# are we killing the golden goose



## rugbyken (Jan 16, 2006)

those of us that use our motorhomes in france know that motorhoming and france go together like fish and chips or cheese and wine would be more apt, for the last 7 year's we have gone june and september for 3 week's at a time and dreamt of the day when we can go fulltime, as the day approaches we find the place filling up.
for instance we have just returned relativly late in the season and i have never seen so many van's either on the road or using aires , a lovely 5 van aire in the vinyard at montbazilliac had 9 van's in oct , we have used the aire at blaye twice before 3 van's there the first time and 5 the next , this time there were 54 van's parked up, cognac 5 year's ago there was only 2 of us in early sept this year 8 of us in oct and we stopped counting at mortagne sur gironde at 46.
i don't begrudge the fact that a lot more places charge, our long time favourite at nozzay now charges 5 euros a night but they have built a small toilet block and raised the 4 electric point's to 16, and mortagne is better than most 3 star sites with electric in a lovely setting for 7 euros and 4 cent's ,but la palmyre charge 8 euros for a car park .
i suppose the answer is to range further afield and hopefully when the great day arrives we will do that , but the success of the motorhome storey with all the new van's etc mean's that we veteran's are being sqeezed out .


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## DTPCHEMICALS (Jul 24, 2006)

More of us are retireing and taking a well earnrd lieseur break.
The same applies on the continent.

Dave p


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## Techno100 (May 8, 2010)

The key is if you find a nice place don't tell everyone, it soon gets around :lol:


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Signs of the times Ken.
What with more and more restrictions and cost to flying, the economy of most of Europe suffering, more out of work and attitudes changing towards "Do it now before it's too late".

I also have noticed streams of vans around here on the Cherbourg Peninsular and dozens parked up where as before there might just be a few.

We are making plans to use ours more next year. 

Ray.


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## b2tus (Sep 7, 2009)

Hi Rugbyken.......interesting to hear your experiences in October.

OH (ou AD) et moi were in France in September for 2 weeks and spent 12 nights on various France Passion sites (mostly vineyards).

We were on our own every night except for 1 night when a UK M/H trundled in for a brief night stop en-route back home.

The France Passion directions in their book are not good but I didn't think that they were that bad :?


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## autostratus (May 9, 2005)

if there are more out of work in France as here it may be that more out of work campingcaristes are taking to the road out of season.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Surely this is a good thing. Does it not show that motorhoming and Aires are alive and well in France. You can always find quiet aires though if you hunt around and get off the beaten track a bit. Full aires in France is good for the system and economy. I would be worried if they were empty as the Marie will shut them down.

Doesnt seem to be the same here on the CL network. Been touring the UK for a month now and half the CL's we have been on are empty, just us.

Dave. Just in case your worried I am working this morning, just got distracted for a min!


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## Patrick_Phillips (Aug 17, 2006)

The N10 around Bayonne/Biarritz is stuffed with MHs going North and South. I was tempted to do a survey, there were so many. I would guess at 20 an hour at most of the daylight hours.
Not so many Brits, though.
We tend to always use Camping Cheque sites at this time of year and it was interesting that very few people were with us even on the really big sites. Having said that, we are at Zarautz near San Sebastien at present and there are 15 vans most nights. Lots of big Eurovans - Man, Cathago, Concordes etc - German & French mostly.
There is definitely something going on...
Patrick


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## EJB (Aug 25, 2007)

Just returned from 3 weeks in Germany and all the Stellplazen were virtually full every night.
Mostly Germans with a few Dutch and the rare Brit.
Arriving mid afternoon there were always pitches free but some were full by 6pm.
We were suprised :wink:


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## shingi (Apr 18, 2008)

We returned yesterday after 8 weeks in France using a combination of
private campsites, municipal campsites and Aires and I've just worked out that over 55 nights we spent an average of £4.69 per night. We found some beautiful municipal campsites in Burgundy which were terrific value, some fantastic Aires for which we had to pay and some which were free. All the private ones we stayed at were overpriced and tatty. The only Aire that was full was Equihen Plage on Monday night. All of the others had space aplenty. The best Aires we stayed in were Froncles (Burgundy) and Fontet (Aquitaine) and I discovered one Aire (free hook-up etc) not listed in the Aires book which I will notify Vicarious books about.


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

shingi said:


> We returned yesterday after 8 weeks in France using a combination of
> private campsites, municipal campsites and Aires and I've just worked out that over 55 nights we spent an average of £4.69 per night. We found some beautiful municipal campsites in Burgundy which were terrific value, some fantastic Aires for which we had to pay and some which were free. All the private ones we stayed at were overpriced and tatty. The only Aire that was full was Equihen Plage on Monday night. All of the others had space aplenty. The best Aires we stayed in were Froncles (Burgundy) and Fontet (Aquitaine) and I discovered one Aire (free hook-up etc) not listed in the Aires book which I will notify Vicarious books about.


...and of course you could also share them with the community on here by entering them into the campsite database. :wink:

Pete


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## shingi (Apr 18, 2008)

peejay said:


> shingi said:
> 
> 
> > We returned yesterday after 8 weeks in France using a combination of
> ...


Forgive me...I will, of course, do that as well!


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## vicdicdoc (May 14, 2005)

I promise to to tell anyone if you whisper where the Aires that no one knows about . . :wink:


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## twoofakind (Jun 24, 2009)

In the early fifties we parked at the side of the road in France Italy Spain etc., on route to our holiday destination, and my Mum and Dad cooked up a storm on a single gas ring. We sat in the grass verge and saw not a soul for hours.
We tried to achieve the same with our children and they are doing the same with our grandchildren.
We met and meet like minded people of different nationalities doing the same thing.

May be the large numbers of vans you are now seeing rugbyken have upgraded from cars tents and caravans and are 'veterans' themselves.

We encountered thirty-five Italian vans in addition to the odd German and French van at Canterbury park and ride in August. Lots of close parking and manouvering to get them all parked. All good humoured. 
We use this parking facility regularly and usually there are only a few vans. 

Nothing stays the same forever. Jolly good job to. :lol:


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## dragabed (May 24, 2008)

having over wintered in france, spain and potugal for the last five years and motorhomed in these places for 35 years previously to retirement we have seen the increase which has gone on year in year out and the quality of sites and the vans using them increase also getting better but the defining moment came with the advent of the aire which ment that most french and other nationalities changed from caravaning and camping to what we have today a motorhoming generation who have realised the freedom and ease at which you can just take off be it a weekend or a couple of months and of course there are also the fulltimers. 
this of course has brought with it overcrowding and unfortuantly crime a whole new industry servicing and selling the vans and related products from rubber bands to outdoor shows and its here for the foreseeable future so the crowds will increase and the crime wont stop so more facilities will be needed with better service and a better infrastructure will be needed and perhaps one day the brutish goverement will wake up and realise what it has missed because this beutyfull country of ours has so much to offer and very little realisation of its needs for the good of motorhoming.
so in answer to the question no we are only propergating an egg for the golden goose to lay for future generations of like minded people


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Some very valid points there. We often go on about the councils providing Aires in the Uk for our benefit but we perhaps forget that it will bring in lots of foreign visitors. How many foreign vans do we see over here? not many in comparison. Reason? Its not easy to park your MH cheaply. If you build it they will come!

I dont know where everyone is. We have seen more tuggers by far on the CL's in the last month than motorhomes but in the last week or so hardly anyone. Maybe everyones in France!

Everytime I pass a CC site though it looks full so maybe everyones on them. Im not complaining though all the more space for us.


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## christine1310 (Apr 10, 2008)

We have been travelling slowly through France this month and every aire we stayed on has been nearly full - all French - with the odd German, Dutch or British van. However, for the last couple of days we stayed on an ACSI campsite south of La Rochelle and the only people on site were British. Lovely site, with an indoor swimming pool. Les Sables, Aytre. 15 Euros per night.


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## jeanie201 (Apr 22, 2008)

Hi,
Think its great that more and more people are seeing the benefits of using aires. Can not understand the don't tell anyone about aires that you find approach as always thought idea of forums like this was to share info. Also towns provide these aires so local shops, bars etc can benefit so want as many people as poss. to make use of them. At moment on aire at Anglet, very busy (70+ vans, full last night) despite the fuel problems.


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## magicsurfbus (Jul 17, 2008)

We did a 23 night trip to France this July/August using just Aires, 16 in total. There was only one Aire we couldn't get into, and that was Biarritz Ave Milady, but we arrived mid-afternoon so no surprises really, given that it resembles a well-packed sardine tin on most summer days anyway. Likewise, Biscarrosse-Plage wasn't easy to get into in the afternoon, although we managed in the end, albeit stuck in between an abandoned car and the Aire's resident Crusty community. Everywhere else was OK. If that's the case in the height of summer, then the Aires we used must be easier to get into at other times of the year. Very few of these Aires had more than a couple of Brit motorhomes visible on them. 

At Lacanau-Ocean the Aire has been extended in recent years, and at Dieppe they allow overflow parking next to the port if the Aire is full. At Puy du Fou they've relocated the Aire into a bigger field. At La Rochelle the Aire is integrated into the Park and Ride, with a flexible capacity for motorhomes. On the Ile d'Oleron all three large aires that we used had numerous spare pitches - two of them were ex-campsites offering generous grassy parking spaces.

It would thus appear that increasing demand is being met with increasing supply, so I'd query if we are actually killing off any metaphorical golden goose.

I'm all for encouraging others to get out there and try using Aires. Whilst I can perhaps appreciate the need to avoid over-publicising the smaller and more remote Aires to avoid overcrowding, I think there is no harm in the bigger ones getting busier and (hopefully) expanding to the benefit of all. Who knows, maybe even the English tourist authorities might sit up and start taking note. There is a similar logic applied in surfing, which has enjoyed a boom in the last decade or so - by all means encourage people to do it on the big well known beaches and expand the pursuit and the business as a whole, but don't go telling everyone about that secret cove just up the coast where the really good waves break!

I think it's also important not to get locked into a mentality where those who first discovered and pioneered this mode of touring become uncomfortable and even resentful when others inevitably try to follow in their tyre tracks. I've seen that attitude so many times in both my job and my leisure pursuits, and let's be honest, nobody likes grumpy old gits ;-)


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## SNandJA (Aug 22, 2008)

I picked up a guide called Motorhome in France at the NEC. It is available via this link
Motorhome in France - The Etiquette Guide

It was published following an initiative by the French Leisure Vehicle manufacturers Association (Sicverl) and the Motorhome Liaison Committee (CLC). Inside they had done some statistics and list favourite destinations in percentage terms
55% Brittany
15% Aquitane
13% The Pyrenees
12% Rhone-Alpes

But the quote to back up the golden goose theory is
"For a decade now the motohome has been hugely popular all over Europe, with over 500,000 vehicles on the road; 150,000 of these registered in France.

Steve


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