Tackling the Legendary Honfleur Motorhome Aire

Zagan the motorhome’s facing onto the water, at the famous motorhome aire at Honfleur in Calvados, Normandy (N49.419061, E0.242976). It’s located right next to the popular town’s harbour, with capacity for a whacking 200 motorhomes (maybe even 250, no-one seems to know). It costs just over £10 per 24 hours which, considering we’re in such a cracking location, is fantastic value. They even have electricity for some of the ‘pitches’, included in the price. Signs ask you not to try and use it to power your microwave, heating or coffee machine, as it’s only five amps.

Even though there are so many places for vans here, I was still a tad edgy about getting in when we came down yesterday. France is incredibly welcoming to motorhomes, but it’s also the most-visited country in the world. That popularity extends to ‘camping cars’ too, especially in July and August, and getting a pitch can be a challenge. I didn’t help our stress levels either, as I couldn’t make my mind up whether to use the (paid) autoroute or not. The satnav was programmed to use them but I kept opting to avoid coughing up (partly out of an old fear of hitting the narrow toll booths). Poor old Ju was left with the awkward job of navigating with the map and overriding the barked orders from the satnav every five minutes as a result. In the end we didn’t avoid all the booths. As we came up to cross the leaping dual bridges of the Pont du Normandie, we had no choice but to shell out the €6.50 charge. I didn’t crash into the booth.

We’ve been here before, but not in our motorhome. We visited back in 2013 with Aussie friends Paul and Rose, towards the end of their three-year European tour in their wonderfully-named motorhome, Where’dmadaygo? They’d opted to drive a car as well as their van, staying longer in places and using it to explore. That proved very handy for us, as we both parked our vans at the aire in La Riviere-Saint-Sauveur (N49.40891 E0.26990), and they gave us a lift over here. It’s a little scary looking back at photos from that old blog post – so much has changed (I’ve got less hair!) and so much has stayed the same. Anyway, the point is that we haven’t tackled the famously popular town of Honfleur with a big fat moho in the summer heat.

In the past we’ve found that that arriving before, say, 2pm is a good strategy for getting a place in busy aires. The vast majority of aires don’t allow you to book (the Camping-Car Park ones are a notable exception). Most folks using them move on in the morning, making room for incomers in the process. By mid afternoon spaces in popular aires get rare again and by early evening you might well be left out in the cold. Then you’ll have to decide whether to risk parking in the town somewhere (occasionally overlooked by the police when aires are full) or heading off on a potentially long hunt for another aire or campsite with room.

The strategy worked for us this time and we drove straight into a space as they gradually filled around us. Many paid aires have entrance barriers with automated payment machines, so you can’t get in without taking a ticket (which you use to pay when you leave) or paying up front. This aire has such a system, but it’s brand new and hasn’t yet been commissioned. So instead you drive in, find a space then wander to a machine and pay. Ju returned scratching her head, as the machine weirdly offered 24 hours for €12, 25 hours for €28 or 26 hours for €30. It turns out, we think, that you have to pay for 24 hours, then go get another ticket each subsequent day you want to stay. We’re guessing a few folks are opting not to pay at all, using the aire for a few hours free daytime parking while they look around Honfleur, then leaving in the evening. This means spaces appear here until 8pm or 9pm, way after the ‘COMPLET’ (full) sign has gone up.

We’ve opted to stay a couple of nights, and moved this morning to a space with a water view of the quay & a WW2 bunker on the opposite bank. The space was also right next to a hook-up point, so we’re running the fridge on the leccy & charging every gadget we own. We don’t feel too guilty about this. The French government appears to be subsidising electricity in the current energy crisis, so costs here have remained roughly the same while those in the UK are rocketing.

There’s nothing about Honfleur I can write which others haven’t before me. It’s an easy-on-the-eye, ancient trade port built at the place the Seine emerges into the English Channel. Cod fishermen and slavers grew wealthy here before the French revolution, building impressively tall houses around the Vieux Bassin. They’re original too as, thanks to the intervention of a local saint, Honfleur was the only city not bombed during WW2. I’m not sure what this says about the potency of other city’s preferred saints mind you?

These days, other than the remaining fishing industry, it’s all about the tourist. There are hordes of us. Not just the few hundred from the motorhome aire of course. They’re driving, bussing and sailing ’em in folks. A huge river cruise boat moored alongside one of the quays had us craning our necks at the cabins, Champagne ice buckets and carefully-laid dinner tables inside. After an extensive search of packed restaurants, we ate a ‘menu’ (simple, relatively cheap three course meal at €20 a head) by the old quay this lunch. A helpful American chap on the adjacent table told us he was on such a cruise, sailing along the Seine from Paris for a week before heading back, flying to Venice for 3 days, taking a train to Rome for 3 days and flying home again. Ocean-going cruise ships can dock here too, but there isn’t one in port at the moment, thankfully as we reckon the place might sink under the weight of us all!

So, back to the aire. We’ve attempted to photograph it but without a drone, it’s too big and spread out. Most of the spaces are marked out with wooden stakes bolted flat to the ground, giving you maybe a couple of metres space either side. Not much, but we’ve been on aires with barely enough space to open the door, so it feels fine to us. As with practically all aires there’s no shower/toilet block, just a couple of areas where you can offload grey and toilet waste and fill up with water. The queues for these were five deep at 10:30am, peak departure time!

Motorhomes rumble around all day like prowling wolves until the early evening, with numberplates hailing from France, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey & the UK. Among a few of the parked vans, folks have pulled their chairs and tables out to eat lunch. Although there are no signs here saying you can’t do this, you normally can’t. They’re risking the wrath of the local gendarmes (and a few other motorhomers I guess) by undertaking ‘camping behavior’ like this but at the moment no-one seems to care.

We could happily stay here a few more days but the clock’s ticking so we’re pushing on towards Brittany tomorrow. This time we’ll take the paid motorway to Caen and have a look for a prepaid French SIM card (12GB a month from our UK SIM is proving woefully inadequate). From Caen westwards the fast roads are free of charge (as this part of France has been traditionally skint), so we’ll make quicker progress from there. We’re not quite sure how far we’ll get, but the rugged coast of the Celts is calling so we might just get a wriggle on.

Cheers, Jay