Alsace Wine Tour – Trier to Givet, France

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From Trier, Germany to Givet, France

As the empty trucks pass over the expansion joints in the modern bridge over the Moselle river adjacent to the aire in Trier they make a huge noise, during the night it was not apparent, but this morning it is very irritating. Normally noise does not bother us, but this is unpredictable and loud, not much we can do about it though.

We have a businesslike start to the day, breakfast then to the service point to dump grey water and empty the toilet cassette. When we arrive at the disposal facilities there is a motorhome already on the grey water disposal point. The people from this particular motorhome don’t seem to know what to do, the woman is wandering about with two dogs on leads, walking around aimlessly with all the time in the world. Meanwhile a queue of motorhomes is forming, all of whom want to use the service point.

These two need lessons in how to service a motorhome, they are blocking up the service area. I can’t be bothered to wait so get out and walk our cassette round them to the disposal point and empty it, then put it back in place. They are still wondering what day it is. The man seems to be waiting for the grey water to drain before he goes to empty his cassette, the woman is doing nothing. My guess is that the motorhome is a rental and this is their first day.

The procedure is quite simple, open the grey water drain, then while that’s running out one of you deals with the cassette and the other fills with fresh water.

We can not wait, we abandon it and head for the pay machine, pay for our overnight stay €11.60 and are out of the gate PDQ, we can dump grey water somewhere else. Trier is incredibly busy at this time, there is something going on because there are police cars and a sweeping machine ahead, some spillage we think. It takes time to get past, then we are climbing up and up to get out of town. We don’t have an overnight stop in mind yet, but are aiming for somewhere in the area around Charleroi, Belgium does not have good aires generally. As we pass through Luxembourg we call at the Q8 motorway service area, it has a large filling station where we fill up with LPG (GPL) at 74c per litre and diesel at €1.74 a litre, that’s good because we are now full of both fuels at the lowest prices available. Q8 has a motorhome service point where you can dump and fill free — UK motorway service areas take note! We eat lunch at the service area and consider the next overnight, we decided to return to Givet in France, we would have stayed there at least one more night if the aire had not been closed for Bastille Day fireworks.

We arrive back in Givet mid afternoon, the aire is filling up quickly, there are 24 places 12 of which are already occupied, we take a pitch facing the river, then go walking into the town. The temperature is falling, 18° at 10 pm, much more comfortable for us. Givet is a great stop, we are next to the river with good views. The aire has very good facilities, the pitch and disposal are free, you only pay for water and electric if you need them.