Overview of French Aires Network and Prices (1 Viewer)

[cyberyacht]

UK CL prices are getting silly now. My latest CAMC mag that arrived yesterday has a new one wanting £30 pn. Even the new ones without EHU are often £20 and not located conveniently in a picturesque village that one usually finds in France.

 

[meanders]

We are now back to looking to buy or set up an aire de camping car, or more accurately ‘aire naturel’

We rolled into an Aire Naturel on the south coast of France (Near Narbonne), found a nice spot, then noted folks were wandering around in the all-together!

Quickly moved on and have never been in another thus labelled!

 

[dawsey]

We rolled into an Aire Naturel on the south coast of France (Near Narbonne), found a nice spot, then noted folks were wandering around in the all-together!

Quickly moved on and have never been in another thus labelled!

Assuming you aren’t jesting, methinks you are getting ‘Aire naturelle’ and ‘Aire naturiste’ mixed up. An ‘aire naturelle de camping’ is a simple campsite where anyone can pitch a tent or park a MoHo or caravan and there’s access to water service and a toilet/shower block. The bigger ones are similar to or used to be the simple old municipal camp sites that the CCP lot have also been buying up. The CCP type operations go a step further in removing the shower block altogether, which then restricts their use to self sufficient motorhomes.

Like all else in the bureaucratic nightmare that France is, the air naturelle is a designated type of camping operation and it is the easiest (no accommodations of any type are permitted) for a landowner to get permission to set up. If you are a farmer you automatically have the right to a six-place campsite, similar to UK. That’s why the ‘France passion’ options exist. We are very keen to set up an aire naturelle de camping, they are relatively simple to set up and low cost to operate, it would be nice to welcome motorhomers at minimal cost. They can be a low cost, but more spacious, safer and more secure alternative to huddling into those aires, especially in summer.

But for us, while we look, in winter those free french aires with their water are a lifeline.

Of course the ‘aire/camping/plage naturiste’ is for naturists, formerly known as nudists, a pastime becoming more popular with the Brits and French but long very popular with ze Germans

 

[meanders]

Assuming you aren’t jesting, methinks you are getting ‘Aire naturelle’ and ‘Aire naturiste’ mixed up.

Could well be. My French is just about nil, Hilary relies on her schooldays. If you asked me on oath, I would say it was the former, but time, embarrassment and a few mixed up grey cells may have played tricks.