Whilst looking at possibilities for next year's holiday to France, I've discovered an aire management company called AireParkRéservation, we're aware of Camping Car Park and have a membership card which allows us to use the aires they manage, does anyone know if AireParkRéservation operate on a similar basis? E.g. do you have to have a membership card before you can use their services?
We got our Camping Car Park membership card at the aire at Saumur, we were able to buy the card at the payment point, I'm assuming AireParkRéservation operate on the same basis. Can anyone confirm whether this is the case?
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Thanks both, I had (and I realise I didn't say this in my post), already found the website, a member of another forum explained how it worked (you don't need a card, just turn up), plus I was reminded about the translate feature in my browser which makes it so much easier to understand what the website is telling you.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond.
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We stayed at an Aire Park in Camaret Sur Mer and liked it very much. The only issue that occurs to me is how the availability of the space you have reserved is controlled. Presumably when the gate control ‘counts’ that all spaces (including the one you’ve reserved, regardless of whether you have arrived yet or not) are full, it shows a ‘full’ sign and won’t let any more vans in. This is a similar system to that used by Camping Car Parks - in their case the number of available spaces is shown ‘live’ on their website and displayed at the entrance. However, if spaces are not clearly marked or defined, the system can break down.
We arrived at the Port Louis Remparts CCP and the sign and app showed 3 spaces left. We went in through the barrier and could not get in a space as other vans had ‘spread out’ in the unmarked spaces. Luckily the other CCP in Port Louis had space.
Then at Les Viviers, near St Malo, a very large A class was parked across 3 spaces - unless the owner had paid for 3 spaces, presumably the vacant spaces sign was again incorrect.
I’m not saying this is the case at Aire Parks - in fact at Camaret, the spaces were mainly defined, but something to bear in mind. Also if we’d wanted ehu we’d have needed a very long cable across the roadway to one of only 2 bornes!
We would use Aire Parks and CCP again but will make sure we have contingencies! Not sure what happens if you’ve paid for a reservation you can’t use ?
You make a fair point about aires being crowded out and there being no room at the inn, discussing this with fellow motorhomers, it is one of the things that puts people off of using aires and it was certainly the very thing the kids hated about the prospect of using an aire (which is why we never did when they used to come away with us). The prospect of being able to reserve a pitch removes that concern.
Due to not being able to use our fridge on gas we stayed away from aires this year (yes I know many aires have electricity but as you've indicated, that's not always available/accessible), I did take a look at the aire at Fousenant-Le Foret whilst in transit and that had marked out pitches, likewise, last year, the aire at Saumur had marked out pitches so there was no bunching up and the orientation of the pitches prevented pitching across 3 pitches as you describe.
It's always a good idea to have contingencies when planning on using aires.
Good points made - i noticed that they don't offer reservation on all the aires listed, so perhaps it's just those with defined spaces in which they can control who parks where ?
In any case it's good that they offer so much detail and photos of aires as finding out detailed info about them can be tricky - we use SFS but of course if there are no new pics or reviews it cant help that much. Another website to enjoy consulting while my husband rolls his eyes :)
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