europe

[toledo3]

as i am new tothis forum can some one tell me what aires and stellpiatz help

[sshortcircuit]

Use Google and type "aires france" and you will get plenty info

[vindiboy]

Hi and welcome to the forum, Aires are French, they are overnight [ and longer ] parking places for Motorhomes, often free to stay, some you pay for, they all have a place to empty your toilet , dump waste water, get drinking water, often the aire will have electric hook ups sometimes free , usually a waste bin for rubbish, they are provided by the local community and the hope is that you will spend some money in the local shops, but some Aires are in super locations, often in the centre of towns close to swimming pools and sports facilities , the parking can often be crowded , They are great to use and you will find people of all Nationalities on them, we all have our favourite Aires, you can buy books telling you where the Aires are and the books are available on line . Most will have GPS data in them making them easy to find, Stelplatzs are the same thing but are in Germany and are excellent too. Sostas are what they are called in Italy, all the same things just different names, try them they are great.

[cleo]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

We've just returned from a 6 month trip - France (used aires all the time no campsites :-D ), Spain - there are aires but we just used campsites, Portugal - like France spent 5 weeks wild camping and used aires brilliant 8-) (lol) (lol) (lol) .

 

Don't use the aires on MOTORWAYS - the aires books do tell you this otherwise go out there and ENJOY - I know we did. Brian and Chris

 

PS Our rig is a 34' american rv and we had no problems at all - just used commonsense. *-) *-)

[Tony Jones]

Welcome!

The word "aire" just means "area," and in our context there are two type to note:

 

Those on the motorways (sometimes "aire de repos," sometimes just "aire") are just daytime rest stops, sometime with facilities like our motorway service areas, sometimes without. It's perfectly legal to stay overnight on these, but just DON'T. You're easy prey to any passing thief (or worse).

 

Then there are "Aires de Service (or "stationnement") Camping-cars." These are the brilliant idea the French had, which other Continental countries are adopting gradually (not the UK of course). The ones which say "service" have at least fresh and waste water facilities, while "stationnement" simply offers parking - which in France includes sleeping, cooking etc INSIDE your vehicle.

 

Under French law, a motorhome is a CAR, and can park anywhere, and for any period, a car can. Furthermore, there are no restrictions on what you may do inside. However, if you put out furniture, hang washing, wind down corner steadies or use levelling blocks, you're "camping," which may be prohibited.