# Use of Aires in France for Caravans & MH's



## anita302 (Feb 11, 2007)

Hi

I am off to France in August traveling from Calais to Quimper with the intention of staying at a couple of Aires on route.

This seem all okay until my sister who is traveling with us received the Aires guide she ordered today only to find out it says that Caravans are not allowed by French Law to stop over in Aires! And guess what, she's towing a Caravan and we're in a MH. 

Has anyone any experience of using Aires in France with a caravan?

The other thing the guide mentions is that they restrict the limit of the MH's. Our's is 28ft. Have any of you 28ft plus had any problems staying in them?

Anita


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## angie (May 16, 2005)

Hi Anita,

Sorry I don't know about caravans but we've never seen any on the aires which we have been on.

As to your other question, we are 26ft long and are fine on the aires. We also see bigger motorhomes on than us. I would say that you need to preferably go to the larger aires which take more motorhomes though as you may struggle to find room to park on the smaller ones.

Angie


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## gaspode (May 9, 2005)

Hi Anita

Caravans are definitely NOT welcome on aires. Off season you may get away with it if there is plenty of space on the aire but in high season you'd get a whole lot of grief from French motorhomers, especially if they're looking for a non-existent space on a crowded aire.

Size matters on some aires. Where purpose built hard standings are provided they may not be long enough for a very big van on many occasions, less formal aires may be OK. In any event I don't see much problem up to about 30'.


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## anita302 (Feb 11, 2007)

Thanks guys for you info. 

The guide book was right then.

Looks like as we're traveling in convoy with my sister, we are going to have to find campsites to stay in overnight instead of the Aires.

But anytime we go alone, I will make sure I look up the larger Aires to stop at for us.

Cheers 

Anita


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## Proff (Jul 22, 2005)

6 weeks all around France last year with our previous 25 foot 6 inch M/H towing a single bike trailer and never found an Aire we didn't fit on.
On lots of very busy Aires we found smaller M/H's doubled up on some bays, 
EG. Ouradour Sur Glane
All helps with the Comaraderie ccasion5: 

Ones you have toured using the Aires, you will be advising your friend to sell the Caravan and buy a M/H just for the savings you make using Aires on an extended Holiday trip.
Our "new" Hymer 660 has a MoBike rack built in so we will not need the trailer this year  and will be able to double up on the busy Aires ccasion5: :smilecolros: :


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## robrace (Jun 30, 2005)

*Caravans*

We use the aires a lot and the only time we seen caravans pull in was at Honfleur!The Police arrived and they moved them on!Aires are only as far as I have seen for Motorhomes!


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## sallytrafic (Jan 17, 2006)

When editing the MHF campsite database I have noticed many aires have municiple sites adjoining or close. Don't know if this would help.


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## anita302 (Feb 11, 2007)

Frank

That could be a good idea, I will have a look at them.

Cheers to everyone helping :wink:


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