We’re back in France and as usual headed for our favourite aire in Calais, Le Grand Gravlot, well what a surprise, when we arrived the site is closed.

Normally there would be 50 or more motorhomes spending the night there, but now the road is blocked and all the facilities have been ripped out. When we searched the internet we found reports that the site has been taken over by Camping-car Park, a membership organisation!

Our experience of trying to book one of Camping-Car Park’s sites was terrible, in short you have to be a member and pay various fees which meant that our one night was going to cost us around €50 which is far too much. We used to be members of both the Caravan Club and Caravan and Camping Club but found their rates far to costly so we now refuse to join either.

We will not be using Camping-Car Park either. A quick search using our phones produced a really good aire a short distance from Calais where we passed a quiet night without cost.

When we’re on the road we don’t need electric hook up and all the other facilities provided by many campsites, our needs are few, so aires are our preferred overnight locations.