If you have a motor home and you go to France, then you really should know about these. They are places where you can stop overnight for little or no charge, and many have areas where you can empty waste and refill water. Some are no more than car parks, but many are special areas set aside by town or village councils for people to stay in the hope that they will use the facilities in the area. It works. I wish we had far sighted councils in the country that would do the same.
There are various listings of the sites - for example 'All the Aires' published by Vicarious Books. But I have just downloaded a 'Points of Interest' (PoI) file for my Sat Nav (which is pretty elderly now) from this site. You will need a little French to understand it - but it's fairly straightforward. Once you have made your choice they email the appropriate file to you. I also found this tool useful - it converts between types of PoI files.
If you are sensible about where you stay, and feel like exploring a different side of France, then give the Aires a go.
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Monday, 9 January 2012
Succeeded by a Lamp post
Every now and then, usually when walking or driving along a road I find myself thinking that everything around me will still be there when I am dead and gone. I realise that this is morbid - but it's true nonetheless.
Not everything will still be there - but the lamp posts stand a fair chance of surviving me. I know it's odd, but true. I realise that I am lucky to live where I do, in this time and not another part of the world or another time period where life could tend to be 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' as Thomas Hobbes would have it. Realising this in itself makes me wonder why people like me don't take better care of themselves but often try to, for example, drink themselves to obscurity or even death.
Listening to the radio recently I heard a comment that winners of money in games shows sometimes express the need to improve their bodies by spending some of their winnings on body augmentation or plastic surgery as important. I know that if for some reason I suddenly became wealthy I would invest in getting my dodgy knees and hip looked at - but I don't consider that vanity - more like pain relief. Question is then, why don't I do this now? Perhaps I don't have faith in the National Health Service?
Not everything will still be there - but the lamp posts stand a fair chance of surviving me. I know it's odd, but true. I realise that I am lucky to live where I do, in this time and not another part of the world or another time period where life could tend to be 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' as Thomas Hobbes would have it. Realising this in itself makes me wonder why people like me don't take better care of themselves but often try to, for example, drink themselves to obscurity or even death.
Listening to the radio recently I heard a comment that winners of money in games shows sometimes express the need to improve their bodies by spending some of their winnings on body augmentation or plastic surgery as important. I know that if for some reason I suddenly became wealthy I would invest in getting my dodgy knees and hip looked at - but I don't consider that vanity - more like pain relief. Question is then, why don't I do this now? Perhaps I don't have faith in the National Health Service?
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