Corky 8 Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 On these cold dark evenings I spend a lot of time looking through the Aires books and online Aire web sites, Trying to find that elusive Gem of a Location to visit with just as nice Aire to Park on. Mainly in France , which still evades me , So I turn to you learned Fellow Travellers, what is your Favourite Place / Aire you like to visit when in France ,GPS coordinates would be a great help to Google earth it, a bit one sided as I don't have one to offer in return. We won't all be visiting the same place at the same time so don't let that put you off posting your,s . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 I guess it's what presses your button, Les Eyzies de Tayac, would be one of my top choices, lovely Aire, complete with your own picnic benches and table, riverside canoe hire, pretty and prehistoric village, peace and quiet. For something at the opposite end of the scale, maybe the city one at Metz, right on the river, next to a swimming pool, and the very nice city and riverside walks just a short stroll away, if the aire is full there is a good riverside site the opposite side of the fence ! ! ;-) We have loads of favourites, but the main reason for our usage is just the sheer ease of it all, enjoy. ;-) but always keep a sharp lookout for aire signs, in our experience many of the nicest ones have yet to be published ( Long on the Somme comes to mind ) before they become well known and well used, and also some lovely private ones we've often found, some that double up as France passion stops but are just as happy to take 5 euros for you to stop the night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertandjean Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 This is a hard one as we know many great Aires and nice places to visit but a few that you might like to try are: Trigance, in the Varr, great setting, village is a tourist stop in itself and near Gorges du Verdun. Carro, bouches de Rhone, right on sea front with local bus to martigues with famous view of reflected buildings in water. Gourdon, the Lot, well set out aire, nice town with history. St Pourcain sur Sioule,in the allier, really nice setting on river side, town nice to wander round plus bus to vichy. Lagrasse, in Aude, nice setting, lovely Provence style town Nersac, in Charente, again setting in village nice, and bus to Angouleme. Baume les Dames, nice setting, nice town, in Doubs Palavas les Flots, in Herault, gets a bit crowded but at Marian and easy for bus to Montpelier. St malo, aire les ilots, well set out and adjacent bus to city. Well that's some to get you started, for GPS use camping-car infos web site, but forget Google earth just go to these and other and enjoy motorhoming using the Aires! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 robertandjean - 2013-11-21 8:28 PM Trigance, St Pourcain sur Sioule The graveyard at Trigance is very interesting. Some of the memorials on the graves are really unusual. The parking is on quite a slope so we overnighted on a grass area about half a mile before the town. As for St Pourcain sur Sioule. It’s still a very pleasant aire but I can’t forgive them for felling those magnificent, mature weeping willows along the riverbank. :'( Cattwg :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 We like St Valery en Caux. It’s a pleasant stroll along the quay into the town. The aire overlooks the channel (‘Alabaster Coast’) and has an interesting pebble beach, interesting in as much as nearly every other pebble has a hole through it. This is a very popular aire and is often full. From memory the fee is €4 or €5 with an additional €2 for water. Cattwg :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 An aire that we discovered last year in Corre (dept 70, Haute-Saone) About 350mls SE of Calais. At the Marina. The individual hardstandings are separated with grass and have e.h.u. and a water tap. There’s a well designed dump point. €8 per night with showers available for €1 at the marina office - although we did not use them. It’s a pleasant canal-side walk into the village with its shops and Intermarché. The adjoining restaurant (aire and restaurant are owned by the same family) is pleasant and serves reasonably priced lunch time plate d’jour. Cattwg :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur49 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Cattwg - 2013-11-21 9:46 PM We like St Valery en Caux. It’s a pleasant stroll along the quay into the town. The aire overlooks the channel (‘Alabaster Coast’) and has an interesting pebble beach, interesting in as much as nearly every other pebble has a hole through it. This is a very popular aire and is often full. From memory the fee is €4 or €5 with an additional €2 for water. Cattwg :-D Agree this is nice Aire though you can be quite packed in. 5 euro + 20 cents per person when we were there Sept 2013. Services another 3.5 Euro. Because its so popular arrive early. We arrived 2pm and it was full. We hung around for 15 mins and got a space when someone departed so you might need to hover........ Arthur Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Well there you go, St Valery en Caux probably up there with my top 10 never to go to again Aires, all parked up side by side, nothing much of interest in the town, and a crappy beach, just goes to show we're all different........................... if that had have been our first experience of aires. it would probably have been our last. :-S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjmike Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 No surely one of the worst has to be the now closed aire at Calais. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easyliving Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 We have stayed on the aire at La Mailleraye Sur Seine (Normandy) several times, right on the edge of the Seine with great views and town with all you need just up the road. Easy drive from Calais too. Nantua (Rhone-Alps) is another nice one overlooking a large lake with mountains in the background. Stenay (Eastern France), another lovely riverside aire. A large, busy aire but with plenty of room. Very handy for local shops. Chamonix (Rhone-Alps). This is 'expensive' as aires go at 12 euros a night but its very handy if you want a cable car ride up the mountain. I've just been looking through some photos of our French trips, so many superb places to stay. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 I’m probably in a minority here as I have yet to find an Aire I really like - too choc-a-bloc and carparky for my taste. Maybe when I retire totally next year we'll have time to find some we like? So some ACSI or other sites here that we have enjoyed:- Mostly within walking or cycling distance of a village or town. FRANCE Millau Campsite Larribal avenue de Millau-Plage 12100 Millau France N 44°6'37" E 3°5'13" Grenoble Ser Sirant, Lac de Laffrey 38119 Petichet/St. Théoffrey France N 45°0'0" E 5°46'39" Sanary-sur-Mer Campasun Mas de Pierredon 652 chemin Raoul Coletta 83110 Sanary-sur-Mer France N 43°7'54" E 5°48'53" Brantome, Camping Brantôme Peyrelevade 46 avenue André Maurois 24310 Brantôme France N 45°21'39" E 0°39'37" Dordogne Campsite Les Deux Vallées La Gare 24220 Vézac France www.campingles2vallees.com N 44°50'8" E 1°9'30" GERMANY Buttelwoog Campsite Büttelwoog Am Campingplatz 1 66994 Dahn Germany N 49°8'39" E 7°46'4" Berchtesgaden Familien- AktivCamping Allweglehen Allweggasse 4 83471 Berchtesgaden Germany N 47°38'50" E 13°2'23" NETHERLANDS Amsterdam Gaasper Camping Amsterdam Loosdrechtdreef 7 1108 AZ Amsterdam-ZO Netherlands N 52°18'45" E 4°59'25" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan D Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 You should be easy to spot Corky, lets hope you have Esmeralda with you. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Easyliving - 2013-11-22 11:01 AM We have stayed on the aire at La Mailleraye Sur Seine (Normandy) several times, right on the edge of the Seine with great views and town with all you need just up the road. Easy drive from Calais too. Nantua (Rhone-Alps) is another nice one overlooking a large lake with mountains in the background. Stenay (Eastern France), another lovely riverside aire. A large, busy aire but with plenty of room. Very handy for local shops. Chamonix (Rhone-Alps). This is 'expensive' as aires go at 12 euros a night but its very handy if you want a cable car ride up the mountain. I've just been looking through some photos of our French trips, so many superb places to stay. Paul Paul that second photo will have Rupert123 laughing his socks off, and 12 Euros a night on a rammed car park is not what the OP, or many of us think of as a nice aire, a municipal at the same sort of money is a no brainer.....................unless you are there to ski...............but there doesn't look to be much snow when that picture was taken, besides he's looking for a "gem" not something right next door to a main road I wouldn't think (!) let's not feed the anti aire brigade eh. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 and me.....a car park next to an A road..how delightful! *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertandjean Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Yes stayed on all Aires mentioned, and would return to all except st Valerie, as not only is a"pass the salt please" style of aire(which does not really bother us) but the road in is narrow and if you meet another van coming out passing is very difficult. So given always very busy then do not think worth it. Agree Core, stenay and Nantua are all great Aires, although the latter is right on road side. For those wanting noe car park style Aires then of these Core is the best. Regarding Chamonix then we were there in August and yes it is a car park but right next to main cable car station and easy walk to town. It does get very full with day visitors most days, as picture shows but from late afternoon through till mid morning next day is only busy with vans, over a hundred some nights! Adjacent road is very quite at night and there are no sites within walking distance of town so for catching an early cable car or having an evening g meal in town aire scores well, but clearly not one of our favourites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 fjmike - 2013-11-22 10:42 AM No surely one of the worst has to be the now closed aire at Calais. We were at the Calais aires earlier this month and they were both open. Are you referring to the campsite? This is indeed closed and looks a bit like a building site. Cattwg :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur49 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 1footinthegrave - 2013-11-22 9:58 AM ... St Valery en Caux .......... nothing much of interest in the town. :-S Indeed its a good job we're all different. But when you are treated like a Lord at the Salle d'Ecosse by the Marie staff because your father was captured there after Dunkirk and spent 5 years as a 'Guest' of the Germans, the place has a different appeal? Arthur :-D (For those who may not know the 51st Highland Division and many others provided a rearguard action for Dunkirk and held Rommel and his army at bay until they were 'sacrified' further south and west. Rommels tanks/artillery were on the hill above the Aire shelling the town which is why the part of town is original - the guns could not reach the buildings under the hill) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 The thread is about "favourite French places / Aires, as you've explained the place would have been special for you, but for many lured by the promise in the "all the aires" book of "one of the best Aires in France I can only conclude the author was on an illegal substance like the bloke from the Co-op or hadn't done much of France ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 1footinthegrave - 2013-11-22 12:43 PM Easyliving - 2013-11-22 11:01 AM We have stayed on the aire at La Mailleraye Sur Seine (Normandy) several times, right on the edge of the Seine with great views and town with all you need just up the road. Easy drive from Calais too. Nantua (Rhone-Alps) is another nice one overlooking a large lake with mountains in the background. Stenay (Eastern France), another lovely riverside aire. A large, busy aire but with plenty of room. Very handy for local shops. Chamonix (Rhone-Alps). This is 'expensive' as aires go at 12 euros a night but its very handy if you want a cable car ride up the mountain. I've just been looking through some photos of our French trips, so many superb places to stay. Paul Paul that second photo will have Rupert123 laughing his socks off, and 12 Euros a night on a rammed car park is not what the OP, or many of us think of as a nice aire, a municipal at the same sort of money is a no brainer.....................unless you are there to ski...............but there doesn't look to be much snow when that picture was taken, besides he's looking for a "gem" not something right next door to a main road I wouldn't think (!) let's not feed the anti aire brigade eh. ;-) Yep your right their. The first picture is a good one as well, the Nantua aire is very firmly closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted November 22, 2013 Share Posted November 22, 2013 Yep, but your not right "their" ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted November 23, 2013 Share Posted November 23, 2013 1footinthegrave - 2013-11-22 9:36 PM Yep, but your not right "their" ;-) OK, not right there, school teacher are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertandjean Posted November 23, 2013 Share Posted November 23, 2013 rupert123 - 2013-11-22 8:40 PM 1footinthegrave - 2013-11-22 12:43 PM Easyliving - 2013-11-22 11:01 AM We have stayed on the aire at La Mailleraye Sur Seine (Normandy) several times, right on the edge of the Seine with great views and town with all you need just up the road. Easy drive from Calais too. Nantua (Rhone-Alps) is another nice one overlooking a large lake with mountains in the background. Stenay (Eastern France), another lovely riverside aire. A large, busy aire but with plenty of room. Very handy for local shops. Chamonix (Rhone-Alps). This is 'expensive' as aires go at 12 euros a night but its very handy if you want a cable car ride up the mountain. I've just been looking through some photos of our French trips, so many superb places to stay. Paul Paul that second photo will have Rupert123 laughing his socks off, and 12 Euros a night on a rammed car park is not what the OP, or many of us think of as a nice aire, a municipal at the same sort of money is a no brainer.....................unless you are there to ski...............but there doesn't look to be much snow when that picture was taken, besides he's looking for a "gem" not something right next door to a main road I wouldn't think (!) let's not feed the anti aire brigade eh. ;-) Yep your right their. The first picture is a good one as well, the Nantua aire is very firmly closed. Henri where did you get info from that Nantua aire is closed. Very much open when we passed in August, and no French web sites, including local tourist office, report closure; in fact reports dated late September indicate no problems. May well be water now turned off, due to weather conditions, or did reports refer to fact that aire moved to position shown in photo two or three years ago? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 robertandjean - 2013-11-23 1:35 PM rupert123 - 2013-11-22 8:40 PM 1footinthegrave - 2013-11-22 12:43 PM Easyliving - 2013-11-22 11:01 AM We have stayed on the aire at La Mailleraye Sur Seine (Normandy) several times, right on the edge of the Seine with great views and town with all you need just up the road. Easy drive from Calais too. Nantua (Rhone-Alps) is another nice one overlooking a large lake with mountains in the background. Stenay (Eastern France), another lovely riverside aire. A large, busy aire but with plenty of room. Very handy for local shops. Chamonix (Rhone-Alps). This is 'expensive' as aires go at 12 euros a night but its very handy if you want a cable car ride up the mountain. I've just been looking through some photos of our French trips, so many superb places to stay. Paul Paul that second photo will have Rupert123 laughing his socks off, and 12 Euros a night on a rammed car park is not what the OP, or many of us think of as a nice aire, a municipal at the same sort of money is a no brainer.....................unless you are there to ski...............but there doesn't look to be much snow when that picture was taken, besides he's looking for a "gem" not something right next door to a main road I wouldn't think (!) let's not feed the anti aire brigade eh. ;-) Yep your right their. The first picture is a good one as well, the Nantua aire is very firmly closed. Henri where did you get info from that Nantua aire is closed. Very much open when we passed in August, and no French web sites, including local tourist office, report closure; in fact reports dated late September indicate no problems. May well be water now turned off, due to weather conditions, or did reports refer to fact that aire moved to position shown in photo two or three years ago? Was their early October. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 1footinthegrave Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 Go to the bottom of the class, you must pay more attention boy............. you were "there" in October. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rupert123 Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 1footinthegrave - 2013-11-24 10:44 AM Go to the bottom of the class, you must pay more attention boy............. you were "there" in October. :D O deer I don it agin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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