Aside from all of the castles, beautiful landscapes and cheese that it has to offer, France also has an amazing network of aires de service (service areas). These provide free or low-cost car camping to visitors
We stayed at these aires de service every night on our journey across France. This left us with more money to otherwise spend on the aforementioned cheese and accompanying wine
?What is an “aires de service
Aires vary hugely so it’s hard to give an exact definition. An aire is a low cost or free private camping area in France. Often, they are run by the local town council
There are various names for this type of camping, though aire de service is by far the most common. Aires Communales are run by the local community to encourage local trade; these are often the most looked after
The aires de service I am mainly referring to, are found either within or just outside settlements of all sizes. They are intended as a place for car campers to stop for the night
I say ‘car campers’ as the French refer to RVs/motorhomes as ‘camping cars’ and it also helps to define who can use the aires. The standard aire de service is a car park/parking lot, so hence it is not suitable for tent campers. We did find a couple of aires that were set into a forest, but this was unusual
?Small or large aires
We preferred to find and stay at the smaller aires de service; our car was dwarfed by the much larger motorhomes, and so the smaller aires had a less claustrophobic atmosphere. Some people, however, prefer the larger ones because of the community feel
What kind of facilities do Aires de Service have?
The majority of aires de service are free, though some will ask for a fee.
Most will offer
- An off-street parking area
- Means of waste disposal (for motorhome chemical toilets and grey water)
- A water fill point (eau potable)
Waste disposal almost always seemed to be free. Water is usually a flat fee for a specific amount or time e.g. 2 Euros for 100 litres or 10 minutes of fill
Sometimes there is a low amperage electrical hookup available, again usually with a fee
Travelling France in a converted car, we did not use any of these facilities, we instead looked for free aires de service with washrooms and a nice location. Our requirements (free, small, washrooms, nice location) did narrow the options down, but we still never had an issue finding a plac
