I would say plan ahead for your 24 or 45 hour weekly rest periods , and come off the beaten track , by looking at a map , i would park in a decent place , you will be amazed what you stumble on with a walk or taking a push bike to get out the cab for the day .
Exit the toll motorway or main road for a peaceful nights sleep .
I saw medieval villages and towns , lakes , rivers or see a local festival , fair or a concert , it beats sitting on a motorway for two days .
Parking on the motorway means Eastern European trucks starting and stopping their engines to charge up the batteries if they have been watching tv or on their computers . They have large dishes on the cab to watch tv from their home country , they start engines all day and all night .
Note to Milodon , i am not slagging off EE drivers .
I saw a Spanish singer called Manola Garcia at football stadium concerts that were both sold out .
After reading the great diary by The Bear , it reminded me of the notorious French Doaunes or Customs , i once had a DAF , i was having a sleep in a lay by , half way between Rennes and Nantes , i was heading to Portugal .
The switch to turn of the engine , on the floor by the pedals , was broken .
I left the engine running , rather than keep stalling it and break something else , then somebody is banging hard on my door , i look out to see i was surrounded by Douanes .
They said it was not normal to have the engine running , so i was escorted to to Rennes for them to unload the whole trailer with forklifts only to find nothing illegal .They all ran off .
Another run in, in France there is no driving from 22.00 Saturday to 22.00 Sunday , it was about 23.00 on Saturday, and i always wanted to see the biggest sand dune in the world , which is Southwest of Bordeaux .
The Douanes pull me over , not for the driving ban , but to inspect my full load of groupage , by climbing all over it .
They had a Land Rover with air tanks in the back , the reason is to deflate the tyres to patrol the beach for washed up drugs thrown from boats .
Then re-inflate the tyres for road use .I have been escorted by the Douanes on motorbikes with their blue lights and sirens to a mobile X ray scanner .I think they enjoyed showing off to other motorists by doing that .