Overnight stays in France
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Hichglitch,the 1960s all boys Grammar School which I attended was staffed by all male teachers who were predominantly exWW2 military types.Consequently their approach to MFL and most other subjects, was like"Naming of Parts" by Henry Reed.I discovered the joys of learning a foreign language later in Life when I saw the "bigger picture",for myself.
That also applies to finding overnight stops in France to link back to the OP's question.Excellent suggestions have been made by earlier posts but there is no substitute for exploring the many options for yourself and being delighted by Serendipity.
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My experience was similar to Kenexton's - a French teacher at a grammar school in the 1960s who gave us a vocabulary test every week. Failure to reach 90% resulted in a detention. Rubbish way to teach but I have to admit I do have quite a good vocabulary.
I much prefer the more relaxed serendipitous approach nowadays and love to have conversations with French people on campsites even if it can be satruggle sometimes.
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I wouldn't dream of staying anywhere other than a recognised site. We have stayed on a municipal site at Troyes. As municipal sites are obviously in towns, often difficult to find tucked away in a park, do your research first on google maps with the coordinates for the entrance in your sat-nav.
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"i wouldnt dream of staying anywhere than a recognised site"...
and as a caravanner, this is likely to be the case.....exploring from your base, just like at home. but on the continent, and in a motorhome, things are very different and a whole new, different scenario is available which leads to a different style of touring.
when we are touring in Europe, its the place we arrive at (and want to investigate) that dictates where we stay...not the other way round.
it may be a town along our route, a village we pull in at for lunch or even somewhere thats been recommended to us. ..but having 'arrived' we quickly asses its merits, park up in the local aire, explore a bit and then decide if its worth staying the night (or more) or we move along our (not too specific) route.
yes, we also use several long stay full fat site sites where the site/area is also the destination and we stay for a while, but once 'on the move', into our 'touring mode' and a town/village looks interesting, we are happy to use the local aire.
the photo upthread with half a dozen vans on it would be more than adequate for a night or two (if the town is sufficiently interesting).
touring using only a 'particular brand of aire' (eg camping car parks) is making use of only a tiny subset of whats out there.
agreed, some community aires are very popular but just using a specific chain/brand would severely restrict any improptu pulling in, rather like only using CAMC or C&CC in the UK....yes, you know what to expect, but certainly wont have the coverage of community aires.....so its back to whether its the actual place or the 'brand of site' that dictates the stopping point.
often, even the most basic aire has loads of room, perhaps part of a larger area with some specific spaces reserved for MH, some are just dedicated MH places and may have a dozen or so spaces, while other popular places can feel a bit 'busy' due to their location....St Jean de Luz for example.
when we 'stayed' there (more than a week) we were on an ACSI site, but last time up through France we called in and only had a night there, no need for anything other than a safe place to stay so we found a space on the aire. yes it was tight, but a couple of hundred metres stroll from the town centre.
weve stayed in fabulous aires....in wide open scenery, hills or dales, some right in the centre of a city, minutes from the hubbub, couldnt be better...
there is no single type of 'aire' theyre all different.
one popular 'format' (which uk customers sometimes find strange) is the large ccommercial site that has an aire immediately outside, catering for two different types of clientel....longer stayers and those passing through for a night or two.
they usually also cater for those who dont stay at either place but just need to fill/dump at the services where they pay a small charge.
none of these disparate groups need 'monitoring/checking' as to which services or areas that have 'been paid for'.
folk pull in, go the office, pay a couple of euro, drop waste, fill and move on....no hassle, no checking, no curtain twitching, no debating the encouragement or not of 'wild camping'....no one is the least bit interested as its a perfectly normal thing to be doing.
similarly when we stayed on an aire outside a full fat commercial site, our cheap stay still allowed us to use showers/toilets, bar/restaurant etc. again, no one really interested, we were just customers spending a few euro in the shop/bar....we just happened to be parked outside the main site. no 'checking' or looking down noses....as above, a perfectly normal way for the site to operate and for different customers to choose which of the services on offer they require.
aires are fabulous components of continental impromptu touring, but they are what they are....stopping places, not campsites, and this is why there is often so much 'misunderstanding' from those 'who couldnt possibly.....'.
well, that's great...if aires are not for some people there are loads of sites out there.
i dont knock campsites, we know many wonderful ones, but to have impromptu continental touring supplemented/supported by such a wealth of aires is certainly a privilege which we never abuse.
....cant wait to get back out there using them.
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morning David, thanks for that.
As you say, there are many newbies (here and elsewhere) who havent had much 'alternate' input so i felt a few word at this 'new era' might broaden horizons.
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Thanks P. not sure about 'back', we'll see.
I've read the forum from time to time but, on this specific topic, i felt we had a bit of relevant experience.
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Morning, WTG, thanks for the comment....yes, its hard to explain something that is a 'foreign' concept here, yet gives us all so much pleasure when 'away'.
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BB wrote " a perfectly normal way for the site to operate and for different customers to choose which of the services on offer they require."
The continental "a la carte" menu is a far cry from CAMC "school dinners" - eat that or go hungry.
Just as well we had a choice last Thursday, I couldn't have managed that full English. 
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I can beat all of the grammar school boys on here, I went to a mixed Comp in the 60s with a fantastic and enthusiastic French teacher. He not only got us all interested in France he also organised a month long camping trip, all the way round from the north to the south. We were submerged into French, plunged into rivers, sent out to buy food and had local meals in village halls etc. My French pen friend's father turned up on the Med part of the trip and along with a friend I was whisked off for meals cooked by Maman and eaten outside under apricot trees. (At that point we couldn't tell our bouef from our agneau but ate a lot bread as that was easy to ask for...😊)
It has so coloured my memory that I don't really want to go back to camping in France, I prefer to see it in other ways.
But good luck to all those that love France.
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Haha, CY, yes a royal feast, and thanks for the 'tour'...
Yes, when on a site, we like the choice of different types of pitches (which we also get here) but also the different 'levels' of camping.
of course, we can also do this here but not at one site...you'd have to go to (say) a CL to get a different type of experience to a Club site.
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"....but overall nowhere is easier to have a memorable camping trip whatever your taste it can be found."
so true, David....and fortunately its also just on our doorstep and so easy to try....
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