There are many different types of 'aires' but the ones of particular importance to motorcaravanners are the places where you can fill your water tanks, empty your rubbish, dump your grey water and empty your toilet. These are also widely known as 'sanistations' though others terms may be used, like 'Entsorgungs-Station' in Germany. In practice if you see a sign similar to the one shown here, you've found it!  At some stations you can park overnight, get temporary mains hook-ups and dump black waste too.

Before telling you more, perhaps we should unravel some of the British confusion about the word 'aire', it simply means an open area or place. So an 'aire de jeu' is a playground, an 'aire de service' is a service area (yes motorway service area too), an 'aire de repos' is a rest area (again typically on a motorway but simply a picnic site, possibly with toilets). An 'aire de loisirs' is a recreation area (but not a child's playground), and an 'aire de stationnement' is parking!  No wonder we are sometimes disappointed when we go looking for one of these 'aires' everyone is talking about!  But since we can't make up our minds whether our vehicles are called motorhomes, motorcaravans or campers perhaps we shouldn't be too critical?!

The two important things about a camping-car aire de service are the sani-station itself often - called a 'borne' in France - and the vehicle parking area. The borne or terminal can be one of several proprietary makes often with 'euro-relais' written on it or it can a home made contraption - in this latter case wellies and a waterproof might be called for!! You normally expect to pay between two and four euros to use one and will receive in return about 100 litres of fresh water or 60 minutes of mains electricity plus access to rubbish bins, and grey and black waste disposal. The disposal side is often free - on the basis that proper waste disposal is a necessary public service of benefit to all. (A refreshing change from the British perspective!!). The parking area might be just sufficient for one motorhome to stop to fill up and empty or it might accommodate anything from two to twenty or exceptionally hundreds of motorcaravans for one to three nights but in a few cases no over-nighting is allowed. At the other end of the scale the whole aire, services, and parking can be completely free. The area can be a dead scruffy spot or really delightful but there's no easy way of finding out in advance.

So where do you find them? Well, they are all over the place, the current guide lists over four and a half thousand if you count all the town stop-overs and the 'France Passion' schemes. Sometimes they are associated with camp sites and trunk road parking but many are situated in small towns and villages where the locals hope their provision will bring your valued trade to the town or co-operative. We've even found a few in really delightful spots where you'd be happy to stay some time - but they are of course intended only for servicing and/or short stays, typically single over-nighting or about three days at the most. Limits on stays are usually displayed on site. Some of the campsite bornes are 'interieur' and some 'exterieur' and prices can vary wildly but a surprising number are really very cheap. Even more surprising is that quite a lot of the municipal and commune provided facilities are completely free! Now how's that for a welcome? Try this link for an excellent database of sanistations from Scandinavia to the Med www.eurocampingcar.com/uk/  Perhaps surprisingly to us Brits not all aires are listed in any of the guides and not all listings are accurate.

One of the best guides to aires is Le Guide officiel étapes touristiques camping-car which is published annually and is available from "Camping Car" magazine, from French supermarkets early in the season and from www.amazon.fr (not .co.uk nb!) in France. Ordering is easier than you might think since amazon.fr will recognise your UK login information. It can also be found in the UK from the Camping and Caravanning Club and by mail order from Deneway Guides on 01308 898017 or Camping Connections Partnership of Dorchester - see the France page for details. The 'English' version is called "The Official Guide to Motorcaravan Tourist Stop-overs" but only the index & short intro is in English so I wouldn't worry too much about getting that edition!  As usual a little French comes in handy but, as with all guides, entries are repetitive, so a few words go a long way. A separate map uses symbols to show the location of the aires - though it is somewhat confused by the numerous symbols for the sponsor - Renault at the time of writing. The map is used to find an aire in the area you want and then you have to look up the site name in the index at the front. As with many French guides, the number listed next to the name is the departement, not the page! So finally, you turn to the relevant departement to find the site listed alphabetically, all very French. Directions and details of the facilities on offer are given for each entry. The latest guides have aires 'communale ou privée' shaded for easy identification. <€10 in France by the way.

In Germany there is a similar - but slightly different - system of Stellplätze - listed in books called Der große Reisemobil-Stellplatz-Atlas, Deutschland, Nordband / Südband (& also other countries too) or the Reisemobil International Bordatlas 2004 or the ADAC Stellplatz Führer Deutschland.  wohnmobile.net is one source and amazon.de of course - by the way all Amazon sites will recognise your login and stored credit card details so buying from sites abroad is fairly simple you just pay more postage. Our copy of the 2004 Bordatlas cost €19.54 delivered.

The symbols are colour coded to indicate the type of aire but in true French style the colours vary from year to year, presumably to make sure you don't use a later free map with an earlier guide?! In the guide I'm looking at right now the green ones show the aires on the autoroutes and cleverly show which side of the motorway they are on; the blue ones show the farms and vineyards that participate in the France-Passion scheme (further details on this site); the red symbol is the most numerous and indicates aires found in campsites, as a condition of being in the guide, all will provide for filling up with water and emptying waste water and toilets but being private campsites the variations make it impossible to describe the facilities exactly; finally the yellow symbol for "aire de services - communale ou privée" shows the most interesting locations for many of us, the majority of these aires are provided by a village or town and usually have one of the proprietary bornes such as Euro-Relais, Sanistation, Flot Bleu or one of the unidentified green ones as shown in the pictures, all are very straightforward to use provided you have your own hose. A few metres of hose with a screw-on tap connector is usually all you need. A surprising number of bornes are free, otherwise a few euros are paid either by coin-in-a-slot or by token (jeton). The guide should tell you where tokens can be obtained, often in the local bar or tabac or mairie. The most useful sani-stations are often the ones which offer overnight parking, so even if you have no need of the services you can still park up for the night. Do note though that "camping" is often seen as different to overnight parking and may not be allowed, so make yourself at home but without the external paraphernalia of picnic tables & chairs, barbeques, etc.

Aires can sometimes be rather elusive, you might find the directions given as "500 metres from centre" but this might not help much in a major town unless you have a street plan - it's easier in villages where almost anyone will know where it is. Many aires are tucked away in obscure corners but some will be sited in more attractive spots, perhaps by a river, lake or reservoir and if parking is permitted, make delightful overnight stops. You might wonder why the village has gone to all the expense of providing an aire at all. Maybe they are hoping to attract visitors who will then spend some euros at the local enterprises! Hopefully you will too, remembering to mention that you are staying in your camping-car and then the villagers will see the value of the aire and of foreign visitors in general!

Also do look at www.eurocampingcar.com for excellent info on many sanistation locations from Scandinavia to the Med.