Blog 1.14: What is an Aire?

Or an Aire de Camping Car to be more accurate (with apologies to those who may be thinking 'don't teach me to suck eggs').

Well, this is an Aire:

Looks just like a campsite with a few motorhomes pitched on it eh?

Well, yeah, fair point.

The difference, though, is this is provided by the town so as to encourage people to come to the town (in this case Labruguière, some kms south of Castres, on the road to Carcassonne) and enjoy it, while spending their money in the town.

Compare and contrast this attitude with good old blighty, where you have problems even finding a car park without a ridiculously low height barrier or needing a small mortgage to enable staying in it for more than a couple of hours. And woe betide you should you wish to actually stay over! Oh no squire, there's a campsite 10 miles out of town where you can cough up a fortune to stay, and hope there's a bus more often than once a week to enable you to visit the town and spend more cash.

Makes sense, dunnit?

Non!

The French model is so SO much better, and here's why:

We pulled up at the gate barrier here this afternoon. M hopped out, put in her Revolut card, punched a few buttons, and in we drove, found a suitable pitch, and parked. Simple.

Aha, you may say, it's a bit basic. Well, maybe, but bear in mind we paid nine Euros for our overnight stay (many Aires are cheaper, or even free), and for that we have a secure pitch, with an electric hookup included in the price. There's also a full moho service point, where we can dump grey and black waste, and take on water.

We were also able to amble gently into the centre of this pretty little riverside town in a matter of minutes.

I call that a win.

Britain, wake up.

More about today, tomorrow.

Mileage so far: 884