Aires in France. How do we know?

[Guest bill h]

I have a list of Aires in France that was kindly emailed to me recently. They are in French and are on a very long list and not alphabetical. If I drive around enjoying the scenery and not on any particular designated route. How am I to know if the village or town I'm entering has an Aire. (To try and find the town from the list whilst driving would be impossible. Are they indicated at the town entrance with directions or do I have to just hope there's one here as its getting late? Do the Aires have electrics and how do we connect? Can we use the two pin multi plugs as we may use in a hotel when needing to boil water? bill h

[Guest Roy]

Hi Bill, Have a look at www.motorhomefacts.com. Under GUIDES you will find excellent information - 'Guide to Aires'. It tells you all you need to know.

[Guest martin]

Apart from the books obtainable all over France the definitive Europe wide source for information about Aires is: www.campingcar-infos.com The map is simple to follow and you don't need to be fluent french speakers to follow it. The CD version is cheap and updated every month - including the GPS coordinates. The motorhomefacts.com Aires Guide is not complete.

[Guest BillT]

Why not cut-and-paste your list into Excel, separate it into columns using the FIND and MID functions, and then you can sort it to your hearts content.

[Guest Ray]

If you purchase the aire de service guide book it has a pullout map with all of the aires marked on it. Look for a dot in the area that you are in and check the region number then names of towns alphabeticaly listed under that region number. On approaching the town look for the blue signs with a picture of a camping car and follow directions. As a last resort stop a local and point to the information in the book, this has always worked even though our French is almast non existant

[Guest bill h]

Thanks for all the info. Exel is a minefield (to me)and have avoided it so far !! No one has answered the electrics on site question. bill h

[Guest Norma]

About the electricty - a few aires do have electricity. Low amps. You will also find that people 'share' the points, hanging at least two cables from one point - via a splitter. Sometimes the 2 pin and sometimes the new blue 3 pin plug. (I only know that one as 16amp in the TV & Film world, no idea what it is in the travelling world!)

[Guest Brian Kirby]

Bill Not sure you've quite got the info you wanted. You can do all of the things suggested, but consulting a computer while driving isn't that easy either. What I think you need is one of two books (or possibly both), each published by either Camping Car magazine or its rival French magazine, Le Monde du Camping Car. Both are guides to Aires de Services Camping Car. The differences are fairly minor and both, being French publications aimed at the French are in, you've guessed, French. Both books come with a map showing the broad locations of all the aires and identifying them as falling into one of four recognised categories. Aires communual (council owned and run) or prive (private - a supermarket car park or other, probably commercial, premises (seems to be becoming popular with Intermarche supermarkets); aires on, ar immediately adjacent to, a campsite; aires on autoroutes (not to be confused with service stations or picnic spots on autoroutes - also, confusingly, called aires) that are designated for motorhome use; and finally aires on vinyards or farms (often with the opportunity to buy the produce). Some aires permit overnight parking, others do not, some allow stays of several days. A few are parking places only, but most have at least a dump station. It think it is fair to say the majority do have fresh water and many have also an electrical hook up. Some are totally free, even with free water and electricity (not many!). However, most will cahrge for these services. Charges vary, some as low as €2, some up to €10 or more. The charge generally relates to the service taken and not for the day/night stop. Many require the use of a token (jeton in French). The source of the tokens is given in the guide book and should be displayed on a notice at the aire. Often the tabacconists (tabac) newsagents (presse) or tourist office (bureau/office de tourisme). You do therefore need to arrive when these are likely to be open, or allow for not being to top up immediately on arrival. Remember most things shut Sunday/Monday, and often public holidays, in France. Where do you get the books? Maybe larger supermarkets among the magazines, probably newsagents, possibly motorhome dealers if you pass one. If you're using the Dover Calais route I know Calais Caravanes usually keeps both (shut Sunday and Monday and 12:00 to 14:00). Avenue Roger Salengro, Calais. From the port, taks the A16 towards Rouen, take exit 14, then head for the large Auchan and the channel tunnel terminal. Calais Caravanes is a Burstner dealer, on the left, opposite Fort Nieullay. The Auchan has a huge wine selection, and most is good stuff, so: Auchan first, that way you'll pass Calais Caravenes on your left heading for the Auchan and, when you leave, you'll be turned around and heading back the way you came to the A16 at junc 14. Then you'll therefore now find Calais Caravanes on your right, and you'll know roughly where it is. Park on forecourt, and you'll have a relatively easy right turn (with the book) on exit without the need to across two lanes of traffic. Oh, and they do (mostly) speak English. If you really can't face the Auchan there's a roundabout just outside where you can more easily turn or, if the traffic's not too heavy, you could turn left striaght onto Calais Caravanes's forecourt when you first spot them. However, it is a very busy road most of the time (heavy traffic rather than fast) so the roundabout may be quickest in the long run, even if a bit further. Good luck Brian

[Guest Brian Kirby]

Oh, I forgot. You'll need the standard two pin continental type electrical connection adapter obtainable from most UK camping/caravan/motorhome accessories stores as well as your round 15A three pin blue CEE connector. With both, you should be OK pretty much anywhere in France. Now all you'll need to know about is reversed polarity, very common in France! Regards Brian

[Guest Mel B]

Bill Make sure you get some sort of book giving you the location of the aires, the first time we went to France we didn't have one and despite reading a piece in a very popular mag that they were virtually in every village/town ... they weren't!!! We wasted a lot of time trying to find them and even in some of the villages that do have them they are not that easy to find. Before we went again we bought ourselves the 'Le Guide Officiel 2005 Aires de Services Camping-Car', it was an absolute God-send, we bought it through the French Passion website. The other book we bought was the condensed ACSI campsites book from the Peterborough motorhome show (I think!). Its a discounted camping 'club' a bit like Camping Cheques but you don't have to buy anything in advance and it is also cheaper as well. ACSI do 2 versions, the smaller one which gives a good selection of campsites in various European Countries and the much more comprehensive "Campingfuhrer Europa" book & CD/DVD (only in German I believe). With either of these you get a membership card which entitles you to low cost camping out of season on proper campsites and also reduced camping in high season at some sites. Note that some of the high seasons for campsites are quite short so you can still get low cost fees being charged in July and in some cases at the end of August! We used the smaller ACSI book extensively and found it to be excellent value. Cut and paste the following into your web browser's search field and you'll get a list of sites selling the books - make sure you get the 2006 version as the 2005 card won't be valid now. acsi campingfuehrer europa-2006 Electrics, you do need the plugs that Brian has mentioned and also the reversed polarity versions - do a search of the forum for this and you should get a few postings which will explain it a bit. Have fun!

[Guest Brian Kirby]

Bill, Mel Re ACSI: the 2006 ACSI guide book is available, in English, from: Suncamp holidays UK The Garden Cottage 3 Old Rectory Cottages Sherbourne CV35 8AB Tel: +44 (0)870 432 8226 Price: about £5.75 and lists 950 sites in 17 countries. The DVD, from the same address, is about £9 and lists 8400 camp sites in 25 countries. The DVD also incorporates a quite good route planner on which you can add your own waymarks. However, it does seem to use quite a lot of computer memory and does take quite a while to compute the routes. That apart it is excellent value. One word of warning: not all (I'd almost say not many of those listed on the DVD) the sites listed have signed up to the discount deal and of those that have the majority fall into the €14 per night bracket. he €12 and €10 are a bit rarer, the cheapest rarest! Still quite good value overall, though. ACSI is a Dutch organisation, so the sites listed will be likely to be favoured by the Dutch. Very nice people on the whole, but not always good camping neighbours. They do have a tendency to congregate together, and sit out long after everyone else has gone to bye byes, drinking and chatting, and to turn wherever they are into an outpost of Holland. When they're present en mass, your campsite, wherever in Europe it is located, does tend to become a bit of a Dutch colony. This can detract from getting the true "feel" of whichever country you happen to be in! For example, the French, on the whole, are quiet after 10pm but up relatively early. The Dutch, on the other hand, do tend to sit out chatting and chinking until after midnight, and are correspondingly late to rise. If you like to settle early and rise early, sociable Dutch neighbours can be a bit of a pain. Having said that, it can also be quite amusing observing the French (and others) deliberately being a bit noisy near their Dutch neighbours in the morning, just by way of retaliation! Not a specific criticism of the Dutch, though, just an observation on a trait that is common to a number of the other European tribes! The Brits do the same when in packs! It's all part of the fun. Hope this helps Brian

[Guest Mel B]

Thanks for the update Bill, I hadn't had chance to look for updated versions of the ACSI bumph properly. As for the Dutch, we stayed on a lovely site in south west-ish France last year and it was, as you say, a Dutch colony! However, they were very friendly, didn't stay up late and were most amusing when one of their bretheren accidentally tripped the site's electrics ... there were lots of them strutting about muttering to each other and playing merry hell with the "dwaas" - you'd have thought that someone had nicked all of the pickled herrings!!!