Le Hourdel and Cayeux Sur Mer Aires in Northern France review.

[MisterB]

Le Hourdel has a 2.1m height barriers, looks to be pretty new, which is a shame as we were looking forward to trying it. The village is a pretty little creek side village or more correctly, a pretty creek with fishing and sailing boats and a few houses and a restaurant. Looked to be anti motorhome in my opinion.

About 5 mins away is the Aire at Cayeux Sur Mer. It's just opposite a campsite. Parking is on on open car park, with space for around 40 Motorhomes. Very flat and backs into sand dunes. The WC emptying facilities however leave a lot to be desired, the flush doesn't clear the waste properly and you have to pay 1€ for water to clean your cassette! The services bollard is poorly maintained.

I wouldn't recommend either of the Aires on what I have experienced. I will add more in the morning in terms of noise etc.

 

[MisterB]

After staying the night, my first impression hasn't improved much. You can use the facilities of the campsite, WC etc and I assume even the swimming pool, so in the height of the season, due to its location next to the sand dunes, I can understand why it might be a popular stopover. There's plenty of room, even for motorhomes with a car trailer, so the Aire might prove useful for very large outfits.
For me, what let it down was having to pay via the bollard for fresh water, the bollard being in a poor state of repair and not being able to flush WC waste away properly or swill/clean the cassette.
I did see one french motorhomer go into the camp site with a 5 gallon water container and come back with it full on several occasions, but it was in the evening when reception was closed, so I suppose that's an option?
In terms of sleeping, to be fair we had a decent night's sleep, but don't expect a lie in, as the road to the dunes is well used by motorbikes and cars. As we arrived after reception was closed, I wandered over at 9am to pay - 10€ per night, and inform them of the problems with the bollard/WC emptying and to use the facilities which were basic BUT very clean.
Internet signal via EE is a bit hit and miss and I lost signal a few times, but still managed to do this review. Uploading photos took forever, so I will add some later
Streaming TV did buffer though, so we gave up on that, but Sat TV was fine.

I won't be back here again, but it's not the worst Aire we've been on and handy if you're in the area touring.

What 3 words

hazel.decorations.asides

Both Aires are in All the Aires, page 222 and 223 and P4N

 

[MisterB]

 

[Manic]

That a shame about Le Houdel, we’ve stayed several times and like to see the seals, I think we stayed on Cayeux many years ago for free.
Sound like you would better off using the St Valery sue Somme Aire.
Regarding emptying cassette I carry a 2 litre milk bottle with clean water and flush cassette with the grey water and then use a small amount of the clean water in milk bottle to finally flush cassette.

 

[MisterB]

We drove past the St Valery Aire on the way to Boulogne (where we are now). I agree it might have been a better option, but as it was only a one night stopover it wasn't a disaster, just a disappointment.

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