# What book for French Aires



## Westbay (Mar 15, 2008)

We hope to make our first proper visit to France later this year. If you had to pick a single book on French Aires, what would you recommend?

Not interested in big camp sites etc - we normally wild camp, so we will be looking for small quiet places.

thanks


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## ActiveCampers (Jun 17, 2005)

All The Aires is good - pretty good - France Only
Camperstop is, erm, not so good (Europe)
Bordatlas is reasonble (Europe)

No book will mention wild camping spots though - so best to just find where others have been. On our site we list GPS of our wildcamping spots which may be of use, but not that many in France. (Will add once we get away again!)

There is also a French Aires book which I've not got - the All The Aires book seems to be reasonable.

Also campingcar info (which I believe is linked to the frnch book) have GPS download here: http://www.campingcar-infos.com/Francais/recherche.php#synchro which pretty much matches with All The Aires too

Hope this helps

edit: Lovely avtar picture - where is that?


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## mygalnme (Jul 12, 2009)

Hi Westbay...we have All the aires in France, English version and Camperstop europe, if you go on Vicarious book site they have them all.
You will be lucky to stop at one!!!! though


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Hi

You sound similar to us in your likes and camping preferences. We did our first big tour last year and I took with me All the Aires France http://www.all-the-aires.com/index.htm and I also downloaded thousands of Aires for Europe for the Tom Tom off (I think) TomToms website.

I found the book very good. We tended to roughly plan out a couple of Aires the night before, tap in the GPS points and then head in the general direction of where they were. We would look for likely wild camping spots first and if nothing suitable came up we would head off to the Aire.

The Points of interest (POI) from TomTom are good as well as they ping when your near one so if you need to empty or fill the van you can pull over when you see one coming up and be on your way very quickly.

Niether the book or the POI are completely error free but are near enough.

If your into Wild camping and quite scenic places then your in for a treat in France. Give us some more info of places you are heading for and I might be able to make some recommendations.

Cheers
Barry


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

France Passion might also suit you - quiet spots, staying overnight with people who make their own wine, or bread, or cheese or.....

You see some lovely parts of France and meet some lovely people.

The book is available to order now from Vicarious Books, with a bit of a discount.


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## PhilK (Jul 1, 2005)

*which book*

i think you have had good advice, we use France Passion, All the Aires 2 and camperstop. Having all three improves our chance of staying somewhere we like.

Enjoy

Phil


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

We used to use the French 'Guide Officiel Aires De Service Camping-car' but don't bother any more as its far from comprehensive.
Haven't used the 'All the aires' book either as I have read reports about it not being very accurate on here and its title is a bit misleading.

All we do now is use the POI's from campingcar-infos (as per Activecampers link) on our Tomtom. 
Along with their excellent website, these have proved to be probably the most comprehensive list for French aires you can get (Just my humble opinion of course).

Pete


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## twoofakind (Jun 24, 2009)

Hi Westbay, we could'nt agree more with Margaret and Tony. Go Vicarious Books, you'll find what you need and more if you trawl their info. Ok you can acquire info elseware, but this is more than a good place to begin, and then you can add your own aquired knowledge. Could go on and on, where to go etc., best go on the website, get the guides you feel you need, add to them or not and go. Hope you have as much fun planning as your trip  

Good Luck Kal & Tony


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

And the good thing about the book is that you can see a picture of the Aire and its all by region so its very easy to sit at the back of the van after a long day with a map and your book and plan the next stop. If you can get online in France then all the online stuff is available but all I will say is regarding the internet in France is - Good luck!!!


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## 96706 (Nov 13, 2005)

Really just to confirm all the above. 
No single book covers it all. But these do seem to give a broad spread.

We have all the above, plus Bord Atlas and still come across sites all over France, Belgium & Germany not listed in any of the books.


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## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

peejay said:


> All we do now is use the POI's from campingcar-infos (as per Activecampers link) on our Tomtom.
> Along with their excellent website, these have proved to be probably the most comprehensive list for French aires you can get (Just my humble opinion of course).
> 
> Pete


Same here Westbay, but did buy the book in our inexperienced days.



barryd said:


> If you can get online in France then all the online stuff is available but all I will say is regarding the internet in France is - Good luck!!!


Totally agree Barry, which is why we buy the DVD ROM from Campingcar-infos every two years. This has now been superseded by a USB download in the link given.

HTH,

Jock.


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## bigfrank3 (Mar 26, 2007)

I can only agree with everone else we use all the aires of France, France Passion (never been on a bad one), and I buy through Vicarious Books a good site. Oh and I have the aires on my sat nav along with supermarkets and petrol stations downloaded from MHF, Frank


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## jacknjill (Apr 25, 2009)

Hi, we have " all the aires in france " from vicarious books,title is misleading as it does not contain ALL the aires, also it is quite out of date ie the reviews start from as early as 06/07!! some aires are closed now and we have been advised a couple of times to move on by locals because it is a trouble spot. i don`t think you`ll find everything you need in just one book.
cheers
peter.


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## Solwaybuggier (Mar 4, 2008)

JockandRita said:


> peejay said:
> 
> 
> > All we do now is use the POI's from campingcar-infos (as per Activecampers link) on our Tomtom.
> ...


Or you can download the data from the Campingcar-infos website to your own USB or harddrive for just 8 euros - one benefit of them producing on USB/download rather than by DVD is that current version is Jan 2010, next update is July 2010.


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## mandyandandy (Oct 1, 2006)

If you think the All Aires book is out of date you should try the Camping cars info book that is hilarious at times. 

Having said that it does make you plan 3 places a night to stop just to be sure you find one of them still there :lol: 

Our book was out of date by 2 years but some of the buildings that were then on the Aire could have been at least 5 years old. 

As someone said on another thread we are all to blame really as they do ask to be informed of changes to Aires and not alot of us do that, even though at the time you think "I'm going to write and let them know about that" by the end of your holiday its back to everyday life and it tends to get forgotten. They may get a better response if it was possible to write on PC and let them know. (someone is bound to come along now and tell me I can)

Thanks for the link Jock that looks great!!

Mandy


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## Westbay (Mar 15, 2008)

Many thanks to one and all for all the advice. Looks like the 'all the aires' book and maybe the download usb.

cheers


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## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

Westbay said:


> Many thanks to one and all for all the advice. Looks like the 'all the aires' book and maybe the download usb.
> 
> cheers


The download will be a little gem, containing the same info as the DVD it replaces. Don't forget the "free" GPS coordinates download for your Sat Nav device from the same website.

Regards,

Jock.


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

Solwaybuggier said:


> Or you can download the data from the Campingcar-infos website to your own USB or harddrive for just 8 euros - one benefit of them producing on USB/download rather than by DVD is that current version is Jan 2010, next update is July 2010.


Thanks Solwaybuggier - I downloaded those files to my hard drive (leave yourself plenty time!) and unzipped them - but I can't find any .exe file to launch the program?

How do I access the information?



JockandRita said:


> The download will be a little gem, containing the same info as the DVD it replaces. Don't forget the "free" GPS coordinates download for your Sat Nav device from the same website.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jock.


There's a GPS om Tom folder included in the download, with an ov2 file named Aires - would that be the GPS co-ordinates?

Thanks.


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

UPDATE:

I discovered WinZip was dstill working away in the background, extracting thefiles! No doubt we=hen it's finished I'll find that exe!


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## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

JWW said:


> There's a GPS om Tom folder included in the download, with an ov2 file named Aires - would that be the GPS co-ordinates?
> 
> Thanks.


Hi JWW,

That will probably be the coordinates for each Aire on the software, ie as part of the general info including a photo where applicable. 
I doubt if it is the TT GPS download.

Go to.........

http://www.campingcar-infos.com/Francais/recherche.php#synchro and scroll down for the zip file that you require, listed on the right.

I used to include the "non verifiees" on the TT, but found them to be inaccurate and/or unsuitable, so I "unchecked" them on the TT POI menu.

HTH,

Jock.


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