Category Archives: France

Gare D’eau Guarbecques, France 2022

We arrived here after an hour and half drive from our last stop, an absolutely beautiful stop over, free day and night stop over but NO services, no water, no Chemical waste disposal and only a handful of bins.

You can park on gravel hard standing overlooking the canal with ducks and geese everywhere, the canal is a fairly busy waterway with some large boats up and down, it can get busy with dog walkers and picnickers but very quiet in the evening.

View overlooking the canal.
Lovely views both left
And right

Lovely walks along the canal, you could also cycle if you wished.

Large boats a plenty

Carillon-sur-Sambre, France 2022

We stopped on route to refill the LPG (GPL in France) and then headed here, the first place we stopped right by the canal is no longer an Aire, they have moved the official place to 50m down the road.

It’s now a gravel car park for Camping-Cars with rubbish bins, grey waste, chemical toilet waste and fresh water ( when working, currently not ) also EHU for 4hours is available for a charge ( also currently not working ).

There is a €5 charge per night but nobody appears to take the money nor was there anywhere indicated to go pay.

There is also a pharmacy and farm shop 200-300m from the Aire, the farm shop stocks all essentials as well.

Picnic tables and lovely fruit trees
The canal is just in front of the van but not overly visible
Lovely long walks along the canal bank

Montherme, France 2022, At Last!

We finally managed to get over to France again, its been 3 years and we have missed it dearly

We stayed at a Lovell CL called Page Farm about 10 mins from the tunnel, so came up Thursday night, an early start Friday morning meant being at the tunnel for around 7am ( our crossing was for 9:20) and was put on the next crossing (7:20) for no additional charge, very quick boarding and in France within 30 mins.

Lovely view from the town back across the Aire

We had a long drive down to Montherme, but it was worth it, just south of the Belgium border the town sits on the river Meuse, room for around 22 vans with fresh water but no Chemical Waste Disposal.

At a cost of €4 a night + 40c per person tax it was well worth it, EHU is available for €2.80 but the points are quite away from where you park on the waters edge so you will need a long lead.

The view along the water in front of the van going left
The view along the water in front of the van going right

The town has plenty of shops and of course the obligatory Patisserie, plenty of walks up and down the river and even some bike hire if you desire.

Lovely views and walks along the river

All in all a fantastic Aire and one we will definitely visit again if out this way.