Camping Car Park.

[Ninian]

Hi,   To use the sites of the above, is it a requirement that you have to use their pacific card or can you just make use of your own credit card to pay.

[rayc]

I am not sure what a Pacific card is.

it is mandatory to purchase the PASS’ÉTAPES card, currently €5, and use it to obtain entry etc.

The card has / had to be recharged to pay for your stay. 

You can of course recharge the card with the amount to pay on the on site terminal using your credit card.

Something in the back of my mind is recently receiving an email from them  which I think said you could use your own CC to pay for the stay without recharging your card but I didn't keep it?

Edited January 22 by rayc

[Keithl]

6 minutes ago, rayc said:

I am not sure what a Pacific card is.

I think Ninian may have meant a 'specific' card?

[Kevjan]

I think you have to have there card and as already said you can top it up at the terminal at the sites you stay at. Kevin

[Derek Uzzell]

1 hour ago, rayc said:

....Something in the back of my mind is recently receiving an email from them  which I think said you could use your own CC to pay for the stay without recharging your card but I didn't keep it?

I have Camping-Car Park emails going back to 2021, but the only recent-ish email that I'm guessing you MIGHT be thinking of was on 12 December 2023 and titled "A new feature you’ve been waiting for!" and looked like this

The way the C-CP system works is clearly explained here

https://www.campingcarpark.com/en_GB/info/how-does-it-work

As rayc said, it is mandatory to use a C-CP PASS'ETAPES card for a motorhome to enter a CC-P area and to subsequently exit that area. One's C-CP account must have sufficient credit on it to cover the cost of the visit and the account's credit-balance can be topped-up via the C-CP website or via the area's terminal.

Entering a C-CP area without already having a large enough account balance to cover the cost of the visit carries a (probably small nowadays) risk. I remember staying on the C-CP area at Carentan in north Normandy on a Sunday some years As we walked into town an old French-registered Hymer motorhome was attempting to leave the C-CP area, and when we returned half-an-hour later the Hymer was still attempting to leave. The C-CP area's terminal was allowing entry using the PASS'ETAPES card and allowing exit using the card provided that one's account-balance was sufficient to cover the cost of your stay, but the terminal was not permitting topping-up of account balances (there was a notice stuck to the terminal warning of this limitation, but it was small and easily overlooked). Wi-fi was non-existent and mobile-phone coverage patchy. How we laughed...

[Solwaybuggier]

We did have this problem on a CCP a few years ago , the payment terminal was not working.  It wasn’t a problem, we rang the helpline and they topped us up on the phone.  But as Derek has said it may have been more difficult if there was no phone reception.

[Derek Uzzell]

I've just looked at my C-CP account and the Carentan incident I mentioned above was in July 2018 when the C-CP network was significantly smaller and the equipment at areas was less sophisticated and less well maintained.

[witzend]

Get the card delivered to your home address you'll have it then no worries when you travel We use them often for winter (EHU for heating). We top up card on line  once we are ready to leave the aire

[Tracker]

We used to enjoy a highly nomadic touring style, never prebooking, just wandering in a semi planned general direction, stopping as and when we were inclined, but of course always at the mercy of pitch availability.

That said, we rarely found it an issue and we soon learned that if we particularly wanted to be somewhere very popular it paid to arrive mid morning rather than later in the day.

If that failed it was rarely an issue finding an alternative not too far away and as long as lat & long were accurate navigating was usually easy enough.

CCP looks, on the surface, to be another version of the same solution, but with prebooking 'suggested' and access and departure limited by cards and machines - neither of which are infallible.

Am I missing something here please,  as so far I don't quite see any advantage to an 'All the Aires' or 'Camperstop' book that has no restrictions?

[Derek Uzzell]

The background to Camping-Car Park (C-CP) is explained here

https://pro.campingcarpark.com/en/our-story/

There's been a good deal of discussion about the scheme on the O&AL forums and this is a 2013 thread (when the C-CP network was small)

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/topic/31179-camping-car-parks/

Initially there was a lot of criticism of C-CP from French motorhome owners who believed that historic no-charge 'aires' would disappear. In practice, although the number of C-CP sites has grown significantly since 2011, the French aires network is still extensive.

 

[Tracker]

I do recall using an Aire within a car park some years ago somewhere in the South East of France where there was a barrier entrance that was open as we drove in but closed behind us.

Others came and went using a card which I just assumed was a normal credit cards but when we tried to leave the machine would not accept any of our several UK cards that we carried at that time to try to avoid any more cock ups, which were in themselves  not unusual at that time.

Eventually a kindly French Camping Carist used his card to let us out and I gave him the cash - and a warm 'merci'. 

It put us off using any Aire or car park with barriers ever again and after all these years I now wonder if we may have fallen foul of the early days of this type of scheme?

Over several years we did get used to seeing people - the French in particular - avoiding paying for an Aire so I guess those elements of the Camping Car community has brought this on all users?

[mtravel]

We have been members since 2018.

Used about ten times on our trips to France.

I find them very comfortable, typically well maintained and very reasonably priced.

In one case (Mèze, France) we found the payment system out of order but the bar was raised. We slept for free.

Obtaining the card is simple (multilingual instructions). I think it costs five euros and never expires.

There is no need to have a credit loaded in advance.

When we arrive we insert the card, load the exact amount requested, insert the credit card and that's it.

More comfortable than this...

Reservations. We never book (so we don't have the Pro option, which is necessary to do so) but we have never found the areas full.

But it all depends on the season.

For example, at the end of December the one in Béziers (owned by Airepark and not Campincarpark) was.

We moved to the Campingacarpark one in Port-la-Nouvelle.

Max

p.s. In the south of France, from Marseille to the Spanish border, I advise against wildcamping, as there is too much risk of break-ins and thefts. Even while you are sleeping. Tested it myself and I guarantee that it is not very pleasant to be woken up in the middle of the night and find a thief on board.

[Tracker]

5 hours ago, mtravel said:

Obtaining the card is simple (multilingual instructions). I think it costs five euros and never expires.

 

There is no need to have a credit loaded in advance.

When we arrive we insert the card, load the exact amount

Thanks, that's really helpful, practical experiences are always very handy.

In that case for the sake of a few Euros as a nomadic wanderer with destinations unknown it's probably well worth having the card in your wallet even if it never gets used.

Belts and braces and all that chaps!!

[Ninian]

Hi,    Thanks for all of the replies, they have been very helpful.

[TeamRienza]

If you download the ccp app (free), it has the useful feature that it shows pitch availability in real time on each of their network of Aires.

Over the last couple of years they have begun to expand into running municipal campsites. These are open to Motorhomes 365 days of the year, but in summer they are open to caravans too as in season they open the toilet blocks, so showers are available too. This aspect of their network is called camping a mon village.

Davy

[flyboyprowler]

It is worth noting that it appears the system knows how many spaces are in the park. However on one occasion last year we arrived at a CCP site which "had " (according to the website) three spaces available but thanks to bad parking there were none. It was gravel so no marked spots, and annoying not to get an expected slot after a long days drive!

[Derek Uzzell]

The Camping-Car Park website shows the designated number of emplacements for each C-CP site and how many emplacements are available at any one time. But how the latter figure will be obtained will be based on the usage of the CC-P card (essentially counting the number of vehicles entering and leaving the site).

Many C-CP sites do not have rigidly delimited emplacements, so if (say) a site has 15 designated emplacements and the 'card count' indicates that 12 vehicles are currently on the site, in principle 3 emplacements should still be available. But if the vehicles are inconsiderately parked (as you found out) there may, in fact, be no space for further vehicles. Unfortunately there's no answer to this, unless C-CP starts to use military drones to annihilate the offending motorhomes.

[mtravel]

10 hours ago, flyboyprowler said:

... on one occasion last year we arrived at a CCP site which "had " (according to the website) three spaces available but thanks to bad parking there were none. ...

In such a case I would not have hesitated to call the telephone number which is always clearly displayed.

And in the absence of a response or solution I would have left a heavily negative feedback.

[GandJP]

We travel all over France and have never found an aire to be a problem for anything, apart from the winter months when water is usually turned off, we have never found one closed unless it is for good or because of roadworks or similar. We do pay occasionally but rarely and have had 12 fantastic years touring the country almost totaly free. As to other countries we have only used campsites and even then rarely so its France I know best. I recall one aire being out of action due to a bycicle race so we just drove to the next one a few miles away and another due to some road works. When we have used a C-CP site we have always thought of them really good sites and so easy to use. The card is acquired at the site, not sure they will send it to you and like it has been said if there is a problem they sort it on the spot. The telephone reception or wifi strength has not been an issue and doubt any of their sites have an issue either. We did see an issue with a payment for another motorhomer and spoke to the office on their behalf on their machine and not our phone, they spoke good English anyway. We usually use the one in St Paul Gaultier as the aire in Fresnay Sur Sarthe has closed but its always a pleasure to go to there and up the road there is a small but really good supermarket. A lake is there so if fishing is your thing then fish away, as far as I know it's free. When did you last hear that word in this country? As to the rude folk that parked badly then that is just life I am afraid, the world is full of shit like them! 

Edited January 25 by GandJP

[aandy]

"And in the absence of a response or solution I would have left a heavily negative feedback."

I'm not sure quite what is meant by "heavily negative", but why not simply leave constructive feedback highlighting the fact that the system is fallible as it cannot account for careless or selfish users?  I'm sure other users would find that more helpful.

[Derek Uzzell]

GandJP

Many of the Camping-Car Park sites are repurposed derelict municipal campsites or ‘aires’, and that’s the case with the C-CP site at Saint-Paul-le-Gaultier. 

We visited it years ago (a single night stay and the sole motorhome there) when it was a municipal ‘aire’ and before C-CP took responsibility for it, and - although some of the 220V hooks-ups were in working order - the water-point was derelict. The site was casually manned (or womanned to be exact) by a lady who visited in the morning and had an ‘office’ in the little white building near the site’s entrance: the charge was small. There was no supermarket there in those days  and nothing ‘commercial’ in the village itself. There were regular fishing competitions in the lake, but - If I remember correctly - to legally fish there required a local licence.

[mtravel]

2 hours ago, aandy said:

"And in the absence of a response or solution I would have left a heavily negative feedback."

I'm not sure quite what is meant by "heavily negative", but why not simply leave constructive feedback highlighting the fact that the system is fallible as it cannot account for careless or selfish users?  I'm sure other users would find that more helpful.

I do not agree. Camping Car Park is a private organization that charges for the services it offers.

If I have booked a pitch and when I arrive I find them all occupied or the site gives me free pitches and I have traveled kilometers to get there but I find imbeciles occupying them, I have the right to complain and ask that the situation be monitored.

Feedback is not only for the benefit of other users but must affect the quality of the service.

As already mentioned, I happened to find the payment and opening system broken and no electrical power to the EHUs. But that time the bar was open and having stayed overnight for free I didn't complain about the second inconvenience.

But if everything worked but the EHU didn't, I would have complained. After all, one of the reasons I choose (and pay for) their facilities is the EHU. In the winter to recharge the batteries, in the summer perhaps to use the air conditioner.

If it doesn't work it's a bad service I paid for.

[aandy]

We all have a right to complain about poor service, and I have said nothing to the contrary. In my view, however, complaints are best made in a constructive manner, focussing on facts and those issues the provider is responsible for or may be able to change. Some may believe leaving "heavily negative feedback" over an issue that is not the fault of the provider but of selfish and ignorant customers is constructive, I don't. 

That aside, a system listing vacant spaces is of limited use anyway. If you are close to the site you might just as well drive there and have a look, if not there's every chance they will have been filled by the time you get there.

[Derek Uzzell]

23 hours ago, aandy said:

...That aside, a system listing vacant spaces is of limited use anyway. If you are close to the site you might just as well drive there and have a look, if not there's every chance they will have been filled by the time you get there.

The C-CPs 'vacant spaces' system obviously has limitations and these will become particularly significant during the tourist high season. But the system has got to be better than nothing and, as the C-CP website includes photos of each site and a potential visitor should have a reasonably good idea of its popularity, a visitor should be able to make an educated guess at whether spaces are likely to be available on arrival.

For example, the C-CP site at Merlimont (Pas de Calais) is quite near the sea, has a 29-pitch occupancy and photos of the site show a tarmacked surface with no obvious pitch markings. At present the C-CP website shows 11 of the 29 pitches as available, so its probable that anyone heading towards the Merlimont site today would find space even if motorhome parking there were somewhat rough-and-ready. In summer, with the C-CP system showing (say) just 3 available pitches, the risk of finding no space on arrival at the Merlimont site would be much higher.

I'm guessing that the scenario that flyboyprowler mentioned is uncommon. A possible solution would be to rigidly delimit each pitch, but that would not be easy on a gravelled surface and unsightly on tarmac.

If one turns up on spec at a C-CP site that shows pitches available on the website and there's no room due to bad parking, it's going to be irritating. And it's going to be particularly annoying if one has booked a pitch in advance. In the latter case, the person who has booked is perfectly entitled to demand that the bad parkers move their vehicles and, if they refuse, they should contact C-CP immediately and report the problem. And, as each C-CP site has a user-review capability, this issue should be mentioned there.