Any recommendations for France?

[rogerbucks]

I have our group aircraft booked from Friday pm to Sunday next week-end, and as the wx looks promising, wondered if any of you kind folks could recommend a destination up to 2 hrs max from Shoreham where we could stay over a couple of nights? My Franglais is none too good, so English-speaking airfield preferred!

(Done LTQ loads of times- very nice, but fancy somewhere different)

[peterh337]

La Rochelle is lovely.

[Sir George Cayley]

The Salis aircraft museum at La Ferte-Alais is worth a visit and being an international destination I'm sure language shouldn't be a problem.

There's also an RER station so Paris is accessible too.

SGC

[Tableview]

Mont St Michel / St Malo / Granville area is lovely. Plenty of interest too.

You have airports at Dinard and Granville that I know of, possibly others. You probably don't need to parler very much Francais there as they are used to Brits from the Channel Islands.

[patowalker]

Granville is no longer a Customs airfield.

[A and C]

Lille is a good town to have a look around, lots of reasonably priced good eating and a good metro to get around cheaply

[Zulu Alpha]

Dieppe is nice and lots of good places to eat.

[peterh337]

Remember about 50 French airports are losing Customs.

[Tableview]

Please excuse my lack of knowledge in this area, but there are no Customs controls between the UK and FR (and most of Europe). Is this a passport control/immigration question rather than Customs?

[peterh337]

Yes, strictly that is true, but in standard aviation parlance (in airport guides, etc) "Customs" means it is an international airport.

The first airport you fly to from the UK, and the last airport you depart from when returning to the UK, has to be a "Customs" airport.

In effect, therefore, the UK being in the EU makes no difference.

The UK works things differently from the rest of Europe, in that it has no "exit" Customs, and there are various concessions which are worked via the GAR form system. For example you can (IIRC) fly internationally to/from any farm strip, with appropriate (24hr??) notice.

[patowalker]

Here is the list of the 84 airfields/airports still providing a Customs service.

EUR-Lex - Simple search (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Notice.do?val=627929:cs&lang=en&list=627929:cs,&pos=1&page=1&nbl=1&pgs=10&hwords=&checktexte=checkbox&visu=#texte)

"Customs" is the generic word for customs, police, immigration and sanitary controls.

[gasax]

I'd second Peter337's suggestion of La Rochelle - although it is probably on the outer limit of the distance you are looking at.

An alternative might be Chartres - busy club airstrip at the weekends and a fairly walkable town.

At a similar range Laon - again a busy club airstrip but the old town perched on top of that rock outcrop can be seen from 40 odd miles on a clear day. Variety of WW1 remains etc in the local area and plenty of hotel accomodation in the commercial part fot he town.

[proudprivate]

Hi,

A very nice destination is "Quiberon" LFEQ, which has a hotel at the airport, near a beach, walk around bretonny villages and a short distance excursion to "Les Alignements", which is France's answer to Stonehenge.
It is a French speaking airport though, so you should brush up your fraviation vocabulary a bit (vent arrière, main gauche, etc...)

Enroute, clear customs at "Caen" LFRK. You might even write a request to fly directly to Quiberon from Southend, provided you send them the complete immigration declaration (with passport numbers of all passengers). If they refuse, you have to land at Caen (which is an English speaking airport). But you don't lose anything by just asking...


Douanes /
Customs :
LUN-VEN : 0700-1600 PN 2 HR, SAM, DIM et JF : 0700-1000, 1200-1600 O/R la veille

avant 1500. Demande auprès de CCI sur AD ou E-mail : [email protected]
En dehors de ces HOR, possibilité d’extension dans la limite des HOR ATS : accord à
négocier avec CCI.
MON-FRI : 0700-1600 PN 2 HR, SAT, SUN and HOL: 0700-1000, 1200-1600 O/R the
previous day before 1500. Request at CCI on AD or E-mail : [email protected]
Outside these HOR, possibility of extension within the limits of HOR ATS: mutual agreement


with CCI.


Chartres is nice, because of the cathedral and because it is a nice town to walk about. Taxi from the airport will set you back about 15 EUR.

[BossEyed]

The UK works things differently from the rest of Europe, in that it has no "exit" Customs, and there are various concessions which are worked via the GAR form system. For example you can (IIRC) fly internationally to/from any farm strip, with appropriate (24hr??) notice.

To the EU, no notice (apart from time for the FPL to get into the system) is required FROM a farm strip.

From an EU airfield TO a Farm strip, the notice period is 4 hours.


The exception to the above is if to/from Eire or Northern Ireland, which although in the EU are subject to the Terrorism Act and hence 12 hours notice (NB NOT "permission") is required to Special Branch in both directions.

Back to OP: Going to France - consider Saumur. Customs stop required first, though.

[proudprivate]

consider Saumur.


Fantastic destination - fly over Loire Castles and eat good food: there is a first class Franco-Chinese in town.

BUT : do NOT count on fuel if you don't have a TOTAL card. The aeroclub DOES NOT ACCEPT CASH.