French village / town Aires

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Willieboy

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Elddis coachbuilt
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10 years
Except for during Covid, we have travelled France in our motorhome for the last eight years, but have never had the courage to stay in a French village / town Aire. I’m not talking about motorway Aires, I’m aware of the potential problems on motorway Aires, they have been well documented by Funsters on this forum.

I know there are plenty of Funsters who do stay, and some who only stay in French Aires, and have only positive things to say about them. But I wondered if there were any negatives? Are French Aires safe? Can they be noisy? Maybe too congested? Are there any negatives with French village Aires?
 
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Negatives are that you mostly don’t get “your own area”. So often other will come and go and be close to you. This also can limit on outside area for sitting, cooking, sunbathing etc. But all aires are different some giving you space, grass, or even a designated area per user.

Since we tried an aire, we very rarely use campsites.
 
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We stay mainly on aires, throughout France, Spain, and Portugal. Some can be busy, but in the main, we have been satisfied.
There are some wonderful aires around. We use search for sites app, and park4night too. Never felt uneasy on any of them.
Only one in Spain kept my missus up most of the night, hearing a car creeping around every hour or so. When it got light she could see the car and it's markings, it was a security car. :doh:

Craig
 
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Good grief I can't believe you have been going to France and not using Aires, I am guessing you have not been wild camping so that leaves campsites really ;) as safe as any public space and that includes campsites, you will have less personal space than a campsite but the other side of that is that you might have nice neighbours that you talk to, we have just come back from 3 weeks on Aires and Stellplatz and we did a UK campsite for a couple of nights and the first thing I noticed was how insular the experience was without any near neighbours to talk to, negatives if you want these things would be no toilet/shower block, pool or whatever you value other than being close to a nice village that you can help stay open by spending a bit of money locally.

Go on be brave(y)
 
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One of the good things about Aires in France is.. if you arrive and you don’t like it, it doesn’t feel right or whatever, you usually don’t have far to travel before finding another one. We love them.

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We have got to the point now where we use nothing else, never have been into sites but we did use France passion quite a bit in the first couple of years and very good they are too but never where you exactly need them and can be expensive if you buy what they sell.
Must admit we don't tend to go at busy times but we have never had any bother finding a place and nearly always have a table and chairs out but not awnings and stuff.
Although I have been dead against them and still am in the long run but CCP are everywhere now and must admit they are a good start if you want to start using Aires.
 
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We use Aires all the time some really nice some very basic as said if you don't like it just move to the next. There was only one we didn't like because we had used it for year's when we arrived there were people living in caravans, before it was fully lit up with the village light's but now because of the cost of power (I can only assume) It was in total darkness no other motorhomes just the caravans so we just moved to the next aire about 15 miles down the road.
 
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We mix up aires, France Passion and campsites - they all have their own benefits and provide a nice variety.

The main advantages of aires are convenience: they tend to be just a very short walk from the town centre, you can arrive and leave at any time. And price: most of them are very cheap, or even free. Some are lovely, whereas others are basically a car park.

The main drawback is space....you don't tend to get a lot of space and in some of them you aren't really allowed to get your tables and chairs out.

Here's a selection of French aires we've stayed on in the past.....as you can see, no two are the same.

St Omer.jpg
Hatten.jpg
Azay-le-Rideau.jpg
Milly-la-Foret.jpg
Sees.jpg
Gruissan Plage.jpg
 
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This is one of our favourite aires at La Mailleraye sur Seine - €6.60 per night, restaurant very close by, bar, boulangerie & small supermarket in the village & nice walk along the river. Ships pass by constantly so it's a lovely spot to sit and watch the water world go by. It's a very quiet spot.
20220501_110056.jpg
 
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Don't believe all you hear about motorway service areas, we use them if it's convenient alongside stacks of lorries because of the RV's size.
In the holiday season you will find loads of motorhomes in them.

The only person I remember on here who was actually broken into on a service area was Geo, more people on here have had there motorhome stolen or broken into in UK.

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Willieboy said:
Except for during Covid, we have travelled France in our motorhome for the last eight years, but have never had the courage to stay in a French village / town Aire. I’m not talking about motorway Aires, I’m aware of the potential problems on motorway Aires, they have been well documented by Funsters on this forum.

I know there are plenty of Funsters who do stay, and some who only stay in French Aires, and have only positive things to say about them. But I wondered if there were any negatives? Are French Aires safe? Can they be noisy? Maybe too congested? Are there any negatives with French village Aires?
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Arm yourself with a copy of All the Aires France (find details on line) and you will not go wrong. Park4 Night is also useful. We only stay on Aires. Perfectly safe and usually friendly neighbors.
 
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I used to always get the All the Aires books, don't bother anymore, the apps are better and more up to date.
Campercontact, CAMPING-CAR-PARK and searchforsites all useful to name a few.

I find Aires normally WAY quieter than campsites, just because people tend to be more respectful of each other in close proximity. The old municiples are of course the best as you get some space.
The aire at Samur is also just a big open free for all space, very good.

Negatives with CAMPING-CAR-PARK: Dodgy barriers and incorrect count so you could turn up to a full one even when they say there is space. So be wary if the app is saing only a few spaces left, have a backup ready. Also caused by some fools who tailgate to get in without paying.

Negatives in towns, watch out for market days, some aires are closed and used for the market, this should be stated in the apps.
Some can be really hard to find the entrance! So plan to arrive in daylight if you've not been before or haven't taken a look on google streetview.

Some really are in a car park which is a bit meh when you sit there thinking my holiday is in a car park! On the flip side though this could be fantastic for an attraction (Carcassonne is a good example).

Take some anti-bac to clean the water fill point, there are many nobs who wash out their toliet cassette with the wrong tap! (this also happens on campsites mind you)...

The best aires aren't free and are normally well worth paying for imo.
Love aires!

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The downside for us is that we tow a 1.8m 500kg trailer. Aires don't like trailers!
 
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Just wanted to say many thanks for all your replies, and special thanks to those who attached photos. The Aires at La Mailleraye sur Seine and Massignac have now been added to this year’s itinerary! (y)

We normally go to France in June, or September, either side of the school holidays and stay on campsites, even for overnight stays. We did stay in an Aire in Argenton-sur-Creuse last September which wasn’t a great experience.

It was a large car park type Aire next to a sports centre which in the evening seemed to attract local teenagers on noisy motorbikes, and we also had trouble getting the fridge to operate on gas (now resolved) which didn’t help!

Thanks again for your replies, reassurances and advice. I think now it will be a combination of 50:50 between Aires and campsites - because the wife does love a swimming pool now and again :giggle:
 
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Willieboy said:
I think now it will be a combination of 50:50 between Aires and campsites
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We use both. Currently in a Stellplatz in Traben-Trarbach and we have more space than we had in the site we stayed in last night. (It also cost half as much). Stayed on an Aire in Bruges last weekend. It was completely full and the motorhomes were very close together but you could have heard a pin drop after 10pm. Just try a few and see what you think but there are no rules that say you must stay in an Aire every night. Do whatever you are happy with.

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Reims aire is a very nice orderly aire, and nothing like a car park one. Each van having its own area complete with outside room and grass. Not far into France, and nice town full of champagne. 👍🏻
 
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Landy Andy said:
Reims aire is a very nice orderly aire, and nothing like a car park one. Each van having its own area complete with outside room and grass. Not far into France, and nice town full of champagne. 👍🏻
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Do you have a location as the last one we found which ended up being full when we arrived wasn’t very nice, behind some council buildings near an underpass? 👍

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We only use Aires and it always surprises me how quiet they are usually, obviously there will be exceptions but generally they are peaceful
 
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Used aires six times and two ad hoc park-ups so far this trip. Keeps costs down so even though used a few camp sites, average per night is just under €12.
 
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We've used aires almost exclusively everywhere we have travelled in Europe. The only times we have used campsites was when we wanted to spend a couple of days exploring a major city. As DangerMousy said, no two are the same, but that's also part of the adventure.
 
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A lot will depend on where you are. Near or in the big cities where there big issues with anti social behaviour, yes you may get problems. Outsode of those you will f9nd a very friendly network of aires in villages and towns very welcoming. Do not be put off by some reports on social media as most have not been anywhere near the sites. Mention out for our village, Verteuil sur Charente. N9ce aire free for 48 hours with water, black and grey dump. Nice village with cafes and bars.
 
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