Caravans are moving in!

rosalan

rosalan

Joined
Jul 12, 2013
Posts
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Location
The City of Henlow
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26,906
MH
Adria Supreme
Exp
Since 1980
Perhaps I am panicking prematurely but the last several Aires (Motorhome exclusive territory) have ALL had caravans in addition to Motorhomes.
I, being British and litigious am shocked and horrified.
Is nothing sacred?
I include France, Spain and Portugal.
 
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rosalan said:
Perhaps I am panicking prematurely but the last several Aires (Motorhome exclusive territory) have ALL had caravans in addition to Motorhomes.
I, being British and litigious am shocked and horrified.
Is nothing sacred?
I include France, Spain and Portugal.
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You can add Denmark to your list :oops: :oops: :oops:
 
Two on Tour said:
We were parked up on an aire near Morlaix last week when a tugger pulled in next to us at a quarter to one in the morning, wind down their corner steadies and slam the 26 doors on their car !!! :swear2:
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You should have had a go at him not only a caravan but you are not supposed to arrive on Aires after 10pm.
 
We stopped at an Aire on the way South last year. MH pulled in towing a car on a trailer. Only place he could park was over the services until a French woman got out of her MH and started taking pictures of him with her camera. Lots of gesticulating and mumbling and he decided to move to an adjacent car park.

We watched a Uk registered MH with a trailer struggle to get into an Aire. After he had finished his manoeuvrings I was tempted to walk over and ask him to move so I could use the Service Point he was parked over.

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Lenny HB said:
You should have had a go at him not only a caravan but you are not supposed to arrive on Aires after 10pm.
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I knock hard on our window to draw his attention and glared at him, but I don't think I'm very good at glaring in French and I don't think he gave a toss either, ........ typical tugger then.

The French motorhomers don't seem to bothered about arriving after 10pm either.
 
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Get an old Prodigy CD and blast em with firestarter at max decibels. Gives everyone a window into what is going on and motivates them to get pissed off and go on the attack.

Ahhh, the Brits.....
 
I was under the impression that so long as the caravan had fitted Water and Grey Tanks they could use aires?

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I deal with French colleagues on a daily basis, not worse or better people than others of course, but one thing they have hard time with is following rules. They are just incapable of it. As we see in this thread it is not really specific to the French but it is more common with them. I think it is because there are so many rules about everything and anything in France that they simply give up and develop a reflex of working around the rules.
 
Saw a chap with a caravan being turfed off an aire in France once by the representative of the local mairie. A bit of a grey one as he was towing it with a small camper, but ejected nontheless.
 
Stephane Bosman said:
rules about everything and anything in France
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Some are sooooo old , they are just not fitting the actual life.
Also some rules are rumors started by some people interested in the result. IE you must change both wheels when you only have a puncture on ONE wheel. Bullocks said the gendarmes (my neibourghs) when I asked. If you can, just take your wheel with you and go to the garage ... they can't oblige you to come back with 2! It is simply a matter of better safety. So they (gendarmes) ADVISE you to put the same wheel on the other side when you can AFFORD it, as it is not always the case!
Yes , we do it our way, but usually it has been well thought before.
 
Lenny HB said:
Not supposed to arrive after 10 or leave before 7am if is in a village or near residential property.
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Never heard that one, you can arrive and leave at anytime, though starting your engine at 5am and letting it tick over for 20 minutes before you pull away won’t go down too well.
Glaring at French people won’t get you anywhere, they will assume you are watching them ( a French national pastime) and wave.
And then you don’t know if the caravan owners have permission to park there.
Remember, you are a guest in their country and you play by their rules.
If you don’t like it..........
 
What exactly is the problem with caravans using aires ?

I used them when we had a 5'er and would use them with a caravan if I needed to and could fit.

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matamoros said:
What exactly is the problem with caravans using aires ?

I used them when we had a 5'er and would use them with a caravan if I needed to and could fit.
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Maybe the space taken by the car and the caravan is generally superior to what an MH would use? When we were caravaning, the total length when driving was a bit more than 13 meters. It would have never occurred to us to go to an aire.
 
Stephane Bosman said:
Maybe the space taken by the car and the caravan is generally superior to what an MH would use? When we were caravaning, the total length when driving was a bit more than 13 meters. It would have never occurred to us to go to an aire.
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Any motorhome towing a trailer would be of similar length and RV's with a trailer!

I only used aires in transit with the 5'er and would do the same with a caravan especially out of season when not many sites are open in France.
 
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No problem with our caravan we parked anywhere, had official looking chap come in one Aire :unsure: I said OK, shall we unhook he said no your OK, :wink: me thinks someone had been on the phone to him and he was checking we were not travellers. :rofl:
And of course we were at that time, that was our home. :doh:
We also towed a car on a trailer, as long as there's room no problem. :pop: Bob.

Ps We was asked to remove our toad from one Aire, that was clearly signed campingcars only.
 
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gus-lopez said:
And they shouldn't be in there either. Towing anything excludes you.
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But they are, there was a thread on here recently where someone was castigated for complaining about a motorhome with trailer taking up at least 2 pitches. The general opinion seemed to be that as the aire was not marked in bays then there was no problem.
 
keithchesterfield2 said:
I thought there was a clue in the titles - 'Aire de Camping-Cars' and 'Aire de Stationnement Reservee aux Camping-Cars'.

Not - 'Aire de Camping-Cars et Caravanne'

:france::france::france::france:
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I am aware of the titles and the supposed laws regarding them but please give a logical reason why caravans can not use them for the same purpose as Camping Cars.....short stays or transit stops.

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