Aire of the Year 2013

[pepe63xnotuse]

Fairs dos...that sounds great.. ;-)

(..we're still at the stage where we're constrained by work/lack of annual leave, so the few days away at a time that we manage to grab, tend to be "targeted"... :-S )

 

..and I can see how proper "wild-camping", like you carry out, would lend itself to moving on frequently... ;-)

[Retread24800]

pepe63 - 2013-09-19 4:56 PM

Retread24800 - 2013-09-19 10:27 AM Always think that  should I  ever spend Lunch in the same spot where I had breakfast then I would become a caravanner..

So...are you honestly telling us that you've never had those two meals, whilst "pitched" at the same location..? 8-) ...if so, you must be really lousy at making decisions when it come to choosing somewhere to pitch up.. :D (...you must also spend a shed load on diesel... ;-) )

 

I choose a region to explore, toward the end of the day I look at my sat nag and choose somewhere to stay on the route to my next destination. The concept of pitching up is foreign to the raison d'etre of a motor home, its transport plus living accommodation in one ?

 Shed load of Diesel, well if I returned to the same spot after exploring a region I suppose you would use a shed load, on return mileage, but if you explore in a logical progression so that you do not retrace your steps then no.

 

[pepe63xnotuse]

If I/we found somewhere nice, we'd probably want to stay and chill there for a day or two.. :-D

..besides, I don't think I'd have the energy to be moving on to somewhere new, every single day... (lol)

[crinklystarfish]

crinklystarfish - 2013-09-19 1:37 PM

 

Retread24800 - 2013-09-19 10:27 AM

 

Poor old Crinkley, has yet to discover that the destination is the area he is visiting, the place where his M/H is parked overnight is just that a parking space. Always think that  should I  ever spend Lunch in the same spot where I had breakfast then I would become a caravanner.

 

 

Sorry fella, you lost me. I haven't a clue what you are trying to say. I suspect I am not alone.

 

Retread, still not getting what you were trying to get at.

 

Though we move on every day with only very few exceptions (last stayed in the same place for two nights running in 2007) I wouldn't necessarily advocate it.

 

There's also much to be said for kicking back and napping the day away on a formal site, or pottering from aire to aire and soaking in the local attractions. Depends on what people like to do.

 

Please advise if I'm choosing to spend my leisure time in a manner that doesn't meet with your approval. I'd be happy to sell the truck and buy a caravan if you think that would be better for us.

[bigal55]

crinklystarfish - 2013-09-19 4:29 PM

 

Pepe,

 

Not long since back from 4 week tour that took in Ukraine. Can honestly say that every single breakfast and lunch was in a different location. Stayed in mostly cracking spots, most well and.truly out amongst nature and away from people. None of them were on any kind of formal site. Went to 2 stellplatz whilst traversing Germany but they both sucked so found better informal overnighting spots nearby.

 

Not saying this style of travel is better or worse than any other but we wouldn't have it any other way. Even when we've parked up for the night we will often keep exploring by pushbike / running / walking.

 

Lots to see, not much time to see it...

 

crinkly so why not share the info with us as r&j do, where did u stay was it good or bad, aqlswo what uk sites / cl,s etc do you recommened

[crinklystarfish]

Hi Al,

 

Good overnighting spots off formal sites (ie rough camping / wild camping / boondocking - call it what you will) are a very personal thing. We prefer utter tranquillity, some potential for wildlife encounters, and to be out in the relative wilderness away from centres of human population. For this reason we hardly ever use sites, aires, CLs, or any other kind of place specifically designed to cater for 'camping'. I realise that many people aren't taken by our kind of preferred experience and may well hate our favourites.

 

I'm sure you'll appreciate that sharing our database of good spots could be kind of counter-productive.

 

Happy to share the ones that turned out to suck though (about 1 in 10 usually) ;-)

[Brian Kirby]

JudgeMental - 2013-09-18 11:00 PM

 

Sounds all a bit Frenchey to me......Dam! your eyes SIR!! *-)

On the basis that this thread has drifted a bit, and because it made me laugh, I wanna tell you a slightly OT story!

 

The location is a campsite in Alsace. The scene is ten motorhome specific pitches, in two facing rows of five, the two rows separated by a mixed hedge. The actors are two Germans, one Englishman, and various Frenchmen who are merely "noises off". Seven walk on parts are played by other motorhomers of various nationalities.

 

The ten pitches share two "bornes", one equipped with four electric sockets, the other with six. The bornes are in the dividing hedge, and are accessible from both sides, located so as to serve two pitches each side of the hedge in the former case, and three each side of the hedge in the latter.

 

When the curtain rises the Englishman, and the seven walk on players, are present on eight of the pitches, in motorhomes.

 

Enter German 1, stage right. He parks his motorhome in one of the six pitches served by the borne with six sockets, but sees only the borne with four sockets, to which he connects.

 

After a pause, enter German 2, also stage right. He parks his motorhome on the one remaining pitch in the group served by the bourne with four sockets. Examining the bourne carefully, he determines that there are but four sockets, all of which are in use. He appears generally confused, and disappears into his van. Sometime later he re-emerges, examines the borne again, and converses with one of the walk on part players, who also happens to be German. He is seen gesticulating toward the borne. He then disappears again. Later again, he is seen talking to another walk on part player, also German, again gesticulating at the borne.

 

The Englishman has observed this, and exits his van to verify that the borne with six sockets has, in fact, one unused socket. It has. He then approaches German 2, and explains that German 1 has, inadvertently, connected his motorhome to the wrong borne, because he did not see the correct one when he arrived. He shows German 2 the free socket, but it is too far from his van to be able to connect.

 

German 2 initially looks perplexed, then says he'll disconnect German 1's van and re-connect it to the free socket. The Englishman suggests that he ask German 1 before doing so, as the supply may be in use. Looking nervous, German 2 follows this advice. German 1 turns out to be a friendly, helpful, lady, who apologises for their error and immediately agrees to let German 2 disconnect are re-connect their hook-up cable. Thus emboldened, German 2 proceeds to do this, so liberating a socket on "his" borne, to which he connects his van.

 

Having done this, he turns to the Englishman, hurrumphs, says "typically French", and disappears back into his van! :-D

[Retread24800]

crinklystarfish - 2013-09-19 9:44 PM

crinklystarfish - 2013-09-19 1:37 PM

Retread24800 - 2013-09-19 10:27 AMPoor old Crinkley, has yet to discover that the destination is the area he is visiting, the place where his M/H is parked overnight is just that a parking space. Always think that  should I  ever spend Lunch in the same spot where I had breakfast then I would become a caravanner.

Sorry fella, you lost me. I haven't a clue what you are trying to say. I suspect I am not alone.

Retread, still not getting what you were trying to get at.Though we move on every day with only very few exceptions (last stayed in the same place for two nights running in 2007) I wouldn't necessarily advocate it.There's also much to be said for kicking back and napping the day away on a formal site, or pottering from aire to aire and soaking in the local attractions. Depends on what people like to do.Please advise if I'm choosing to spend my leisure time in a manner that doesn't meet with your approval. I'd be happy to sell the truck and buy a caravan if you think that would be better for us.

Nope not getting drawn into a cock fight over this.  :-)

 

[Guest JudgeMental]

Brian Kirby - 2013-09-19 10:59 PM

 

JudgeMental - 2013-09-18 11:00 PM

 

Sounds all a bit Frenchey to me......Dam! your eyes SIR!! *-)

On the basis that this thread has drifted a bit, and because it made me laugh, I wanna tell you a slightly OT story!

 

The location is a campsite in Alsace. The scene is ten motorhome specific pitches, in two facing rows of five, the two rows separated by a mixed hedge. The actors are two Germans, one Englishman, and various Frenchmen who are merely "noises off". Seven walk on parts are played by other motorhomers of various nationalities.

 

The ten pitches share two "bornes", one equipped with four electric sockets, the other with six. The bornes are in the dividing hedge, and are accessible from both sides, located so as to serve two pitches each side of the hedge in the former case, and three each side of the hedge in the latter.

 

When the curtain rises the Englishman, and the seven walk on players, are present on eight of the pitches, in motorhomes.

 

Enter German 1, stage right. He parks his motorhome in one of the six pitches served by the borne with six sockets, but sees only the borne with four sockets, to which he connects.

 

After a pause, enter German 2, also stage right. He parks his motorhome on the one remaining pitch in the group served by the bourne with four sockets. Examining the bourne carefully, he determines that there are but four sockets, all of which are in use. He appears generally confused, and disappears into his van. Sometime later he re-emerges, examines the borne again, and converses with one of the walk on part players, who also happens to be German. He is seen gesticulating toward the borne. He then disappears again. Later again, he is seen talking to another walk on part player, also German, again gesticulating at the borne.

 

The Englishman has observed this, and exits his van to verify that the borne with six sockets has, in fact, one unused socket. It has. He then approaches German 2, and explains that German 1 has, inadvertently, connected his motorhome to the wrong borne, because he did not see the correct one when he arrived. He shows German 2 the free socket, but it is too far from his van to be able to connect.

 

German 2 initially looks perplexed, then says he'll disconnect German 1's van and re-connect it to the free socket. The Englishman suggests that he ask German 1 before doing so, as the supply may be in use. Looking nervous, German 2 follows this advice. German 1 turns out to be a friendly, helpful, lady, who apologises for their error and immediately agrees to let German 2 disconnect are re-connect their hook-up cable. Thus emboldened, German 2 proceeds to do this, so liberating a socket on "his" borne, to which he connects his van.

 

Having done this, he turns to the Englishman, hurrumphs, says "typically French", and disappears back into his van! :-D

 

I really enjoyed the Alsace this summer 35 deg + and cheap as chips camping.... OK back to story..I'm not going to top yours but in a similar vein re the delights of car park camping... .. last year on way to Spain we stopped at busy Biarritz aire in awful weather, no spare socket available, so my German neighbour was wondering about and I asked if i could share his socket brandishing my 3 way connector in his face..much agreeable gesticulation forthcoming, so I connected (moi always has two leads and T connector and every adapter under the sun) his wife must have disproved, wanted to run a washing machine or other such bloomin nonsense, so they frantically start to run around, packed up and moved to another spot that had appeared....very odd! Maybe I was wrong and they were french... :D

[crinklystarfish]

Retread24800 - 2013-09-19 11:33 PM

 

crinklystarfish - 2013-09-19 1:37 PM

Retread24800 - 2013-09-19 10:27 AMPoor old Crinkley, has yet to discover that the destination is the area he is visiting, the place where his M/H is parked overnight is just that a parking space. Always think that  should I  ever spend Lunch in the same spot where I had breakfast then I would become a caravanner.

Sorry fella, you lost me. I haven't a clue what you are trying to say. I suspect I am not alone.

 

Nope not getting drawn into a cock fight over this.  :-)

 

Hmmm, not so much 'drawn-in' as strutting around with feathers puffed out in the first place.

 

It's one thing to describe the (very personal) rewards of a particular way of using a motorhome but another thing entirely to adopt a lofty air and to be so condescending.

 

The former might inspire, the latter just irritates. It irritates even more when it is simply based on assumptions. You clearly had no idea of our preferred style of travel when you sought to force your 'wisdom' upon us.

 

You spouted horsesh*t sir.

 

Anyway, looking forward to R&Js' more detailed response as the kind of aires I asked them about seem to crop up - for me at least - only rarely. I've visited many dozens over the years but mainly just kept on driving.

 

That said we do usually seek to fully engage with our stopovers so have high demands of them. We rarely view stopovers as simply a place to sleep.

 

In France at least we are almost always able to find a place more tranquil, pretty, and far less crowded than the nearest aire, as do, it seems, many of the Frenchies themselves.

[crinklystarfish]

Double post.

[Derek Uzzell]

crinklystarfish - 2013-09-20 10:25 AM

 

...Anyway, looking forward to R&Js' more detailed response as the kind of aires I asked them about seem to crop up - for me at least - only rarely. I've visited many dozens over the years but mainly just kept on driving....

 

I'm doubtful that it's realistic for anywhere officially approved for motorhome parking can be guaranteed to satisfy all 4 criteria that you specified

 

Quiet both day and night

Spacious

Pleasant view / pretty surroundings

No irritating fellow 'campers' (dogs / telly / radio / late night chatter / etc)

 

The aire at Lurcy-Levis

 

http://www.campingcar-infos.com/Francais/airepda.php?numid=5372&Localit%E9=LURCY%20L%C9VIS

 

http://www.i-campingcar.fr/aire.php?ville=LURCY%20LEVIS

 

http://www.mairie-lurcy-levis.fr/divers/plan-deau.html

 

is spacious, has pleasant views and pretty surroundings and can be quiet for a day and/or an overnight stay. But there's no certainty that the location will always be quiet, nor that other motorcaravanners won't be noisy. The July 2013 comment on the campingcar-infos entry mentions lots of overnight noise (though not who, or what, caused this), while other comments say the opposite.

 

I came across this website in passing

 

http://aires-campingcars.monsite-orange.fr/

 

It's got all kinds of links on it, including this one that was new to me

 

http://www.campedansmonjardin.com/

[Retread24800]

Another source, but with the world worst Web-site, is here:- http://www.gamping.com/?lang=fr 

[robertandjean]

Crinckly, detailed response will be delayed a couple of weeks as have left stick with our main Aires data base on at home. But as we seem to have polar opposite requirements from Aires not sure one's we select as meeting your criteria will in reality be your choice, but we shall see. Just a thought,but have you considered joining the France Passion scheme? We are no longer members as we found many too remote and isolated and were almost always only van there, but might be just right for you.

Eddie, thanks for heads up 're aire at Hans-sur-Lease in Belgium, we are there now and it's very good. Visited caves, had nice meal in village and now making use of free WiFi in tourist office. Aire itself is in nice position with electricity etc for 7.50€ great value.

Anyone have any other Aires in Belgium they can recommend, have been to Brugge previously and will be back there next week end but suggestions for others would be good. Thanks in advance.