I’d be very grateful if (those of you with better experiences) would name and locate these wonderful places - list their great offerings, then those of us missing out can bob in and experience these wonders for ourselves.
I thought I’d visited just about every motorway service station between Rotterdam and Linz. From Dover or Zeebrugge to Milan or Paris or Nice, Marseille, Perpipignan and the complete south coast of Spain, as well as from Barcelona to Santander.
I realise this doesn’t cover everywhere, and I accept that I’m quite discerning. But this free utopia of haven heaven just must have passed me by… so do tell - then those drivers heading out that way might also benefit from your knowledge.
Simply saying it’s better over there, without the details… doesn’t carry much weight.
Postcodes would be very useful, then we can all give it a scan on Google earth.
You’ve never driven anywhere on the continent, stop being a lying fud.
If you had ever been there you would know how much utter dog toffee you are talking.
A.
Stop being silly and just name a service station in any country that cannot be matched in quality in the UK - outside of Switzerland… I’ll give you Switzerland… and you’ll no doubt have seen as I have that the Swiss have a ■■■■■ shop on most of their services with your name over the door… ask anyone who’s been.
Jingle Jon:
I’ve driven all over the EU, for many years and I’ve yet to see this Utopia of free truck-stops and massive FREE lay-bys all over the place… just another driver rumour. I’m not saying there aren’t any… just I’ve never seen this driver heaven
You’ve obviously haven"t driven in France then
I’ve driven all over France… or much of it. Without naming the various places on Peage… which is naturally not free - included in the toll, I can’t think of anywhere that is FREE to park.
Perhaps you might enlighten us further by posting a list of free parking places / truck-stops in France?
Over to you.
You’ve driven ALL OVER France !!!
Only on Autoroutes then, try coming off them and use the Nationals or Departmentals, there you will find thousands of FREE Routiers ( truck stops ) , sorry but there are just too many to name them all and where they are located.
Let me know next time you’re in France and where you are going and I’ll point you in the right direction. HTH
Zeebrugge to Paris on Wednesday. Back via Den Haag Europort.
Edited to add: Next week have a driver doing Calais to Troyes, Dijon, Lyon over to Nancy then to Zeebrugge via Lux.
Don’t have time to go galavanting about or sitting in large traffic jams - so will be using tolls… if you know none tolls which are as efficient - feel free to say so. I could do with reducing the cost of the tolls, but like all haulage - have deadlines and drivers hours to manage too.
Jingle Jon:
Stop being silly and just name a service station in any country that cannot be matched in quality in the UK - outside of Switzerland… I’ll give you Switzerland… and you’ll no doubt have seen as I have that the Swiss have a ■■■■■ shop on most of their services with your name over the door… ask anyone who’s been.
Just north of Valence, Aire de 45.
So which services in the UK are better than all of Europe? Remember most the Euro ones are free, here they are not.
Which you wouldn’t know either because you’ve never driven here or abroad, you utter fantasist.
Pierrot, Adonis, gentlemen, we may be wasting our tiime giving recommendations? We could suggest fresh cooked steaks with choice of sauces and garnishes, waitress service restos with home cooked dishes and as much entrees cheese and desert as you wish, free water choice of red rose cider or even beer included, but JJ has said he has high standards so if the egg chips n beans wiith a pint pot of char ain’t up to his high standards…
Franglais:
Pierrot, Adonis, gentlemen, we may be wasting our tiime giving recommendations? We could suggest fresh cooked steaks with choice of sauces and garnishes, waitress service restos with home cooked dishes and as much entrees cheese and desert as you wish, free water choice of red rose cider or even beer included, but JJ has said he has high standards so if the egg chips n beans wiith a pint pot of char ain’t up to his high standards…
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
You haven’t provided any recommendations - refutations yes - evidence NO!
It may come as a surprise Franglais, but I do like good food and am not exagerating in either direction. Yes there is wonderful food available in France… not much of it to be found on service stations though… unless you have a particular taste for soggy ham & cheese bagettes, wrapped in polythene. There are equally lots of places in the UK where you can get a decent meal too… we have food here nowadays you know.
As for Aire de 45, I don’t like subway sarnies - nor Macdonalds and I don’t eat from any of the other fast food joints.
All I have said all along is that it’s not that good in Europe that it should be held up as the bastion of what is good. What we should be aiming for is much better than that.
And of course… nothing is free. Unless you call a stinking hole in the ground of a French lay-by quality?
And yes… avoid giving recommendations… easiest way to avoid facts that can easily be called out eh?
Franglais:
Pierrot, Adonis, gentlemen, we may be wasting our tiime giving recommendations? We could suggest fresh cooked steaks with choice of sauces and garnishes, waitress service restos with home cooked dishes and as much entrees cheese and desert as you wish, free water choice of red rose cider or even beer included, but JJ has said he has high standards so if the egg chips n beans wiith a pint pot of char ain’t up to his high standards…
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
You haven’t provided any recommendations - refutations yes - evidence NO!
It may come as a surprise Franglais, but I do like good food and am not exagerating in either direction. Yes there is wonderful food available in France… not much of it to be found on service stations though… unless you have a particular taste for soggy ham & cheese bagettes, wrapped in polythene. There are equally lots of places in the UK where you can get a decent meal too… we have food here nowadays you know.
As for Aire de 45, I don’t like subway sarnies - nor Macdonalds and I don’t eat from any of the other fast food joints.
All I have said all along is that it’s not that good in Europe that it should be held up as the bastion of what is good. What we should be aiming for is much better than that.
And of course… nothing is free. Unless you call a stinking hole in the ground of a French lay-by quality?
And yes… avoid giving recommendations… easiest way to avoid facts that can easily be called out eh?
even carryfast would have given up flogging a dead horse like this one before now…there are no motorway services in the uk that arnt grossly overpriced,with varying standards of minging food…unlike the rest of europe,so either you cant educate pork,or your just being pedantic for the sake of it…nobody in their right mind would compare uk services costs and grub to the rest of europe. toll roads charge a toll to use them irrespective of whether or not you use the services.similar to the uk road tax we all pay whether we eat or not…take a reality pill,or troll harder.
pierrot 14:
What route are you taking and at what time ? One that you could use is the Routier at Roye,. junc16 on the A1
Trip 1.
Pretty much pointless - I’ll be going because it’s there and back and get food included in the crossing - will probably grab a bagette and coffee on the A1. It’ll be OK… I tend to head for the cafes doing the freshly made sarnies and avoid the crap sold in the shops which is completely dia. The cafe food is average but ok.
Trip 2,
From Zeebrugge, driver will get breakfast on boat and head down the A26, A5 then up the A31. All tolls… but if you know a free road that is just as fast… don’t hold back. Driver will be out 3 days before returning with a load from Lux.
Franglais:
Pierrot, Adonis, gentlemen, we may be wasting our tiime giving recommendations? We could suggest fresh cooked steaks with choice of sauces and garnishes, waitress service restos with home cooked dishes and as much entrees cheese and desert as you wish, free water choice of red rose cider or even beer included, but JJ has said he has high standards so if the egg chips n beans wiith a pint pot of char ain’t up to his high standards…
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
You haven’t provided any recommendations - refutations yes - evidence NO!
It may come as a surprise Franglais, but I do like good food and am not exagerating in either direction. Yes there is wonderful food available in France… not much of it to be found on service stations though… unless you have a particular taste for soggy ham & cheese bagettes, wrapped in polythene. There are equally lots of places in the UK where you can get a decent meal too… we have food here nowadays you know.
As for Aire de 45, I don’t like subway sarnies - nor Macdonalds and I don’t eat from any of the other fast food joints.
All I have said all along is that it’s not that good in Europe that it should be held up as the bastion of what is good. What we should be aiming for is much better than that.
And of course… nothing is free. Unless you call a stinking hole in the ground of a French lay-by quality?
And yes… avoid giving recommendations… easiest way to avoid facts that can easily be called out eh?
even carryfast would have given up flogging a dead horse like this one before now…there are no motorway services in the uk that arnt grossly overpriced,with varying standards of minging food…unlike the rest of europe,so either you cant educate pork,or your just being pedantic for the sake of it…nobody in their right mind would compare uk services costs and grub to the rest of europe. toll roads charge a toll to use them irrespective of whether or not you use the services.similar to the uk road tax we all pay whether we eat or not…take a reality pill,or troll harder.
British services are certainly overpriced. I tend to buy the sandwiches and ready meals from Waitrose or M&S. I also buy the packs of mixed nuts and fruit from Waitrose. Fresh milk and fruit. It’s far from cheap and if you add the cost of parking too - it’s a sting.
The Extra Motorway Services, do have a selection of reasonably good food… not my cup o tea - but will match most of the crap sold in the continent.
My understanding of a Troll is: A person who makes pointless posts and attempts to take a subject off topic, someone who makes inflammatory statements in order to cause an emotional reaction.
Franglais:
Pierrot, Adonis, gentlemen, we may be wasting our tiime giving recommendations? We could suggest fresh cooked steaks with choice of sauces and garnishes, waitress service restos with home cooked dishes and as much entrees cheese and desert as you wish, free water choice of red rose cider or even beer included, but JJ has said he has high standards so if the egg chips n beans wiith a pint pot of char ain’t up to his high standards…
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
You haven’t provided any recommendations - refutations yes - evidence NO!
It may come as a surprise Franglais, but I do like good food and am not exagerating in either direction. Yes there is wonderful food available in France… not much of it to be found on service stations though… unless you have a particular taste for soggy ham & cheese bagettes, wrapped in polythene. There are equally lots of places in the UK where you can get a decent meal too… we have food here nowadays you know.
As for Aire de 45, I don’t like subway sarnies - nor Macdonalds and I don’t eat from any of the other fast food joints.
All I have said all along is that it’s not that good in Europe that it should be held up as the bastion of what is good. What we should be aiming for is much better than that.
And of course… nothing is free. Unless you call a stinking hole in the ground of a French lay-by quality?
And yes… avoid giving recommendations… easiest way to avoid facts that can easily be called out eh?
even carryfast would have given up flogging a dead horse like this one before now…there are no motorway services in the uk that arnt grossly overpriced,with varying standards of minging food…unlike the rest of europe,so either you cant educate pork,or your just being pedantic for the sake of it…nobody in their right mind would compare uk services costs and grub to the rest of europe. toll roads charge a toll to use them irrespective of whether or not you use the services.similar to the uk road tax we all pay whether we eat or not…take a reality pill,or troll harder.
British services are certainly overpriced. I tend to buy the sandwiches and ready meals from Waitrose or M&S. I also buy the packs of mixed nuts and fruit from Waitrose. Fresh milk and fruit. It’s far from cheap and if you add the cost of parking too - it’s a sting.
The Extra Motorway Services, do have a selection of reasonably good food… not my cup o tea - but will match most of the crap sold in the continent.
My understanding of a Troll is: A person who makes pointless posts and attempts to take a subject off topic, someone who makes inflammatory statements in order to cause an emotional reaction.
What is carryfast?
Right, a stodgy tasteless “burrito” that’s sold in an Extra is better than a home cooked meal with a jug of vino?
I just come back from a restaurant in Spa and was very happy with my €12 pizza and 2x large beers at €4.90. Now in my cab back at the circuit with clean and free toilets/showers available 24hr. Free parking obviously .
Adonis.:
Right, a stodgy tasteless “burrito” that’s sold in an Extra is better than a home cooked meal with a jug of vino?
You’ve never driven abroad, you fantasist.
A.
I’ll take your word for it on the burrito. As for home cooked meal… well they do say home is where your heart is.
Home eh
Hope you don’t mind me asking… but in your home… do all your family members wear white coats?
Are you so sad that you continue to come on a forum where no one has ANY interest in what you say? There are a few folk on here that cross swords, but even they at least acknowledge the other as a fellow truck driver and if it came to it, would help each other out.
But you just simply don’t belong. There is no shame in not fitting in to certain circles in life, the shame comes when you hang around like a bad smell (like you).
mrginge:
I just come back from a restaurant in Spa and was very happy with my €12 pizza and 2x large beers at €4.90. Now in my cab back at the circuit with clean and free toilets/showers available 24hr. Free parking obviously .
Beer and pizza… happy days. Not for me though… don’t do fast food and not a beer drinker… odd glass of wine.
So far, despite requests for places to be named and what’s available, you guys have managed to come up with a cheese sandwich, a cup of coffee, a couple of beers and a pizza.
I’m deeply impressed.
One day we’ll have beer in the U.K, bread, cheese and pizza. I’m really looking forward to that… luxury.
ITV now… prog: Britain’s Busiest Motorway. Features plod moving foreign drivers taking breaks on M25 hard shoulder… and bottles of ■■■■ & other rubbish they leave behind.
You’re in the wrong thread mate… Rob has a special melt down thread, you can vent your anger management problems over there.
I don’t know what Rob has to do with it?
Anyway, the point is this…you are boring the crap out of some on here who wish to either learn something about the topic, or engage in the discussion. I won’t be responding to you again because folk on here don’t want to endure this pish day after day.
You’re in the wrong thread mate… Rob has a special melt down thread, you can vent your anger management problems over there.
I don’t know what Rob has to do with it?
Anyway, the point is this…you are boring the crap out of some on here who wish to either learn something about the topic, or engage in the discussion. I won’t be responding to you again because folk on here don’t want to endure this pish day after day.
I don’t know what your outburst has to do with the topic either, but you Rob and a couple of others seem to think it’s ok to crayon your bilge everywhere… then you start bleating when people don’t bow to your delusional belief that because you have accumulated thousands of posts… that somehow puts you in control - some unrealistic idea that more posts equals popularity.
FWIW, I don’t see my opinion on any subject more valid than those who disagree with me, what I will not do though is just give in.
Nether am I stupid enough to think everyone is likely to agree with me. Especially on a web forum - web forums are typically notable for attracting people with different opinions. If someone can convince me of something… I’m more than happy to change a position.
Why you feel so threatened by someone who holds a different opinion to yourself is your issue mate - not mine. I’m quite happy to have people disagree with me - it doesn’t taint my respect for them - until they start making personal attacks or threats… at that point they can kiss my backside and will get zero tolerance or charity from me.
So, go back to the shallow end mate with your verbal nonesence… your’e an idiot, just like a few others and just like many people in all walks of society. your brain is so small you can’t deal with anyone with an alternative way to your way. Dumb ■■■!
.
