. We got all the info we needed and more from MHF plus lots of encouragement and support. We enjoyed it so much we're off again on 6th Sept for a month.

Ask as many questions as you need and use the resources on Fun and you'll have a great time, we did :smiley:

Your joining fee will be the best money you've spent in a long time :smiley:
Coincidence (y) we are going 6 sept coming back 6 October, nothing planned other than the tunnel:)
 

Badknee

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When your on your travels you will see the sign below which is usually an Aire where you can dump grey water and more than likely black as well and fill your fresh water tank perhaps for a couple of euros.


image.jpeg
 
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Aug 21, 2014
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Coincidence (y) we are going 6 sept coming back 6 October, nothing planned other than the tunnel:)
:smiley: Well what a coincidence :smiley: 06.50 tunnel, on the 6th after overnighting on Canterbury Aire, then very flexible plans as we make our way down to Twin Lakes :smiley: :smiley:

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Anthea M

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:smiley: Well what a coincidence :smiley: 06.50 tunnel, on the 6th after overnighting on Canterbury Aire, then very flexible plans as we make our way down to Twin Lakes :smiley: :smiley:
That sounds like a good plan and twin lakes sounds like it will be a good one!
 
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:smiley: Well what a coincidence :smiley: 06.50 tunnel, on the 6th after overnighting on Canterbury Aire, then very flexible plans as we make our way down to Twin Lakes :smiley: :smiley:
We are traveling down in the morning and catching the 15, 30 approx stay at gravelines at night , might even stay there a couple of days, then hopefully to the east of Paris and straight down towards Spain , we shall be coming back up by twin lakes as we have friends in that area and always get that way.
 
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Aires aren't just in France. You can also find them in Germany (Stelplatz), Italy (Sostas), Spain and Portugal. We use an app called Campercontact on our phone to find them. You will need to subscribe each year (about a fiver from memory) to get all the info downloaded so you don't need internet to use it.
 

EX51SSS

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Aires aren't just in France. You can also find them in Germany (Stelplatz), Italy (Sostas), Spain and Portugal. We use an app called Campercontact on our phone to find them. You will need to subscribe each year (about a fiver from memory) to get all the info downloaded so you don't need internet to use it.
There is also coverage for the Benelux countries too.
 

mikebeaches

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There are lots of resources for locating Aires de service de camping-car. As already mentioned, the book, All the Aires France, from Vicarious is a good start. However, the title is slightly misleading because as I understand there are well in excess of 7,000 camping car Aires in France, which is significantly more than contained in the Vicarious guide.

And I believe there is no single resource - digital or hard copy - that contains every single one. Additionally, with such a large number, some are occasionally closed, or re-located, And of course new ones are developed.
 

magicsurfbus

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@Paulfy4 - Check the links in my signature below. The last one's a short film.

'Aire' is French for area. It's the other words that matter. 'Aire de services' is a motorway service area where you usually can stop overnight but most people don't. 'Aire camping-car' is either a motorhome waste disposal point without parking, or motorhome parking (usually overnight) with a disposal point (most of the time). Some have limits on how long you can stay (ie 24hrs, 48hrs etc) and increasing numbers of them have automated ticketing. There are also places that are not aires where overnight motorhome parking is tolerated. These may not appear in aire books but are included on the free CCI SatNav POI files which are updated daily.
 

EX51SSS

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There are lots of resources for locating Aires de service de camping-car. As already mentioned, the book, All the Aires France, from Vicarious is a good start. However, the title is slightly misleading because as I understand there are well in excess of 7,000 camping car Aires in France, which is significantly more than contained in the Vicarious guide.

And I believe there is no single resource - digital or hard copy - that contains every single one. Additionally, with such a large number, some are occasionally closed, or re-located, And of course new ones are developed.
There are significantly more aires but contained within All the Aires is the fact that the owners visit the vast majority if not all of them. Of course, if you find an Aire that is not listed in their book, you are invited to submit the relevant details along with photos if you like for the enjoyment for others. Albeit that I've used different media to source an Aire, I certainly wouldn't leave home (to go to France) without it. I also have POI's in my sat nav but I can read in All the Aires and possibly plan my next stop or intermediate stop. ACSI is also another media with great discounts on campsites out of peak season (mainly last two weeks in July and all of August are peak season) but whenever I can, it's the Aires for me.

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As I have posted many times before, if you have an android device, won't work on iPad or iPhone, but if you go to the google play store and put in ' France aires' an app will come up with a green motohome on it , now this app , although very simple and without fancy pictures and stuff, will find you an aire wherever you are, you just kick it up, offline, and it will tell you all the Aires around where you actually are, and will link with whatever mapping thing you have to take you to it, we have all the Aires book and various other apps but this one knocks them into last week for just finding an aire when you want one.(y):)
 

WynandJean

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As I have posted many times before, if you have an android device, won't work on iPad or iPhone, but if you go to the google play store and put in ' France aires' an app will come up with a green motohome on it , now this app , although very simple and without fancy pictures and stuff, will find you an aire wherever you are, you just kick it up, offline, and it will tell you all the Aires around where you actually are, and will link with whatever mapping thing you have to take you to it, we have all the Aires book and various other apps but this one knocks them into last week for just finding an aire when you want one.(y):)
Seconded.

Wyn

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