# French Aires locations in English



## spindrifter (Nov 14, 2006)

Hallo Everyone

Has anyone purcased or got any feedback on the above book. Have heard the place name spelling is incorrect on some locations. Opinions on the book would be handy - not just for me - but other prospective buyers also.

Thanks

David (Spindrifter)


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi David do you mean "All the Aires" by vicarious books?

Olley


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## Briarose (Oct 9, 2007)

olley said:


> Hi David do you mean "All the Aires" by vicarious books?
> 
> Olley


I have bought this book, but haven't had the chance to study and use it as yet.


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

Quite a lot of typo/spelling mistakes according to "Motor Caravan" mag and the proofreading got a hammering.


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

hi can't comment on the typo/spelling as I haven't noticed any, and that's not something I consider very important in an Aires book. 

I was disappointed at the "1100 stopovers listed" on the front cover, when lower down in smaller type which I did not notice until it arrived was "600 inspected" the other 500 are simply listed without any write-up or GPS, so no better than any other book on Aires, in fact camping-infos gives more info on these 500 than "All the Aires" does. Left me feeling slightly cheated.

The write-ups on the listed sites and information given is good and at £14.50 for 600 Aires is not bad value for money considering the effort that was put into its production. hopefully in the future the other 500 will get proper write-ups and GPS.

Olley


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## spindrifter (Nov 14, 2006)

Hi Ollie

That's the one.

Cheers

David (Spindrifter)


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## SidT (May 9, 2005)

Hi Olley. I agree with you to some extent, we found some spelling mistakes but I thought the "600 inspected sites" on the front cover quite conspicuous so wasn't disappointed on that score. The publishers invite people to send in information on aires they have visited so it can only get better.
Cheers Sid


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## hogan (Oct 31, 2006)

Also I have found a few of the G.P.S coords incorrect some start N 50DEGS and should be N49DEGS


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## 101405 (Oct 15, 2006)

*aires book*

The guide to Camping car stops (Aires) can be had from Amazon or from Camping car magazine .fr .on line costs about 12e with postage. will help you with your French!


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## UncleNorm (May 1, 2005)

Hi Spindrifter!

We bought it for our holidays in France in September. We like aires de camping-cars and this book, from Vicarious, was worth every penny. My wife enjoyed using it in her role of navigator.

Yes, there were errors, but users are invited to help keep the book updated. 

We used it to find the aire de camping-cars at Millau, beneath the famous viaduct on the A75. The aire described had space for 6 units only, but, on arrival, we found that the aire had moved round the corner and was set to receive around 35 motorhomes. It was full each night of our visit.

We took a couple of photos which will be passed on as requested.


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## sennen523 (May 6, 2006)

*AIRES FRANCE.*

Hi All,
I bought the "All the Aires France" book in English at the York show. Having never been to France with my MH I don't really know how good it is.
Some of the symbols in the guide I dont understand, if anyone knows??
examples:-

bucket symbol: Custom
Euro Relais; 2 euros
Euro Relais; tokens.
Flot blue; Tokens; 3 euros.

The directions to the Aire and photos seem good and shows postcodes and GPS, but as hogan says, maybe inaccurate.
Al 
Sennen 523


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## Don_Madge (May 1, 2005)

*Re: AIRES FRANCE.*



sennen523 said:


> Hi All,
> I bought the "All the Aires France" book in English at the York show. Having never been to France with my MH I don't really know how good it is.
> Some of the symbols in the guide I dont understand, if anyone knows??
> examples:-
> ...


Hi Al,

The bucket symbol is the type of service point.

Custom is a locally built one.

2 Euros or tokens 3 Euros is the cost to use it.

There are full details on all the signs and symbols at the front of the guide on the page headed "How to use this guide".

All the Aires that were checked by the publishers are correct. The ones with the errors were submitted by other people.

Don


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## griffly16 (Jul 6, 2006)

We used this book for 16 days in September and found it pretty good. We took photos of places that weren't in it currently and will be feeding back info. If everyone attempts this then hopefully in a relatively short time the 600 inspected aires will be a lot higher.

We used it to stay on 9 of our 13 in total aires and found the co-ords spot-on apart from 1 (St. Cirq Lapopie if I remember correctly - put us on the wrong side of the river  ). Have stored the correct co-ords for feedback.

Griff


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## homenaway (Jul 27, 2005)

Hi,

I think it's a useful guide but agree that that the first edition had some errors and it will be improved as more aires are added.

We submitted all the aires we have stayed at in previous years and have recently sent off a list of the latest ones we visited this year (with photos).

May I ask that those of you who have used it in France send in any corrections. 

Obviously any printed guide will not be fully up-to-date so it's worth looking up the latest info on French sites such as campingcar-info. 

We print out the aires lists using the printer friendly pages for most departments we plan to visit together with the latest comments which can be useful and amusing and a good excercise in learning French slang :lol: 

(I WILL add our aires list to the MHF database sometime soon   

Steve


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## spindrifter (Nov 14, 2006)

Hi All

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. Have ordered a copy from Vicarious Books and will try it out in March 2008 and give my feedback to publishers for future re-prints. Once again Motorhome Facts have come up trumps.

Happy and safe travelling

David (Spindrifter)


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## 98452 (Apr 2, 2006)

I have bought one on Scotjimland recommendation.

Must have a closer look.


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## dbh1961 (Apr 13, 2007)

*Re: AIRES FRANCE.*



Don Madge said:


> sennen523 said:
> 
> 
> > Hi All,
> ...


Don - am I right that you have a vested interest?


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## Don_Madge (May 1, 2005)

*Re: AIRES FRANCE.*



dbh1961 said:


> Don Madge said:
> 
> 
> > sennen523 said:
> ...


Hi,

I do have an interest (not financial in any way) in Vicarious Books, I help out on their stand at some of the shows. 

I have done site inspections for the Great Sea View Guide and I carried out research for Go Motorhoming Europe.

I hope this answers your question? 

Don


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## dbh1961 (Apr 13, 2007)

It does Don, thanks.

By the way, I'm a happy customer


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## Mike48 (May 1, 2005)

Unfortuneately the GPS locations are not in decimal format which I found disappointing as my GPS does not work in the format supplied.


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## Don_Madge (May 1, 2005)

gelathae said:


> Unfortuneately the GPS locations are not in decimal format which I found disappointing as my GPS does not work in the format supplied.


One of the Facts members has already posted the way to convert the co ords but I can't find it.

My Garmin 250 will except three different formats, I assumed all GPS did the same.

Don


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

Heres a handy coord convertor, it also gives a little google map as well, so you can double check the location is correct .....

http://boulter.com/gps/

pete


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## olley (May 1, 2005)

Hi Google maps does conversions as well, and will accept at least 3 different formats.

Tomtom accepts degrees, decimal notation and degrees with decimal seconds what ever thats called. :lol: 

Olley


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## Don_Madge (May 1, 2005)

peejay said:


> Heres a handy coord convertor, it also gives a little google map as well, so you can double check the location is correct .....
> 
> http://boulter.com/gps/
> 
> pete


Pete/olley,

Thanks but the post I'm looking for gives a formula that you can use on a hand held calculator without being on line.

I wrote the formula down and put it away somewhere safe.

The boss has just found the formula so I'm OK now.

Don


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## SidT (May 9, 2005)

Hi Gelathae, which GPS have you got?
Cheers Sid


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## trigrem (May 1, 2005)

Used the book during 4 weeks in France, very useful, don't know about spelling or typo errors, just looked at location, GPS co-ordinates and pictures where available.
Have sent in other Aires not covered plus Gps info where it was missing or incorrect.
If everyone who uses the book sends in informationit will increase in usefulness and accuracy.


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## carol (May 9, 2005)

*Re: AIRES FRANCE.*



Don Madge said:


> All the Aires that were checked by the publishers are correct. The ones with the errors were submitted by other people.
> 
> Don


Oops Don hope some aren't mine, altho I think all I did was submit a DVD of all my aires photos.... many of which they used.

The GPS info for the few they asked me for info on, was taken from the campinginfos web site, as I don't take the details when I visit.... just take pictures...

I seem to recall Meli said they were hoping to get over and do the rest of the aires during the year.... at least then they will know they have them right.

Personally, I used the main Camping Car Aires book, together with the Le Monde one and Vicarious and on top of that a DVD of the Camping infos web site, which they sell updated every two months, so I tend to buy it before we go in September...so it has the most up to date info on it together with photos and peoples opinions....

Carol


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## teensvan (May 9, 2005)

Hi.

We used this aires book for the first time in October for our first trip through France. We used 14 of the aires that were listed and found the GPS co-ordinates to be very good. Glad we had this book.

steve & ann. -------- teensvan.


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## Wytonknaus (Jun 18, 2007)

I have had a look at the Vicarious Books website and there is a book 'CamperStop Europe' does this one cover the same information as in the 'All The Aires France' book on the same site?

Anyone any information on this book or am I better of with the 'All the Aires' book

Going Skiing over Christmas thanks to the brilliant advice on this forum from Kevin AKA Batch. I will be stopping overnight on the way to Bourg St Maurice and would like to know of a suitable Aire about 4 hours from the tunnel. I would be arriving in the dark so an easy to find one would be appreciated. Any ideas?

Thanks 
Tim


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

Hi Tim- depends where you are touring -Camperstop Eurpoe covers 16 countries and about 7000 M'home Friendly sites, Stellplatz etc- many of them in Holland and Germany.

If you are doing those countriues fine but if just France then the Aires Book will be ok


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## Wytonknaus (Jun 18, 2007)

Thanks telbell 

We will be doing the Germany bit in the summer so as long as the Camper Stop Europe is as good for the French Aires as the other I will get that one.


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## Telbell (May 1, 2005)

Yes Tim I'd certainly recommend it for Germany...or there's the BordAtlas book- also available from vicarious books


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## MikeyB (Jun 20, 2005)

I realise this is a bit late, but we used this guide as well as our old French one last summer. Biggest problem we found was with the directions. They were only of any use if, purely by chance, you happened to approach the area from the same direction as had the reviewers of the guide. We often found that they made no sense at all if you arrived from a different direction, we then reverted to the French guide that we had used for the last 3 years. Mike.


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## geordie01 (Apr 20, 2006)

i got the book and was quite disapionted with it a few of the aires we stopped on were not listed but when we got home we sent in the info and pics. ithink it can only get better with our input and is a good idea but a better way is to learn a little french and use their websites.
bonsoir


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## 109613 (Jan 31, 2008)

No doubt its been asked....lol but I'm new. on the average what is the costs to overnight at the French Aires. ( with hookups)


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## Patchworkqueen (Dec 7, 2007)

Hi 
I have recently bought this book and have found that the coordinates are in a format that Auroroute does not like.
I posted a question and got some very good replies.
Overall I am not impressed with the book. There are hundreds more Aires available than are in the book.
I was recommended the website campingcar-infos.com and found this better.
You can also buy the DVD which seems good value to me.
I have been using the website to check the locations given in the book and they don't always agree. I suppose it depend where the GPS was taken from but some are quite different.
I was also recommended Google maps to verify coordinates and that works well as well.
I have also downloaded satnav/pushpin info from another site that was recommended and imported that into Autoroute.
If you have a laptop to take with you I would use as many different sources of info as possible and compare them.


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