Posted: 24 February 2017 10:53 PM Subject: French Aires
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Hi All,
We are planning to take our Swift Lifestyle Motorhome to Spain via Eurotunnel this July. I plan to do about 300 miles into France the first evening,so we should be around the area of Chaumont on the A5 by about 02:00 - 03:00 in the morning. Can anybody help me with the etiquette when wanting to arrive on an Aire in the early hours of the morning.
Posted: 3 March 2017 2:31 PM Subject: RE: French Aires
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I wouldn't reccomend it unless you know that it is a large aire where you can park up away from other users.
When parking on Aires near to the ports you expect all night arrivals.,but it is not a good idea in other places
Posted: 22 August 2018 12:04 PM Subject: RE: French Aires
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Don't know where you live in the UK, we come from Swansea, after that we always stop one junction down on the A16 from Calais, and that was enough for us.
As they say 'Tiredness Kills'
Posted: 25 February 2019 9:00 PM Subject: RE: French Aires
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I actually drove all night in the end, we parked up for a couple of hours at 10:00 in the morning at a lovely Aire near Lyon. Quick bit of shut eye then continued our journey to Spain. It’s great travelling over night on the empty toll roads. We were a bit more casual coming back stopping overnight in a couple of places.
Excellent trip all round.
Posted: 8 April 2020 12:29 PM Subject: RE: French Aires
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I travel to France a minimum of 5 times per year and like yourself always get an evening crossing (tunnel without exception) and then try to get a few hundred miles under the belt before pulling over, usually around 3.00 am as you are suggesting doing. I personally am very happy spending the night at the toll road service aire eg aire de Chateauvillain (near Chaumont), however, if I was to stop at an aire I wouldn't be worried about etiquette, vans pull in and out at all times of day and night, vans take up two slots, vans leave table and chairs out and generally do not worry about anybody else so unless you are particularly sensitive, just pull in.
Posted: 20 April 2020 7:26 AM Subject: RE: French Aires
It depends what you mean by “aires”...
Many ‘aires de camping-car’ in France just comprise a service-point (water,/waste emptying - free or pay) on a public car park and, although the service-point’s water can be shut off, it would be unreasonable to expect all such public car parks to be closed merely to prevent motorhomes stopping there.
This French article discussed closure of aires and campsites during the French ‘confinement’ period (evidently now continuing until at least 11 May 2020)
and certain sites in the Camping-Car Park (CCP) network are also still open for ‘confinement’ purposes.
The snag, of course, is that (as in the UK) there needs to be an acceptable reason in France for someone to be driving a vehicle during the lock-down period. So even if an ‘aire’ were open and the service-point fully operational, a motorcaravanner should not be driving to or from it unless there is a justifiable reason to do this.
Camping-Car Park offers a ‘certification’ document-file that a motorcaravanner can complete to provide justification for staying on a CCP ‘aire’
it might be worth knowing the background to his enquiry.
Pure speculation, but if Jim is still in Continental Europe and plans to travel in France (perhaps in order to return to the UK) these discussions may be useful
