Flying in France

[Trevor Bates]

Hi All ,I plan to fly to Alderney in the summer,and then into France,Although I have been flying for many years,I have not been to France.could anyone suggest an interesting itinerary for a first timer? Duration about a week in June,i,m not a great French speaker.many thanks Trevor GCESA

[tnowak]

Trevor,

Depends what you want to see.
The Loire area is well worth a visit if you want to do touristy things (Saumur, Amboise for Chateaux).
La Rochelle and Il d'Oleron for the west coast scenery.
Chartres and Rouen for cathedrals etc.

Tony

[rogerlewis88]

Tony has got it about right for the Loire valley. For the west coast I would add Quiberon and Ille dYea.

Always handy to know a couple of airstrips that offer accommodation as well. For example see http://www.aero-hesbaye.be/Voyages/laba ... driere.htm which is a good place for the Loire valley and Quiberon for the north west coast where the town and accommodation is walking distance away. There are many other similar places which contributors to this forum will no doubt be able to suggest. I have a 300 m strip which you are welcome to drop if you are passing en-route.

Saumur is also a great place to visit and is amid the Loire valley vineyards. If you enjoy your June trip, consider coming back at the end of summer when there are many 'harvest' festivals. I am thinking of the Le Grand Table http://www.saumur-champigny.com/grandes ... 9es-56.php at Saumur which has a great atmosphere and a week-end grape picking fly-in the autumn which I am organising at a local vineyard.

The language will be a problem for the first time so it would be better to plan going into public airfields with and atc where english is mandatory.

[Trevor Bates]

Hello thanks for your help ,very useful,unfortunately 300mtrs is a little short for my 1050 Roger, but a generous offer.Trevor

[John Dean]

Trevor, Roger is right in saying you may be more comfortable in landing only at airfields with full ATC when you first visit France as they will be able to speak English to you. This would, however, prevent you from visiting some of the best airfields in the country which are the smaller ones (including Saumur where the frequency is Air/Air in French only).

Personally, I would not worry too much about having only a smattering of the language, I have been visiting these small club airfields for approaching 30 years without much of a grasp of the language and have never been met with anything else but a warm welcome and very often an offer of assistance in organising a hotel and taxi. Very often there is nobody around anyway if you land during the working week.

The only caveat would be where there is an AFIS with a note that it is French only. Amiens falls in that category and will insist you speak French but in my experience they are very forgiving if you make some attempt at the language.

From Alderney, heading towards the short sea crossing back to the UK, you might like to try Granville, Bernay and Dieppe. None of them are very close to the town but all are well worth a visit.

[Cristina Rodriguez]

We have had great holidays in France, two places we particularly like are: 1) Quiberon (http://www.quiberonairclub.com/index.ph ... laerodrome) It is one of the nicest places to visit and as in many French aerodromes, everyone is very nice and helpful. The runway is 775 x 25 (https://www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr ... 2.LFEQ.pdf). The only thing to have in mind is that they haven't got any oil (or at least when we visited a couple of years ago). The Ibis hotel is just right and the management are pro-flying. The advantage is that you can cancel the booking up to 6pm the same day. http://www.ibis.com/gb/hotel-0909-ibis- ... ndex.shtml. They told us to call when we arrived and they sent a car to collect us and equally took us back at the end of the week's holiday. You don't need a car whilst in Quiberon so we explored the area during the day (http://en.quiberon.com/node/218) and walked to town in the evening for a meal.

2) Arcachon: a bit further down the west coast and with a fantastic 1400 x 20 runway. The only thing is that it is a bit tricky to get in due to the Cazau military space and one needs to pay special attention to the stepped approach getting low on the last part but again, the French controllers are very helpful. We spent over a week in Arcachon this summer and it was fantastic. The beaches are amazing and there is so much to see. We stayed in "Hotel Point France" http://www.hotel-point-france.com/uk/in ... offres.php becasue we left it late to book the Ibis but we got a great price through "Booking.com" and we spoke to the hotel (they all speak English) to secure late cancellation. They were very accomodating when we moved our departure date due to weather and offered us the same price as our "Booking.com" rate. The town has many supermarkets as well as restaurants and it is very near Bordeaux for a visit. Yet again it was a fantastic holiday, everyone on-route was very helpful and landing/parking for over a week was less than £50 if I remember rightly.

If you are looking for something nearer, we would also recommend Le Havre where the guys at the Jean Maridor club are amazing. Every year there is an "exchange flyout" from White Waltham there. We have visited many times and although the beach is not sandy, it is a nice destination for few days if you are looking for something more than a beach holiday. The club will be very helpful and although Le Havre is not known for paradisiac beaches, it is very busy, lots to do and see - including a trip to Etretat of course!.

Good luck with planning the trip,
Cristina

[Trevor Bates]

Hello and thanks again for the great help,I like Cristina,s idea of Quiberon and the Ibis ,it looks perfect,on the way home Bernay is a must as it,s the home ofJodel,Granville and Dieppe are duly noted thanks John ,still planning,Trevor

[tnowak]

I have been to Bernay a few times and they are very friendly and helpful.
As always you need to check out the VAC info as I see that fuel is only available on Wed, Sat and Sun (during specified times).
French A/A only but no one will bother!
Tony

[Guest]

Just picking up on Cristina's point about oil. Where as here in the UK most places that sell fuel sell oil,we found it difficult to find oil in France. My tip would be take a couple of litres with you to be on the safe side.

Phil

[Trevor Bates]

Hi thanks again John useful info on Bernay,good to know about the oil situation Phil many thanks Trevor.

[Brian Hope]

Sadly Bernay airfield is not what it once was, the restaurant has been closed for a while and when I visited a year or so ago it was all looking rather forlorn and unkempt. For Jodelists it was where Societe Aeronautique Normande built Jodels in the fifties and sixties and the SAN logo is still visible on the side of one of the buildings as you walk down the main road towards town.
The town is well worth a look, it's a mile or so from the airfield. There's only one hotel in the centre, the Lion d'Or, perfectly adequate but I haven't stayed there in a while. Several little cafes and restaurants too where you can sit and watch the world go by. Some quaint buildings and a pretty little river too. Saturday is market day and it gets very busy, always interesting though as local farmers bring in their produce.
A few other places well worth a visit are Dinan, beautiful cobbled streets leading down to the river with wonderful little restaurants. Semur en Auxois over near the Rhone Valley (as opposed to Saumur near the Loire) is a wonderful walled town that seems none the worse for being a little off the tourist track. You can walk it from the airfield. Verdun is nice and there always seems to be something going on during the summer months. Bagnoles is a Spa town with plenty of hotels and restaurants, and again is walkable from the airfield (ask locals for directions down through the woods). La Rochelle is lovely, as is Quiberon which entails a wonderful flight over the Baie de Morbihan to get to. Then make the short flight or take a boat trip across to Belle Isle. Blois is pretty and Vichy too, both have fly-in events so useful to incorporate a stay with attending the Microlight Salon and RSA Rally respectively.
To be honest there are so many nice places in France, you're spoiled for choice. Lovely country, great people, fabulous food and a history of building superb aeroplanes, you can't fail but to have a good time!

[Trevor Bates]

Thanks Brian all very helpful,what are your thoughts on the language barrier? Trevor

[Brian Hope]

Hi Trevor. English is the language of RT and certainly if you land at places the size of Le Touquet, La Rochelle etc with an ATC service they will speak good English. A great many French fields use Club frequencies – 123.5 is the most common – and they are like Safetycom where you prefix the call with the name of the airfield and state you position and intentions. You can do this in English as some pilots will understand you, others will know a Brit is in the vicinity and keep an extra lookout because they won’t understand where you actually are, and no doubt some will scoot away and come back once the coast is clear! It might be worth learning the basic circuit French, it isn’t difficult, maybe I could cover the basics in the magazine. You still might not totally understand the French pilots but they’ll at least have a better idea of what you are doing.
There are a few places where ATC is stated as French only, Amiens is one I know of. A friend of mine who can’t speak a word of French threw in the odd oui and madame in his Mancunian accent and carried on regardless and nobody seemed to mind. That’s one of the joys of France, as a general rule they don’t get too uppity if you don’t follow the rules to the letter.
Oil has been mentioned, it can be a problem. So too can charts, don’t rely on getting one at a French airfield, take all you need with you. Fuel too can be a problem, a lot of airfields started to use TOTAL cards and it could be a pain getting somebody to let you use their card. Some are going over to any credit card now. I make a point of always having cash for fuel and always taking on fuel where it is available.

[Trevor Bates]

Thanks Brian that's good to know.Trevor

[Donald Walker]

Turn your speaker on and listen to radio calls in French. http://www.francoflyers.org/2008/03/fre ... io-ca.html