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francenew : France’s western isles: Ile de Ré
on first arriving in France - driving
Marianne - a French national symbol, with French definitive stamps the calendar of the French Revolution
the 6th
bridge at Rouen: Pont Gustave Flaubert,
the French umbrella & Aurillac cathedrale
saint-jean-baptiste de lyon from Lyon to Switzerland and Italy - motorway aires on the A42 and A40 after
the whirlwind, in les landes the forest
as seen by francois mauriac, and today the Citroën 2CV: Pic du
Midi - observing stars clearly, A64 Carcassonne,
A61: world heritage fortified city Marianne - a French national symbol, with French definitive stamps the calendar of the French Revolution mardi gras! carnival in Basque country what a hair cut! m & french pop/rock country life in France: the poultry fair
short biography of Pierre (Peter) Abelard
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introduction |
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Britain has free motorways. They usually have a service station every twenty or thirty miles, usually boring and probably rather seedy. In France, you pay through the nose for most motorways [autoroutes] (there are a few free motorways, around large cities and in Northern France) but there is one great joy and luxury that comes with this cost – an immense variety of aires. Government regulations demand that aires are placed at a maximum of 20 km intervals, so there is one without fail every twelve miles or so.
The aires range from small picnic areas with an emergency telephone, washup facilities and a few picnic tables/seats, to filling stations with a variety of services that can rival the worst of British motorway offerings, to super-colossal nirvanas with exhibition centres, expensive tourist teaser shops, incredible views and sometimes features of varying wonderment. A lot of the larger service-oriented aires include restaurants and motels. I shall start by assembling some ‘five-star’ aires, and then extend if or when I find time. There are quite often beautiful, mostly untouched, areas which form what might well be regarded as wildlife sanctuaries. Now I’ve told you about this, please don’t go trampling them and ripping up every wildflower in sight. To a great extent, the wild areas of aires survive because most visitors seem to pass them by unaware as they rush down the motorways and through life. Other than a couple of months each summer, known as “the Tourist Season“, these islands of interest are calm and not over-used. Many of the travellers stop for a quick bite and a leak before hurtling onward. All around the largest cities of France tend to be crowded, rather unpleasant motorway ring roads. Thus, as you approach or leave these conurbations, any aires are generally dusty, unpleasant, polluted, crowded, noisy and otherwise do not find a place on our best aires guide. So, if you are intending to spend time in these havens, and you are approaching or leaving the largest towns and cities, either stop before the countryside starts to smoke up, or expect to drive twenty or thirty miles away from the next city centre before the greatest marvels of airesdom become available.
Of course, before you do any long journey you should check your tyre pressures. If you haven’t, or you want to check again, at the very start or end of autoroutes or near toll barriers [at the gare de péage], you can sometimes find free tyre inflation points, mostly sponsored by the major French tyre company, Michélin, and often manned by a very jolly Michélin man. [2] In this section, I intend to tell you mainly about some
of the big feature aires, mostly constructed by ASF.
Some of them have a restaurant or other facilities, such
aires also are often large enough to include quieter areas
(there is, of course, the thunder of the motorway race-track
never very far away). These are well worth taking some
time out of your journey. Being eccentric, I am capable
of making a special trip with no other objective than
to visit one of these wonders.
the french autoroute network
There are various private companies (concessionaires) that run the motorway systems, including some bridges and tunnels that convey motorways, in France. From the links below, you can reach maps, route calculators, toll charges, traffic information, webcams for various autoroutes. Some maps include access to details about aires. However, beware: these rich companies are enamoured of flash-coded pages, which are neither easy to navigate nor to control, although at times very clever or even pretty.
The motorway companies make their money, of course from the tolls they charge.
pre-route planning with GoogleMapsGoogleMaps has recently upgraded their map-searching facilities to include a cunning and useful ‘tool’ to help with the initial planning. [Note that GoogleMaps does not provide fuel usage or speed camera information.] And what can you now do with GoogleMaps that is so notable? Immediately underneath the Search box, first click on the Get directions link. The Search box splits into two. Next set the Start address, for example to Calais France, and set the End address to, say, Toulouse. Google calculates the following route between these two places:
This route is 964 km, taking about 8 hours 47 mins to drive, according to Google. But then it might be nice to take a few diversions and visit a few cathedrals on the way. So, with the mouse, pick up and replace the blue line so it goes through some cathedral towns, say Amiens, Le Mans, Angers, Poitiers. Below is the resulting perigrination of 1,301 km, which takes about 12 hours 5 mins:
Trying alternative routes, with distance and time information being calculated on the fly, is very useful for initial planning. Then, once you have decided the overall route, it is better to use Mappy or Map24 which will give you distances in miles if you wish, as well as fuel and tolls costings, as well as speed camera positions. [There is a Google page with information on this new facility.]
links to French motorway company websites
list of aires under preparation - to be extended some selected aires of interest
end notes
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| email abelard at abelard.org © abelard, 2004, 23 august the address for this document is http://www.abelard.org/france/motorway-aires1.php
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