Morgat and the PASS’ETAPES Camping-Car Park Card

We’ve tootled across to Morgat folks, not far from our last stop here on the Presqu’île de Crozon (presqu’île means literally ‘nearly an island’, the smile-inducing French for a peninsular). We’re finding this part of Brittany really attractive with its monumental cliffs, easy-going seaside towns, pine forests and turquoise coves.

These coves aren’t quite as accessible for snorkeling as I’d hoped though. Croatia has spoiled me in that sense. Down on eastern shores of the Adriatic there are few sandy beaches, so campsites are built right alongside rocky coastlines, perfect for slipping in and eyeballing the silent world. Up here on the Atlantic sandy beaches abound, attracting campsites and aires, so the rocky bits tend to be quite a way away. High cliffs and (in a few places) potentially fatal sea currents prevent access to coves unless you’ve a boat on you. I’m not too fussed. Life’s good. And we’ve both just finished reading The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, after which lives seems infinitely better.

We drove here yesterday after first nipping up to the Pointe de Dinan, one of many cliff-top headlands on the peninsular. There’s a small, sloping, uneven car park there which allows a 24 hour stay, and has beautiful views out to sea. We were in half a mind to stay the night, but we’re a tad cautious these days about ‘wilding’ on a Friday or Saturday night. One too many nights spent staring at the ceiling or sneaking peeks through curtains with the local youff stood around outside drinking and playing bangin’ tunes until 2am :-).

I was in a bit of a grump about the place too. It being slap bang in the middle of a nature reserve, signs ask you not camp or to get your stuff out – chairs, tables, awnings etc, yet there were a couple of vans there doing just that. Déballage the French call it, and they’re often fed up with folks doing it on urban aires too, where it’s usually banned (or takes up space in busy aires where others could park).

Being allowed to stay overnight in natural places is (rightly or wrongly) increasingly becoming a privilege, especially with Europe’s burgeoning population of motorhomes and campers. But still some folks ignore/don’t read the signs. Enforcing these restrictions is for local authorities, not for me, but it still winds me up. Out of season, or in remote areas where there’s no-one around to see it, it’s likely not going to cause any issues at all. In summer, in popular spots, full of cars all day, it might.

Anyway, I ranted at poor old Ju for a bit (other stuff had wound me up beforehand – nothing to do with her). As we walked the coastal path around the headland I calmed down. A military helicopter flew low overhead (there’s a base on the peninsular) as we strolled the rocky path among heather, with views of calm seas far below. Onto the far end of the headland we admired the famous sea arch over to the Château de Dinan rock formation, not having the courage to descend the cliff path and stand atop it. Back at the car park another camper was just putting his chairs away. I silently tutted :-). Grumpy git I am at times!

Park4night revealed another, larger and flatter headland car park which also allowed a 24 hour stay at the Cap de la Chevre, again in a great location near the cliffs. It was still Friday though, so still potential for the neds, so we opted to head for the motorhome aire in the beachside resort of Morgat (N48.225208, W4.507937) instead. All of 15 minutes later we rolled up to find someone stabbing away at the machine by the barrier, looking confused. This isn’t too unusual. The pay machines are all different. Some want you to type in your reg. Some don’t accept certain cards. Some have confusing messages about costs. In this case, the machine was simply broken, so the chap couldn’t pay to leave.

When it came to our turn (when he gave up and phoned someone up), we knew we’d need to buy a card to get in. We’d seen the signage showing it was one of the Pass Etapes Camping-Car Park aires (full map of all these aires in France here).

We’ve come across these in the past, but never stayed in one. You have to buy a €5 card which you then top-up and use it to pay for the aires, which was enough to put us off previously. Not the €5, but the idea Europe’s open-to-all network of aires might start being carved up by corporates. A bit like how there’s now a hundred apps to pay for car parking in the UK, and we never seem to have the right one.

Only the machine refused to sell us the card. The button was greyed-out and no amount of prodding would un-grey it. Eventually, with a queue developing behind us, Ju called the number on the machine. A very helpful young lady answered, speaking perfect English. A small cursor appeared on the screen and start moving around as she took remote control of the payment/card issuing machine. Turns out there were cards available, but the payment bit was broken. She restarted it remotely, but as it was taking a while she took payment from us over the phone, our card popped out and in we rolled.

Once parked up and hooked-up to the leccy we installed the Camping-Car Park app on one of our phones and had a play. It’s interesting. With most aires you can’t book and you can’t tell how busy they are until you arrive, they’re first-come-first-served. Most of the time it’s not an issue. We’ve built a habit of arriving mid-morning for the best chance of getting a space. Also, there’s normally another aire, campsite or parking area knocking around. But this network lets you see exactly how many spaces are free on all of its aires across Europe, and book ahead too (via the app). I’ve been geeking out on it a bit, it’s an interesting new concept (to me, it’s been going for years).

I asked on our Facebook page whether anyone else had used this network and got a strong, positive response. Clearly a lot of people use it and like the app, one suggesting this is a new, modern way for aires to operate. I’m intrigued, but not yet 100% convinced. Traditionally aires have been owned by individual towns or businesses, not collectively by corporate owners. This means lots of differing standards, but also that no one company is able to control access conditions (no need for special apps or cards) and prices across hundreds of aires. If their systems get hacked or simply fail, potentially thousands are locked into their aires. If they’re not hacked, they can successfully track wherever you stay on their network, and market you accordingly.

I’ve spent long enough working for corporates to know that while individuals employees usually want the best for their customers, collectively the company demands profit above all else. (Fessing up: I’m still a little bitter after the multi-national I worked for outsourced most of my IT colleagues to Eastern Europe & India). I suspect the liberty-loving French might feel something similar, as despite this being a pretty nice aire in a very good location and reasonably priced, it gets some overly harsh reviews.

Anyway, we’re finding Morgat to be a really pleasant wee spot. Ju’s just got back from a run to Crozon, and declared it to be nicer here than up there. We’ve a small U Express supermarket next to us. There’s a bakers a short walk away. The town beach, cafes, restaurants and marina (with a public washer-dryer) are a five minute amble down well-groomed streets. Half an hour up through the pines of the Bois du Kador, along the sentier des douaniers (yep. the GR34 again) brings you to the cliff-top views above idyllic coves like the one pictured above. It’s a two-dayer, maybe more if we’d more time.

We’re just back from seeing off moules-frites (with roquefort) and a slightly-less French burger and french fries. The waiter asked how Ju wanted the burger cooking. We couldn’t remember what medium was (he understood us, and when asked reminded us it’s à point in French). Although the clouds have rolled in, we got to sit outside with a view of the sea and (very slowly) munch our way through this delicious grub. Nay shabby. We’re pulling the map out this afternoon to decide where to head next. Might need a wee kip first to get the energy levels back up again!

Cheers, Jay