Destinations in Northern France

[Mak]

Hi,

I'm planning a day trip to the North East coast of France this weekend. Usually go either to LeTouquet or Deauville (15min drive form Honfleur which is quite a nice village). This time I'd like to try something different and would very much appreciate your advice. Some options I spotted are: Beck Sur Mer (LFAM), Abbeville (LFOI), Dieppe (LFAB) or EU Mers/LeTreport (LFAE).

I'm flying from the UK so I'll need customs and, given the point of the trip, a nice place to have lunch and watch the world go by for a couple of hours is a must!

Thanks very much for your help.

Mak

(PS: I didn't finish checking on this list so some may not be usable for a reason or another. Please suggest any other in the NE that you feel are worth a visit . Thanks again).

[pistongone]

Mak,
With respect i offer some words of advice my instructor drummed into me. "Allways do an idiot check on your plog(or anything else your calculating!)
In your instance a check on track would have revealed your 180deg error:confused: oops! Either that or there is some undiscovered coast in the area of France from Strasbourg down to Monaco somewhere:p
However, if looking for other destinations i would suggest Pontoise and a quick trip in a taxi to Paris. You could go to Tousousse, but its more flying and only a bit nearer the centre. Alternatively, i know its not France but you could try Oostende. Its a great airport, 5 minute bus into town stops right by the terminal and the food and beer(if stopping over night, they do some tasty beers over 8%:eek:)in the square is great.

[IanSeager]

Bruges is a 14 minute train ride from Oostende and well worth it. Berk is not worth the trip (and I think closed to non based A/C). Lille and a taxi into the old town is an interesting alternative too.

Ian

[frog_ATC]

Hello,


For the north-west coast :


LFRG Deauville and LFOH Le Havre : small restaurant, customs on request, beautiful coastline. Taxi needed to the city. ILS on the airfield.

LFOP Rouen : A new restaurant has just reopened last month in the main terminal, really good and cheap. Customs available on request. ILS on the airfield. Old city beautiful. Taxi to the city : approx 35 EUR.

LFAT Le Touquet : I'm sure you already know all about Le Touquet :)

LFOI Abbeville : beautiful area, no customs I think, restaurant.

LFAB Dieppe : No customs. Small field, nice FISO (except some days of bad humor!), beautiful coastline. Caution, there is a Prohibited Area nearby, do not enter. Taxi needed, good restaurant "La Rose des Vents" in the city.

LFOS St Valery : No customs. Small field, no ATC, beautiful coastline.
Caution, there is a Prohibited Area very nearby, do not enter, proceed pattern south of the airfield.
Do not use the paved RWY for landing or taxiing (full of holes). Use only grass RWY. Caution, after vacating, you will have to cross a road (with cars) to taxi to the apron.
Nice small restaurant, the menu is small but the woman is so nice.
Landscape for a nice walk.

LFPD Bernay : No customs. Caution : grass runway, 1200m but bad condition if heavy rains. Restaurant on the airfield, sometimes closed. Good restaurant in the city "Le bistrot de Bernais". City is nice but area not interesting.

LFOE Evreux : military, do not land.

LFAM Berck : No ATC, no customs. Do not use paved RWY (closed), use only grass RWY (900m)

LFAE Eu Mer Le Treport : No ATC, no customs. Restricted use (based airplanes and nearby). Do not land.



All VFR charts available here :
http://www.sia.aviation-civile.gouv.fr/aip/enligne/FR/VACProduitPartieframeset.htm


frog_ATC

[frog_ATC]

Dear Pistongone,

With respect, "Toususse" is => TOUSSUS.

When you tell it on the frequency, don't say the final "S", just "Tou-ssu".
All Brits say "Toussoussss", and it is very funny :-)

If you say "Toussus" without the final "S", I promise you will impress the ATC !

frog_ATC

PS : hello Ian, I think we know each other :-)

[Mak]

Thanks all for the pointers.

Frog_ATC, I'm assuming that like in the UK I'll need to land at a customs airport to start with. However considering how relaxed main airports tend to be I'm wondering if I am correct. Can you confirm? Thanks

Dear Pistongone, Last time I checked there was a coastline in the NE of France. That's the Lille + Paris North FIR bit... :}

[Russell Gulch]

frog_ATC has summed everything up nicely.

Might I add that both Berck and Eu Mers are seriously PPR fields. I have been to both, on separate trips, and only because the weather demanded landing. I was welcomed with sort-of "open arms", but under their sufferance (they could see the weather was bad).

St Valery is very welcoming (I know Madame le President well...long story), but the airfield is worth a visit due to the exceptional welcome. It's way from the nice harbour village, however.

Abbeville and Dieppe have les douanes with 24 Hr PNR or less, check the Frenck AIP for current details, as frog_ATC suggests. Both are very welcoming airfields. I use them in preference to Le Touquet and others.

Mak, you are correct in regard to obtaining French customs clearance on arrival in France (but see e.g Abbeville & Dieppe above, sometimes only 4 hr PNR is required).

Bon vol

[dublinpilot]

Anyone stopped in Rennes? What's the city like? Worth a weekend stay?

I've overflown it a few times now, and I keep telling myself that I must stop and visit sometime :)

dp

[Radar]

Yeah, dp

but it's a looooong time ago and I'm sure the place has changed in the meantime. But my memory of it is of a very pleasant July evening sat outside a small cafe, good food and good wine. Very pleasant.

The operation through the airport was very straight forward. Minimum fuss regarding customs etc. and fuelling quick and effecient.

[gyrotyro]

Hi

Anyone considering flying to northern France please give me a call and I will give you assistance.

I am based at a private airfield near to Mayenne. You are welcome to visit our airfield or I can point you to several others in the area which may not show up on your charts.

To find more French airfields go to this site. Accept the general conditions etc and you will find it excellent for airfields, met, flight planning and much more.

nav2000.com

My airfield is LF5322

David

00 33 622 09 41 42

[drambuster]

"Always do an idiot check on your plog(or anything else you're calculating!)"

Pistongone . . . that was very good advice from your instructor and something you should continue to pay special attention to !! 0/10 for that one as Mak's post makes perfect sense :confused: (and I've corrected the two typos for you in the quote !)

[Mak]

Embarrassingly we ended going to Touquet to see the motor races (thanks ThreeYellows for the heads up).

But will definitely try Abbeville, Dieppe or gyrotyro's suggestion next time around.

Thanks all,
M

[Three Yellows]

Mak,

We went to Deauville where we were the omly G reg plane there. I did hear a lot of people going to/from LFAT on London Info. Did you make it out of the airport?

[pistongone]

Well thanks for that drambuster:ok: I am a tech sort rather than a literary one. Only got an O'Level b in English. A'levels in Physics, Maths etc. But i really dont think that North East France has a coast line:confused: Like from Cap Griznez in the direction the sun rises is all land in France, and as far as i know that is EAST? Now the west of France is where the coast is, also the south has a bit of a coastal scene going on i believe:} So drambuster when you do your idiot check try this one, "never eat shredded wheat!" Geddit:confused: N,E,S,W! Obviously going clockwise from north! If i am mistaken, can you enlighten me as to a good beach holliday resort on the WEST coast of France please:cool:

[dublinpilot]

I think you'll find the that eastern part of the northern coastline, is called the north east coast line ;)

Mak's question makes perfect sense to me. Pistongone's post had me scratching my head, wondering what he was going on about ;)

dp

[pistongone]

Ok just to make sure we are all singing from the same hymn sheet. According to the CIA web site ( https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/fr.html) the centre of France is 46n 02e, thats somewhere between Clermont ferrand and Limoges. Now heading east from there on a track of 09 takes you to the Italian border in the Alps just south of Aosta. Appx 045 will take you to Strasbourg on the Border with Germany and appx 130 will take you to Monaco which is just about the border with Italy. Now that pretty much covers easterly headings for me, so where is this North East coast line i am not seeing, honestly i am intrigued chaps:confused:

Just to remind us of the original post MAK said "I'm planning a day trip to the North East coast of France this weekend" This is what my remark referred to.

[dublinpilot]

I call the NE coast of France as being from about Dippe to the Belgian borther.

PG, to be honest, I think you're trying to be pedantic. We all understood what Mak meant.

[pistongone]

Well DP that must be what confused me, you are calling the NW coast the NE coast for some reason:confused: You must agree that if you accept the South East coast of England is opposite the NE coast of France, given their relevant bearings, then we must be doing something wrong?:) Thats a bit like calling Scousers Geordies:} Could get you in some deep doggy doo:ooh:
So that must mean that Dublin is on the West coast of Eire possibly:confused:

[dublinpilot]

Well...I'd call Avranch around as far as Belle Ile, the North West coast.

Like I said...you're being pedantic. Everyone else seems to have understood Mak's question ;)


edited to add: Where the UK is, has no bearing on where France is.....the world doesn't centre around the UK ;)

[pistongone]

OK, ok, DP i was only commenting on a minor mistake i thought had been made, but apparently lots of you seem to refer to that part of France as the NE:confused: Well thats fine as long as you all know what you mean when you say it. So just out of interest what part, geographically speaking, of France is Strassbourg in? See why i am having trouble understanding you're point:confused:

[Three Yellows]

Pistongone,

Thanks for that great contribution to aviation in general and lunch in particular. Perhaps though, if you are going to split hairs, you could in fact correct a few of the errors in you own post whilst the rest of us start thinking about next weekend's lunch trips to France or indeed the Channel Islands.


OK, ok, DP i was only commenting on a minor mistake i thought had been made, but apparently lots of you seem to refer to that part of France as the NE:confused: Well thats fine as long as you all know what you mean when you say it. So just out of interest what part, geographically speaking, of France is Strassbourg in? See why i am having trouble understanding you're point:confused:


1) Strasbourg not Stassbourg

2) Its "your" not "you're". "You're" means "you are".

So us real pilots are having trouble understanding you, because the rest of the world seems to have understood Mak in the first place.

[pistongone]

Three Yellows,
Seeing as its Sunday and i am bored because i havn't been flying and i am not going to work untill next Wednesday i will entertain a bit of hair splitting with you. As such i would ask you to look at this quote from a well known web site " Swiss spelling: Strassbourg) is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in northeastern France".So if you're going to split hairs then be sure of you're facts before making your self look a bit of a T$%T. Also, what region of France would you say Strassbourg(Swiss spelling!) is to be found? And if you answer correctly with the North East( you may find the answer in the above quote) then can you please justify your position?
Three Yellows its over to you.

[Three Yellows]

Pistongone,

I give in, you're right. I am a complete T$%T

[drambuster]

Pistongone

Clearly all the rest of us don't seem to inhabit your airspace. Our loss, I'm sure.

For the record I would describe Strasbourg as being on the Eastern border of France.

Mak was describing the North East coastline. If you were split the north coast at Le Havre then everything running to the east of that is where he meant. All the rest of us got it as it is quite obvious that he was not superimposing a compass rose on France and giving precise bearings ! The point that you have missed is that his reference was the COASTLINE . . .got it ?

This is getting a bit boring now.

Mak . . . delighted you had a good day. Most of us knew roughly where you were !!