More Aires Hunting - Day 3

Spain are going to have to pull their socks up!!

Another 200 km destination although there is a lovely canal-side (again!) Aire that we used a few years ago that might tempt us to stop a bit early, a beautiful spot with all services and although not free it was very cheap. This day would take us right to the bottom of the Champagne region.

Driving was fairly uneventful but I am feeling more comfortable with the van. On an Iveco base its very lorry like as opposed to our Bel-Air which was fiat based and very car like to drive. The gear-change especially has a very long throw and feels quite clonky at first. The engine doesn't feel that it wants to be revved hard through the gears and, like the lorries I remember driving years ago, works at its best when kept in the green power band on the rev-counter. Initial calculations show that we're averaging just over 25mpg which at 4 and a half tons I'm very happy with.

Arriving at Froncles, the Aire I mentioned, we were really disappointed to see the state of it. A couple of really grubby vans and an old coach looked like they had taken permanent residence with associated debris strewn about and the others were jammed in at all angles with washing lines up - it all looked more like a travellers camp!

Back to plan A then, As we went through Landres we followed the signs to a town centre Aire but on arrival we found that although the services were open the parking had been blocked off and prohibited signs put up.

Another 15 or 20 kms on we pulled in at a village Aire that we recognised from about 4 years ago, it had been full then so we hadn't stayed but this time there was room. The pitches are good sized and in pairs bordered by hedging. We soon got parked and settled in. There's a 5€ charge but includes EHU and services and we found out later, showers and toilets too - we always use our own facilities but it's great for those who don't.

A couple of Brits were considering their parking options in order to be able to receive satellite signals for England's game against Italy but the surrounding trees were a problem. We just put up our Status aerial and found TF1 HD amongst our Freeview channels and job done 

We decided we'd stay an extra day.