Guest Derek Uzzell Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 Historically, both of these French towns have been popular with motorcaravanners as overnight stopping places due to their free aires de services and ample, pleasant parking areas. Lately there have been some changes. At Montreuil Bellay the borne (service-pedestal) that previously provided free water and 230v power has been replaced by a unit that offers water only and requires a jeton (token) to trigger the supply. Jetons cost 2 euros for 10 minutes of water delivery and are available from the adjoining campsite or from outlets in the town (list of outlets on nearby notice board). The borne carries 2 water-taps (each with its own jeton-slot) and, based on my own experience, if you had a tap fully open 10 minutes of use would provide you with about 300 litres of high pressure water. The service-pedestal has the usual (free) WC-cassette emptying trough. Waste-water emptying facilities have been upgraded via a proper concrete base for the emptying point with improved accessibility. Perhaps more significant is that Montreil Bellay has introduced restrictions relating to the car-park where the aire de services is located. These regulations are in force from June 15 to September 15 and prohibit motorhomes from parking there from 10:00 to 17:00. Can't say this will worry us much - we used to enjoy overnighting at Montreuil Bellay but it's too noisy for us now with the car park being used as a late-night rendezvous for semi-silenced scooter-mounted youngsters. On our recent French jaunt, against our better judgement, we chose to stop there. As dusk fell about 8 or 9 motorhomes were parked well spaced out round the edges of the car-park, but by 10 o'clock most of them had migrated to a single small area. The amusing thing was that, while some had moved to get away from the kids, others had upped sticks to distance themselves from a fellow motorcaravanner running one of those infernal cheap 2-stroke generators that sound like asthmatic budgerigars. (We hate noisy generators - in fact the only people who seem not to loathe them are the folks who use them. If I travelled with a dog I'd train it to knock noisy generators over and then piddle on them.) No changes have been made to the aire de services facilities at Chateau Gontier, but restrictions have been placed on the car parks on the quay where the aire is located. Motorhomes are now only allowed to park in the defined parking spaces on the area close to the public toilets and only during the period 17:00 to 10:00. Unlike at Montreuil Bellay, this is an all-year-round limitation. I've no idea how rigorously this restriction is policed. In September we stopped at Chateau Gontier twice, staying about 36 hours each visit. Other motorcaravanners were doing the same and nobody 'in charge' seemed to care. This month we stopped there again twice and noticed on our first halt that an apparently unoccupied French 'van we'd parked next to in September was still in exactly the same spot. But, on our return a fortnight later in mid-afternoon, it was gone - in fact there were no motorhomes there at all, which was unusual. So perhaps there had been a recent purge. Half a dozen or so 'vans turned up later and most showed no sign of leaving when the following morning's 10:00 deadline came and went, but I don't know if this was because they knew the regulations would not be enforced or were just ignoring them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RonB Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 Derek - I share your feelings regarding generators, their racket has ruined many an otherwise excellent spot. I note that the November issue of the Caravan Club magazine has two items referring to their noise, including the Clubs own warning to avoid the cheaper models. They then carry a whole page advert for a generator costing £99.99! It also advertises binoculars in the same way costing £19.99, which can 'see' for 35 miles and have a 1000 times magnification - wow. By my reckoning you would need something approaching an eighteen inch aperture to even approach usefulness. Some size of binocular to lug around! I feel that by supporting these sorts of rubbish the Caravan Club is at risk of losing its credibility, to say nothing of letting down its members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Derek Uzzell Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 I'm a big fan of the CC magazine - especially the comic (readers' letters) section! Still haven't recovered from the drugs down the fridge vents letter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bill Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 Wow! Binoculars with 1000x magnification. You're sure gonna need steady hands to use those... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RonB Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 What about the one in the CC magazine some time ago when a member was so moved as to write in to enquire why a couple in a LARGE motorhome, with obvious facilities, should want to stroll over in the rain (with wet gear on) to wash up at the camp sinks? I could think of no end of reasons, but the one I settled on was that they did it to so unnerve a nearby nosey-parker that he/she felt they just had to alert the CC (as they were apt to do)to these sort of goings-on. Some of the letters are hilarious, but why do they print such rot? Perhaps it's to get me going - it obviously works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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