French Aires

Have stayed in French Aires often.... no problems.

The ones that you’ve heard about in the pubs are the motorway rest aires ... not recommended to overnight on those as criminals can use the motorway network to escape.

Most town aires are quite safe, take your normal precautions and there is usually other vans there anyway.

Don’t be put off using the aire network, some of the most fabulous stops we’ve found was by using the French aires, and to boot you’re supporting the local towns and small businesses.

Go and enjoy and report back here on your trip.

All the best.

Agree with both the above ,i have also never had a problem and use aires all the time (have a look at my blogs and website) . The only time i have had any problems are here in the U.K. ,One all new locks and a window and all they took was a reversing camera monitor (worth about a fiver and of no use as they left the camera ),I had some plastic panels taken off a P.V.C and a quarter light broken ,and recently someone took the silver plastic cover on the door handle (again worth a couple of pounds). So as said keep away from the motorway services and main drags down to Spain . Put a sturdy chain on the bike and chain it to the van. On the subject of stealing from vehicles ,houses etc we have a massive problem in the Manchester area with gangs of scroats robbing whatever they want as we have not got the police force to combat it .

There are thousands of places to park up for a few hours or a couple of days. As has already been said, don't park overnight or leave your 'van unattended at roadside rest areas or service areas, they are notorious for thievery.

Dedicated motorhome parking areas in cities, towns and villages are generally safe and you will usually find yourself among fellow motorhomers, and we all look out for each other.

Only park up for a night when you see a sign like below

We spend months

Thanks for all the advise folks
The rule of thumb seems to be stay away from motorway stops overnight just keep to the other normal Aires where there's others staying and lets face it there's loads to choose from.
Camping-car looks to be a very handy app
Cheers BARTRE

Sounds like the way to go ok
We never used the motorways on the bikes in recent years but we weren't concerned about Aires but now we'll be bringing the wagon we realize that we've toured the country and never paid any heed to overnight parking of a camper
Good advice

Witzend pointed me in the direction of these a couple of weeks ago when they were for sale on ebay I bought them all for just £20.00. They were all brand new and the unwanted prize in a photographic competition.
Waiting for a new van to arrive and then will be trying them out, great locations. (Thanks again, Witzend)

I use ‘All The Aires’ mainly. Find it excellent. We invariably use camp sites every few days and then revert to aires again.
Franco