Enjoying the Free Motorhome Aire Network in France

Zagan the motorhome has been skipping his way across France, making the most of the free motorhome aires provided by local communities. He’s currently resting up in an aire he has visited this time last year, just outside Planfoy (N45.37487, E4.44858) in the Loire Department in Central France. 

Zagan the motorhome at the free aire in Planfoy, France

After a great holiday with our friends near Chambord Chateau, we struggled to leave the campsite. The temperature was in  the 30’s and we know from experience that we don’t do well in a tin box on wheels when it’s that hot. Our plan for such occasions is to head for a campsite where you can get your awning out, sit outside and keep cool – there’s usually a nearby source of ice creams too.

We were woken on Monday morning by a sound we hadn’t heard in a while. Tip, tap, plop on Zagan’s roof. ‘Is that rain?’ Jay murmured sleepily. ‘Yeah, hmmmm rain’ I replied, snuggling under the sheet (too hot for duvet at the moment), dreaming of how cool and fresh everything will be after the rain. It was daylight, but not yet 7am, so time to roll over and go back to sleep. However a nanosecond later Jay remembered that the camping chairs were out. Grabbing any items of clothing we could find, not expecting to see anyone at this hour, we dived outside and discovered our neighbours doing exactly the same – only they had bothered to dress properly!

It was time to leave the campsite, the hot weather had passed and we didn’t want to have to look our neighbours in the eye again…

Mehun-sur-Yevre

Still waiting to hear about some filming work we need to do in London shortly, we didn’t want to travel far, as we thought we could drive to Paris and get the train from there if the work was imminent. Mehun-sur-Yevre was chosen from our Park4Night app as the aire had good reviews, was free and offered shade (N47.14404, E2.21025) – all the boxes we wanted were ticked.

I love that you get these signs in France. No parking except (sauf) motorhomes (camping cars).

We parked up in the aire next to the canal and set off for a walk to see what there was in the town. At the moment the town is undergoing some major refurbishment, with closed roads, piles of cobble stones and ripped up pavements. It also didn’t help that everything was shut. In France lots of places are closed on a Monday, and every day at lunchtime too – so perhaps visiting on Monday lunchtime won’t give you the best view of a place. But it wasn’t just that a lot of the shops were closed down, empty. Especially those in the lower half of town towards the aire. Luckily Mehun-sur-Yevre redeemed itself with a huge park and a ruined Chateau.

And where there is a ruined Chateau (even if the museum bit is closed) there are places to explore.

We spent a good couple of hours wandering around the chateau and park, testing ourselves on the outdoor gym equipment. When we headed back to the aire, we went along the canal which was a lot more picturesque that the roadworks in town.

By Monday evening we had found out that the work in London is a week away, so it was time to get the map out and make some plans.

Le Crozet

The mountains are calling. With our runs in Zermatt just a month away – eeek – we really need to get in some hill training and if possible at altitude. My pathetic Tuesday morning 5km run proved this, it was flat and I really struggled (in my defence it was around 25°C at 9am). How will I ever manage 21km up a mountain?

Checking transport arrangements could be made from Lyon or somewhere a bit closer to the Alps, we set off on what we call a ‘blatt’. Now we know, there are folks out there who travel for many, many hours, across countries in a day, but that’s not us. For us, a long drive is anything over a couple of hours, especially if we don’t pay for the motorway. We plotted a course to Lyon and picked a free motorhome aire about three hours away. After a ‘big shop’ at Lidl and a refuel, we were off.

The free motorhome aire at Le Crozet only has two spaces, normally we’d arrive early to secure one, but it was a big, newly built Lidl and it took me a while to peruse everything. So it was around 4pm that we reached the town below Le Crozet. An old man smiled and waved at us as we started the climb up to the village. Does he know something we don’t? Were we the 6th van he’d seen drive past so knew we’d never get a space, or did he know that we’d never get under the railway bridge ahead? In the end we think he was just being friendly, as the bridge had loads of room and being only 6m long we easily squeezed around the tight corners in the village and into the aire (N46.16943, E3.85753), which was empty.

Thunder rumbled above us, and a few spots of rain took the edge off the heat, but it was still around 30°C when we set off on foot at 5pm for a look around the village. An old lady sitting the shade outside her house commented on us going for a walk in these temperatures, but it was cooler than inside Zagan.

We knew nothing about Le Crozet before we arrived, it turned out to be another picture postcard perfect village, like Gerberoy where we visited just the other day. But there was something difference about Le Crozet, it didn’t feel as touristy as Gerberoy, which could be because it’s not within a day-trip distance of Paris. Le Crozet has one auberge (a sort of rustic restaurant) and a tourist office which opens only on the weekends and that was pretty much it. We spotted a couple of gites (rental holiday homes), but no souvenir (or as we call them ‘tat’) shops.

The gated entrance to Le Crozet – fortunately the free motorhome aire is outside the village walls!

The pretty village is perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking a vast plain, giving great views out across where we had just travelled. It’s chock full of medieval and Renaissance houses, but we had the place to ourselves. Sitting on a shaded bench in the middle of the village, we got talking about what we like from a motorhome stop. We don’t like it when a place feels too touristy, but we don’t always like it when somewhere is a normal place with nothing much going on. I guess we’re a bit like Goldilocks, we like a place to feel just right! We love some cities, but not others, however we think we love all mountains and seaside. With the travel world partly put to rights, we agreed we’ll know if we like a place when we’ve seen it, so plenty more travelling to be done – we carried on looking around the village. 

We were armed with a leaflet from the a rack outside the tourist office, which was all in French, but gave us an idea of what there was to see. Outside each building of interest was an information board which had a section in English. Behind the mayor’s office was the village’s old well, one side of its thick top stone worn away by ropes over the years. There were also the crumbling ruins of the original church, as well as the ‘new’ church which was as old as most churches we’ve been in. Next to the new church was the original village keep from the 12th century. 

Inside the keep was a display detailing a train crash which happened in a tunnel right next to the village. In 1971 two trains collided in the tunnel, one of which was carrying wagons of diesel and petrol. The fire started by the crash burned for a few days and parts of the tunnel collapsed. There were tales of heroism when someone had run into the burning tunnel to enable some of the fuel-carrying wagons to be pulled free, reminding us of a heroic chap who’d rescued people from the Mont Blanc tunnel fire (blog post from when we used the tunnel). These days the train line no longer runs in a tunnel, but instead a cutting where the tunnel used to be. We climbed the wooden staircase around the edge of the tower up to a viewing platform. From here we could see for miles.

Back at Zagan, we sat outside on the picnic benches provided until the day turned to dusk. After checking our motorhome insurance, we discovered that we aren’t covered if we leave Zagan in France and both go back to the UK. So a decision was reached that Jay would go on his own and do the filming work. The evening was spent looking at all the flight and train options and securing a hotel for him. We both slept very soundly last night, even with the noise of the odd passing train reminding us of the photos we’d seen of the accident.

Planfoy

With a date that we need to be in Chambery so Jay can catch the train to London, our plans (vague ideas mainly) have come together. Looking for a suitable stop for tonight, we spotted Planfoy marked on our map from our last visit. Remembering that there are good trails around here for running, we set off early (for us). Arriving just before noon, Jay had barely put the handbrake on before he was in his running gear and out of the door. A couple of hours and 13 miles later he arrived back with a big smile on his face, having run around the dam we walked to last time we were here, and up to the next village complete with castle. That’s the beauty of motorhome touring, you get to run and see some beautiful places.

Ju x