Camping in aires.

[T'Onion]

Heard lots of stories about people being gassed in there vans etc but never spoken to anyone it has actually happened to

I was at a general hospital a few months a go and got chatting to an anaesthetist and we talked about holidays etc , told her about my old camper and how we had been 'aire'ing in France' then I mentioned the 'gasssing' , she started laughing and said do you know how much you would have to pump into car never mind a rusty van. You would need a small lorry

I think folk get a little paranoid , lock all their doors and windows , get a little tipsy and fall asleep , along comes some little toe-rag ,manages to get into the van (probably through a door that someone use to nip out for a wee and never locked or using a lollipop stick on old vw's lol) and nick the sat nav , wallet and phone that is on the dash, then in the morning they wake up all groggy from the booze and maybe badly serviced fridge and think 'oh my god we've been gassed and robbed !' Cos that's the only way the insurance will cough up ...

The other story that makes me laugh is lorry drivers getting gassed and their truck getting nicked , I mean , would you try nicking a Romanian truck ? they sleep in groups ,can you imagine getting caught ? and waking up in some far distance land in a basement with a tennis ball in ya gob ??

[Ian Hulley]

can you imagine getting caught ? and waking up in some far distance land in a basement with a tennis ball in ya gob ??

You've been eating cheese before bedtime again haven't you !

[tetleysid]

Camped in Aires plenty of times ... never had a problem yet.

YET being the operative word But seriously I too have camped "wild" so to speak and apart from a few nervous moments never come to grief. I spoke with a couple from Bristol in one of those 4 wheeled gin palaces last year on Isle d' Re and they said someone attacked there van at about 1 am just outside Le Havre when they was parked in a layby. By the time they had got their heads together and looked out someone was seen bombing away on a quad bike

[Ian Hulley]

Le Havre isn't the nicest of areas is it ? It's an industrial port surrounded by chemical factories and a refinery. Bit of brains here ... 2 older folks who appear loaded kipping alone in a car park could attract the low-lifes from anywhere ... even dare I say in the UK.

Aires are often on the outskirts of towns or in rural places but even in the center of towns in the middle of nowhere the worst we've ever seen was a pair of little scrotes on scooters screaming past pipping their horns for 20 minutes till they got bored ... we hadn't even had tea so it was nothing more than a humorous cabaret act.

[andisnewsyncro]

In all the time I have spent in Spain & France I've only actually met 2 couples who have had any damage done to their van, and they each said it was down to parking in dodgy places. I think it needs keeping in perspective compared to the numer of vans that get stolen, vandalised etc whilst back here at home.

To be fair anyone seeing either me or our van from the outside would generally assume there was nothing worth pinching in it anyway

[T'Onion]

To be fair anyone seeing either me or our van from the outside would generally assume there was nothing worth pinching in it anyway

yup same here

[jed the spread]

Just thought I would mention that The Caravan Cub did an article on people getting gassed in caravans and campers in France. They asked for anybody with any stories to wright in but if they do it MUST be accompanied with a photocopy of a police report and the insurance clam document that was submitted to their insurance company.

Guess what?

Its was decided it was an urban myth and the stories could have been invented by the only people who sell the gas detection alarms, or people who where trying it on with insurance claims who didnt realise you needed a police report to get some money.

jed

[horizontal kipper]

Bloke at work goes touring for a month at a time in his hymer, uses the aires never had a problem in 15 years untill last year when he had a building block chucked through one of the side windows at 3am

[horns]

I've seen the same sort of gassing story quite a few times about sleeper cars on trains, too. It seems the British are rather paranoid about foreigners gassing them as they sleep.

[T'Onion]

Chloe is always saying she's been gassed in our van

[Ian Hulley]

Chloe is always saying she's been gassed in our van

Yeah but she's telling the truth

There seems to be a pattern about the gassing stories, they usually come out around Easter time so's Brits panic and book campsites leaving the aires to the French, Germans and Italians (a lot of whome do the France Passion are very nice and extremely sociable btw).

Ian