As a 22 year old newbie in 1986 I just followed everyone else and regularly ended up at Billy’s at La Palme. Until the week I was running with Andre, our French driver. We came off at Narbonne Sud as usual but sailed past Billys and went to a Routiers in Fitou, a few miles further on (I can’t remember its name). I never used Billys again.
Another memory is Torreblanca between Barcelona and Valencia, Great food and showers but if you wanted a beer you had to go to the ‘club’ over the road and get accosted by scantily clad ladies…
And then there was the Easter I got errrr ‘Eastered’ in a service station on the A10 south of Bayonne cos I had a wheel bearing go. Walking into town I discovered the ‘Bar de la Cote Basque’ in Bidart and became a regular. Stopped there forever after.