witzend Posted June 1, 2022 Share Posted June 1, 2022 Camping Car Parks are behind a lot of parking being barriered off to motorhomes see the link for full explanation https://www.motorhomingfrance.co.uk/post/stay-at-the-aire-or-move-on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted June 1, 2022 Share Posted June 1, 2022 Perhaps we sold our van and gave up touring France at the right time! Personally we would not be dictated to and would move on. It's not about freebies and avoiding payment, although it is a point, a point which French Motorhomers in particular seemed to take to heart! France is a lovely country but so too are Germany and Spain, and others and whilst I can see the reasoning behind the desire to curb some of the abuses of part of the motorhoming fraternity I do not see the desire to feed a greedy commercial entity as being one of them. Vote with your wheels and refuse to be bullied! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted June 1, 2022 Share Posted June 1, 2022 I would expect this practice to be declared illegal in due course, in the same way that earlier attempts at banning motorhomes from certain towns (especially along the Cote d'Azur!) or car parks was decreed illegal by the French government years ago. Ditto attempted restrictions at banning people from sleeping in vehicles. Motorhomes are vehicles in category M1, as are cars, so legally a motorhome is to be treated in the same way as a car: a four wheeled passenger carrying vehicle having seats for a driver and max 8 passengers. Legally, where a car can go, or stop, on public roads or municipal car parks, a motorhome can also go, or stop, subject only to prevailing weight, height, or width restrictions. What is not allowed is "camping" in those locations, defined as having an extended awning, or placing tables or chairs etc. outside the vehicle. Its only contact with the ground must be through its wheels. The earlier attempts at banning motorhomes were taken up with the French ministry of transport by the CLC and the FFACCC, and the major French motorhome mags, resulting in the decree that such restrictions on motorhomes alone within the M1 category were discriminatory, and therefore illegal. However, it remains legal to ban parking (any or all vehicles, in specified, categories) between certain times, or on grounds of height, width, length, or weight, or on privately owned land (e.g. supermarket car parks). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted June 1, 2022 Share Posted June 1, 2022 Fine in theory Brian, but try explaining that to a hacked off armed gendarme just doing as he is instructed at 2.00 am, always assuming either he speaks English or you speak French! Easier to go somewhere else! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted June 1, 2022 Share Posted June 1, 2022 Maybe not much comfort, Rich, but I doubt a gendarme would stoop to such depths! :-D Much more likely to be the police municipale, as it would only be a parking offence, and I don't think they often come out after dark! The earlier cases were subjected to legal challenge and a number of the municipalities who had introduced specific restrictions on camping cars were taken to court by the government, and instructed to allow our tanks to park on their lawns. As the main interest underlying these new restrictions is clearly the commercial interest of Camping Car Parks (whereas the earlier ones were on the, albeit spurious, ground of nuisance - basically that the camping cars made Menton etc. look untidy) I can't see this new wheeze lasting much beyond a month or so. In 2016, on our way back from Corsica, our ferry from Calvi was delayed several hours waiting to berth in Nice due to weather conditions (don't ask!!) and didn't dock until about 9:30pm - by which time all local campsites had long since closed. We were ushered off the ferry and directed immediately out of the port with no possible stopping, so I turned up the first reasonable street I could see and stopped in the first available parking place to do a bit of unexpected route planning. Faute de mieux, I selected an autoroute aire on the A8 near a place called Breguieres, and after half a lap of Nice in the dark, we arrived at the aire, ate, washed up, and prepared for bed. At about 01:30 we were awakened by knocking on the van door. I opened the door, still half asleep, to be confronted by a petite, gun-toting female gendarme, who advised, very apologetically, that there had been numerous robberies on that aire, and we should move to a safer, Geant supermarket parking area, where overnight parking was accepted. This was about 8 miles down the autoroute so, on the basis that one should never argue with lunatics or people with guns, off we went, arriving at the car park at about 1.45, and eventually getting back into bed at about just after 02:00! A good night, that was not, but not all gendarmes are hacked off and grumpy - even at 1.30am!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witzend Posted June 6, 2022 Author Share Posted June 6, 2022 Comité de Liaison du Camping-Car. https://www.univdl.com/category/reglementation/ Heres the link to the French response to the parking restrictions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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