tonyg3nwl Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Hi, I am awaiting the new France Passion list for 2009 and propose using it to provide overnight stops en route to med coast near Agde. We plan around 100 miles a day via Dover Calais avoiding Paris. Has anyone any route suggestions minimising motorway tolls as pound/euro rates have gone horribly wobbly. We need watering holes to empty and refill as well so any advice welcome. tonyg3nwl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sooty10 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Hi, our advice would be to take a book or two on the aires. We have never had much luck finding the France Passion stops but you will find many more aires. Most aires you will be able to top up and dump and many are open in winter. Some have the water turned off but I am sure you will find plenty. If you have a sat nav. you can download them on and it will take you right to the spot (most of the time). Hope this is some use and have fun and stay safe. Sooty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Do France Passion stops have any facilities other than the occasional tap you can use? Aires as a general rule have some faciltiies, or they are generally nearby, but I don't think the France Passion ones have as they are many a time someones back-yard, field etc and from what I've heard not always that easy to find or accessible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 A tiny number of France Passion sites do offer full 'aire de services' facilities (fresh water + waste-water/toilet emptying). The FP booklet does indicate for each site what (if anything) is available (water, rubbish-bin, toilet, etc.), but I never rely on this information. I find it much simpler to assume that I shall need to be autonomous as far as the motorhome is concerned and do my 'servicing' at aires de services or at campsites. Accessibility to FP sites should be OK as long as your motorhome isn't vast, though it's wise to heed any warnings in the FP booklet about steep approaches, single-track roads, etc. Some FP sites can indeed be beggars to find and, although I don't think I've ever failed to find the one I was looking for, there have been occasions when it's taken ages to do this, lots of wrong turnings and (when I finally arrived) I've sometimes wondered why I bothered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickydicky Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 hi tony, why don't you buy "all the aires france". i have just received mine and it looks superb, just the job for the quick overnight stop, and maybe water and waste points if needed.looks like there are plenty of aires to choose from as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 I notice the above replies suggest where to find places to stop, but not how to get to them. 100 miles per day is nice, relaxed, travelling, so if you are wanting a nice, relaxed, journey overall, I'd suggest getting a copy of the 2009 Michelin France map at 1:1,000,000 scale as a general route planning tool (Map 721, National). You'll find this depicts the road network clearly, divided between "motorways and dual carriageways" (red/yellow and red/white on map), "international and national roads" (red on map), "interregional and less congested roads" (yellow on map) and other roads (white on map). The trick, from years of experience - and it still works - is to construct your route using, so far as possible, just the yellow roads. You do need to pay a little attention to the road widths, mainly to avoid roads classified as one lane wide. However, as a generalisation, French roads are fairly wide so even the one lane roads are not necessarily so bad as that description may lead you to imagine. The rider to that comment is that the criteria for classification seem not to be consistent throughout France, although they are reasonably consistent within the regions. Thus, roads in the upland regions are generally a bit narrower for the same classification than roads in the lowland regions. It is, therefore, wise to absolutely avoid single track roads in upland areas, but just to treat them with a bit of caution elsewhere. When you've mapped out the route, either transfer to the 1:300,000 scale road atlas, or your sat nav, for actual navigation. Doing this, you will generally encounter little traffic, passing through the rural heart of the country, including its country towns and villages. You will not travel fast, but will maintain reasonable progress, and will be continually amused and intrigued by the sights you see as you go. Most of the time you will also be able to look at the scenery as you drive, and point out to each other things as you go. The roads are generally in excellent condition, are well marked, and well signposted. The main caution I would give you, is to be constantly aware of the famous "priorite a droite". As a general rule, this has now been superseded on through routes, where road priorities are clearly indicated at junctions. In the towns and villages, however, whereas this is also generally true, there are still a few, scattered here and there, where there are no indicated priorities at any of the junctions. In these cases the priority will favour traffic coming from your right, even sometimes at roundabouts, and the French don't ask first - the obligation to give way is absolute!!Final point; speed limits. In the absence of any other indication, when you pass a town or village name board you automatically enter the 50KPH speed limit zone, which extends right up to the end of town/village board (The town/village name with a diagonal line through it.). Otherwise, unless otherwise indicated, 90KPH on all two lane roads, 110KPH on dual carriageways and non-toll autoroutes, and 130KPH on toll autoroutes. Be aware that dual carriageway roads without a central reservation (i.e. just painted carriageway divisions), and all variations on three lane roads, are restricted to 90KPH. Lower limits apply when wet/poor visibility. The French tend to strictly observe these limits, the French police hide with radar guns, there are quite a lot of "Gatsos" (mainly on main roads around towns), and the French still flash you when you are approaching a speed trap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyg3nwl Posted January 28, 2009 Author Share Posted January 28, 2009 Hi Everyone, Thanks for all the suggestions. We have purchased "all the Aires" book and I have been spending time adding the map references to the Mio satnav. Having ploughed through several hundred entries, I then discovered a download site which had references for ACSI sites as well. I have merged the files and now have over 2000 map references stored on satnav.. From the "aires"book I have the Northern France, Normandy,Centre,Limousin/Auvergne,Mediterranean, and Midi-Pyrenees data entered, and one or 2 others from adjacent regions close to our route. The files are in csv format for the technical readers. Unfortunatley, the Aires book doesnt contain "all" the aires, for example the one at Gannat, or the one at Aurillac both of which I used several years ago. I expect that there are many others missing as well, so the title is a bit misleading. Nevertheless it has a lot, and hopefully they might produce a downloadable map ref file or cd in the future . I also have the Michelin France 1-200000 bookmap of France, which is used frequently when the satnav fails Hopefully, we should be able to well and truly lost en route later in the year with all the available info and still be able to enjoy our trip. Roll on holiday time ! tonyg3nwl@btinternet.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Just one small addition to Brian's last post about the 50kph in towns and villages. As he points out this speed limit is not always signed but it actually only applies when the town's name is printed in red. If the board is black with white writing on it there is no 50kph restriction. Strange because these are often very small villages, hamlets really, often without any pavements or front gardens and their doors open directly on to the carriageway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Patricia - 2009-01-28 8:31 PM Just one small addition to Brian's last post about the 50kph in towns and villages. As he points out this speed limit is not always signed but it actually only applies when the town's name is printed in red. If the board is black with white writing on it there is no 50kph restriction. Strange because these are often very small villages, hamlets really, often without any pavements or front gardens and their doors open directly on to the carriageway. Well, you learn something every day, thanks Patricia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porky Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 tonyg which site is that you used to download the ACSI sites? Porky well fed and happy and looking forward to France 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyg3nwl Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 You asked where did I find ACSI download. Sorry , cant remember but just did google search for acsi downloads and several sites popped up. I had to fiddle around with microsoft word and ms spreadsheet to merge the files and produce one in csv format. Word will read them, but wont save in csv... the only way I found to save as csv was from the spreadsheet, but editing in spreadsheet was a pain in the neck, so much back and forth editing and saving to get files all merged. All end result now stowed and working on Mio satnav and the poi loader converts csv files to a google earth compatible file on the Mio, but cant convert back.. tonyg3nwl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cronkle Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Porky - 2009-01-29 12:34 PM tonyg which site is that you used to download the ACSI sites? Porky well fed and happy and looking forward to France 2009 would this be the site that you are looking for: http://www.eurocampings.co.uk/en/gps-coordinates/l2-n1042/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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