Geoff Tuckley Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 Hello again, All Leaving late Oct to travel down through France to Spain for the winter. We are three vans together and the others want to travel on N Roads to keep the price down and stay on aires. None of us have done this before. I might be simple or something but I am having trouble finding good SAFE aires in the book and websites for our journey down. We will be using SatNav and want to avoid Paris at any cost. We are leaving Calais at approx 12 noon. Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated as this is now beginning to worry me a little in case we get stuck with nowhere to stop or have to stop on motorway aires which I have been warned are not safe. Help please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordThornber Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 Hi Geoff, there may be some on here of use to you, have a good trip. http://www.bdauncey.eclipse.co.uk/france.htm Martyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 I would consider most Aires safe? That is Aire du camping car, NOT motorway parking spots, which you are right to avoid. if you visit an aire and it does not feel right, then simply move on? there are loads of them http://airecampingcar.com/ there are large sections and complete motorways that are free, so you need to plan your route. also a sat nav with all the Aires downloaded to it makes life much easier. I would be on your guard around Spanish border and Barcelona area, as reports of scams and thieves around...dont stop for anyone? Above all enjoy the trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxy Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 hi geoff, I now take three days to get to benidorm, whereas we normally took 7 days + just meandering down through france, when we had had enough travelling for the day we just looked up the nearest aire in the french aire book.( Aires de services camping car) or look one up on route and head for that, but having done france for several years we just make a b line to our winter camping ground. We either stay overnight on the calais aire and start off in the morning or stay overnight near folkstone and catch an early train in the morning. Our fist stop is Ste maure-de-touraine. this aire is just off the main road running through the town, look for a sign on left on a building "aire de repos"the adress is Avenue GL de Gaulle. I believe there is a new one further along the road but not stayed on it. Our next stop is Laruns just in the foothills of the Pyrennees, beautiful spot. access is on the right just before the town centre. early morning start for climb over Pyrenees and on the new road which now by passes Zarragossa and down to join the free autopista north of Valencia, when reaching toll stage we now stay on until benidorm,as for the 10Euros its far easier than the normal road. If you want to take longer then invest in the aforesaid book or " all the aire in France" (both obtainable from Vacarious books. They have a website) and plan your journey accordingly. Most of all enjoy your journey of discovery. Foxy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod_vw Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 JudgeMental - 2010-10-03 2:03 PM I would consider most Aires safe? That is Aire du camping car, NOT motorway parking spots, which you are right to avoid. if you visit an aire and it does not feel right, then simply move on? there are loads of them http://airecampingcar.com/ there are large sections and complete motorways that are free, so you need to plan your route. also a sat nav with all the Aires downloaded to it makes life much easier. I would be on your guard around Spanish border and Barcelona area, as reports of scams and thieves around...dont stop for anyone? Above all enjoy the trip! I'll go with the comments above, we've used many Aires during two months wandering France this Summer without any problems at all. Unfortunately more and more are having some kind of charges levied but often only for water, waste disposal and electricity. I use POIs downloaded from http://www.archiescampings.eu/eng1/ along with Microsoft Autoroute (combined with a Bluetooth GPS receiver) for all our navigating. Added to that for a bit more detail on the individual Aires we carry a French Camping Car Aires book. If you have the luxury of forward planning why not use Google Earth, Google Maps or Bing Maps to examine the places that you may want to stop? Bing maps is interlinked with Autoroute but it's not quite as good as the Google offering for detailed pictures. As an example look at this link http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Catillon-sur-Sambre,+Nord,+Nord-Pas-de-Calais,+France&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=18.388688,39.418945&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Catillon-sur-Sambre,+Nord,+Nord-Pas-de-Calais,+France&ll=50.07888,3.64553&spn=0,0.009624&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=50.076347,3.646137&panoid=ariuWSshfSj1EYxM5xPXmw&cbp=12,115.63,,0,5 It's a four space Aire that many Britishers know well and if it's full there is a dedicated parking area for Camping Cars only a couple of hundred meters away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondo Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 We did a steady meander down to Spain last year in January and sort of wandered down the western(ish) side of France then cut across towards Carcassonne and crossed into Spain at La Jonquera..When we used the aires we never really felt vulnerable on any of the aires..as people say if it don't feel right move on Our route was::: Calais..Abbeyville..1st night on an aires in Buchy which was only a spit off the A28..Then on towards Evreaux..Dreaux..Chartres..Orleans.. Salbis..2nd night on an aires at Mery sur Cher..Then on towards Chateauroux..Limoges and 3rd night on an aires at Allassac near to the railway station (However that aire is a tad small for larger vans).then on past Brive La Gaillard..Cahors..Toulouse..Then we had a two night stay on a site at Alet les Bains which is run by an English couple (just to do the washing etc) then when we left there we headed towards Carcassonne then joined the A9/E15 towards Perpignan and down to the Spanish border ond on to Villa nova I la Geltru...A bit long winded I know but I hope this Helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 In our experience these are far and away the easiest to use and most accurate books of Aires that we have found with sat nav coordinates that work too it could not be easier. That said you might find some that are either closed or have no water in deep winter so it pays to find a spot before dark just in case what you need ain't there! http://www.vicarious-shop.com/home.php?cat=1 I just wish I were on commission! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Tuckley Posted October 5, 2010 Author Share Posted October 5, 2010 Thanks Everyone, Lord Thornber, Judge Mental, Foxy, Rod VW, Mondo and of course Tracker. Feel a bit better about the whole thing now. I suppose just a little apprehensive at first. Just to know that lots of people do it without problems is a great help in itself. I promise when we reach Spain and I get onto wifi, I shall post an item on here to tell you how silly I was for worrying and how we enjoyed it. P.S. When in Spain we are staying on sites only and they are already booked apart from a couple of weeks at the end of our stay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondo Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Geoff we were the same somewhat apprehensive about the trip to Spain..as it was the first time we'd done it and we didn't really know where we were going to end up at..we were actually thinking of Portugal but we never got that far..we just pointed the van south(ish). The only thing is a lot of the aires have the water turned off in winter but all of the ones we used were OK and all the facilities were available..At Buchy we got the jetons (tokens) from the Marie (Town Hall)..the aire at Mery sur Cher was a credit card entry..and the one at Allassac was free Above all Geoff (and friends in convoy) enjoy your trip and do let us know when you get to Spain and how you got there...Bon Voyage Mes Amis!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopesy Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 On our return this year via Calais we visited Cite Europe and went shopping in Carrefour, there i bought, for 10 euros, "Aires De Services camping Car" a green soft back book that comes with a map. Glove box sized and it's very easy to translate (even for moi). A good back up for sat nav pois and more entries than the Vicarious books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Geoff Tuckley - 2010-10-05 3:38 PM I promise when we reach Spain and I get onto wifi, I shall post an item on here to tell you how silly I was for worrying and how we enjoyed it. Thanks for those kind words Geoff - but you will never be classed as silly by most of us for taking sensible precautions before that huge leap of faith that going foreign usually entails! All that remains is to have a good safe trip and tell us all about it as and when you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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