Puzzled
I am in north Brittany, the sun is shining, it's 25C, the flowers are in bloom, a cuckoo is calling, there is no one about, and the campsites are empty....but 40 motorhomes worth £2 million in total are parked up side by side in an isolated tarmac car park beside the public lavatories at Caroual near Erquy. It's called an Aire. They are paying €6 a night plus €2 for water and €2 for electricity. Not a chair or a table in sight. Do they never sit outside and listen to birdsong? Are they hard up and desperate to save €3 a night, or do they just like each other's company?
Comments
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As newcomers to motorhoming we were all set to go out and buy a guide to the Aires in France but for the first year we decided to take a look at any that crossed our path to see what they were like. Most were little better than car parks with little shade and little grass and limited or no sanitary facilities. Also, all the ones we saw had far more attractive sites close by.
I think that if we were keen to explore towns and cities then we might consider an Aire if there were no convenient proper sites but the ones that we have seen close to towns do not inspire confidence. Not sure that I would want to stay in an urban area on a Saturday night with no barriers or supervision. Maybe it is just that we have yet to acquire the taste.
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the answer to the question (like many posed when folk 'dont see the point') is because they can and because they want to....its called choice.
to visit a town for the day and overnight, why not park on the aire a few hundred yards from the centre ville rather than go to a campsite a few km further out?
as all the 'i dont get it' answers have come from caravanners, its hardly surprising they dont.....
we use 'all singing' sites when we have 'arrived' but, as we dont know when this is (as we generally have no destination) its difficult.
if a town/area turns out to be somewhere we want to stay a while, we might decamp to the local site, but for a day or two, we don't bother..
....and neither (it seems from the OP) do many others (the 'majority' JVB?)
i dont expect caravanners to 'get' aires, but theyre not supposed to, so why not just let other folk get on with what theyre doing.....obviously enjoying themselves, otherwise they wouldn't be there.
when non-awning users start posting about how they 'dont get awnings' the awning brigade come charging along quoting 'choice, respect others' etc....
so, how about a bit of respect for these folks' (and sometimes my...) choice and let them get on with enjoying their stay, whether you 'get it' or not
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+1 BB, choice is king. It is what it is, we all do our own thing the way it suits us not others
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whats any of this got to do with money?
why the derogatory snide at 'some' MHs?
i can afford to stay where ever i want to but if thats an Aire (might even be free) in a town/city, thats my choice....
no wonder those MHers don't stay on campsites where 'some' snobby caravanner attitudes like this are commonplace.
all in the same club? Yeah, sounds like it.
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...we even had our own gated driveway at this one on a 'stately home' just a few hundred yard from the local village....(not going to give away the location)....
yes, the surface is gravel, and no doubt to some its still a car park, but its millionaires camping and not a caravan in sight (site
) .....bliss. 1 -
Camping on an aire would not suit me and after over 40 years of Caravanning like my comforts, grass pitches and beautiful scenery, but I know MHomers who do and that is their choice.
It is nothing to do with snobbery there are MHomes on our lovely Campsite here in Southern Austria and all is friendly.
DianneT
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I often use Aires because I rarely stay longer than one or two nights and they are generally just somewhere to park and sleep rather than setting up home comforts on a site. Most are convenient for parking a m/h with easy access to, and often within walking distance of the town centre. I don't do bicycling.
It's easier for caravanners to park their cars in towns.
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BoleroBoy - we stayed there a few weeks ago, extremely hot weather, no other vehicles, picnic table and chairs provided, miles of vineyards as a vista in a rural setting, perfectly quiet and peaceful overnight, plenty of birds twittering in the shady trees, leafy walks for the dog and us to the local Chateau - and free.
And the nearest campsite?
Who knows?
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of course theyre friendly Dianne, we have camped all over Europe and (amazingly) caravanners have actually spoken to us and we have a MH, wow!
....but the comments i was referring to were made here on CT not on a site in Austria.
BTW, why do you think anyone parked in their MH on an aire is, somehow, lacking in 'comfort'....
did we leave our beds, shower, loo, kitchen, lounge etc at home?
some aires have grass surfaces and are set amongst beautiful scenery, sometimes in Southern Austria
they are many and varied and some are just like sites but are designated 'aires'....yes, some are just car parks, and usually don't have 'washing up areas' or 'dog walks' or whatever it is that attracts some to sites, but so what?
im not interested in these, not toilets cleaned at a specific time every day, i have one in the van thats open all day
its obvious caravanners dont get Aires, we've have a number of posts saying just that, but whats the point of posting just to say its not your thing?
anyway, it cant be your thing, caravans arent allowed
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I have never ever been to a campsite where Caravanners and MHomers have not mixed and enjoyed other folks company in 15 Countries we have visited. When we have been talking to MHomers on site from many countries inc UK we have offered and they have accepted to going out for us for a ride somewhere. We have always enjoyed their company.
DianneT
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Good post AD and it would happen over here if the ones wanting Motor Caravan "cheap" overnight stops had their way,you only have to see the amount parked up "overnight?" now in some coastal areas,and the LAs putting in more and more restrictions to try to combat it
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i dont think aires are a substitute for sites, they are an additional facility to cope with the different demographic in europe.
far sighted foreign local authorities decided it might be profitable to tap into this burgeoning market by making life easy for them to park close to amenities where they are likely to spend money.
compare this to LAs response to the same change in the market.....not a lot.
as there are still (apparently) loads of caravans touring europe, why dont these provide sufficient support for municipals, in the way they have done before, or are numbers reducing?
if the answer is that they are all now buying MHs then the changing market place is driving the change to more 'suitable' (less frills) stopping places.
my buying a MH doesnt make me feel in any way responsible for any change in the status of municipal sites.
....and it certainly isn't anything to do with the money
€12 for a site in the right place at the right time is good value, but not if im just stopping for one night, i dont need a site to do that.
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On this trip, as we are considering a MH in the future, we have been taking particular interest in the Aires we have come across on our travels. Some have not looked particularly inviting at all, others very nice indeed. Very similar to camp sites in that respect. The one at Isigny was alongside the harbour and I would certainly stop at it for a night. It had water / waste and looked as though there would be a loo block open in busier times. A large supermarket with fuel was about 200 m away. Ideal for stocking up. From our point of view I don't think we would ever want to use them exclusively, but for a stop off on route, or a short visit to a particular place, where access with a MH might otherwise be difficult, they seem ideal.
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?
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I said when I started this thread I said that I was puzzled, not critical, so one Club member decides that attack is the best form of defence. That bounces off me !
One of the things puzzling me was the No Camping Behaviour rule which was so carefully observed. No one was sitting outside in the sun - chairs outside are forbidden apparently, so all the motorhomers I saw were inside their vehicles. I caught up with one English lady who ventured out and asked her about staying in urban Aires like that and was actually surprised by her vehemence. She said, "We HATE campsites. We only do wild camping".
"Wild" as in car park with white lines! So still puzzled.
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I also wouldn't find it too pleasant being side by side in a parking lot. We've seen this in Dieppe, Le Touquet and in St Valery sur Somme (amongst others) and they do look rather 'snug'.
But I can see the point BB makes about the ability to park in a town centre, just for the night, and then move on to somewhere more pleasant for the longer stay.
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