I have to say that if I was still driving trucks in France then I would be eating in a Routiers every night, there again I would probably eat breakfast and lunch as well because the food is good and varied and of course good value not like the fast food chains which seem to have taken over many american truckstops, not too many of the privately owned ones with a proper restaurant left over here.
hutpik:
As to places to eat i think you couldn’t do better than a nice lamb kebab with bread from those little stalls by the Corinth bridge.Mike
Stopped there every trip, also handy for the gift shop if you happened to need a 45 gal drum of aftersun if you fell asleep on the sundeck of the boat after getting a bit ■■■■■■■ which I might have done once or twice 
Spardo:
Looks like I’ll be in there again on Tuesday, have a run down to Lunel, near Nimes tomorrow, load Tuesday morning and straight through to Bordeaux again. Off now to find a place to eat at Lunel.
Found one, be off in an hour or so for a gentle run down on a picturesque route which may or not include the spectacular Millau viaduct (depends how rushed I am and how keen to pay €10 or so).
I am heading for Les Chataigniers on the RN 113 at Vendargues, only 15 minutes from my pick up point on Tuesday. Anybody been to that? I’ll report back on how good or otherwise it is when I get back. Definitely the old Albatross on Tuesday night though. 
La Maison Brulee just past Rouen towards Le Havre, an old Routiers but excellent food, probably a bit close if you were going for the ferry but very handy being next to the interchange with the A13 if you were coming up from Alencon on the D438 or from Evreux on the N154.
I’ll look out for that as I’m probably going to England later today, not sure if Dieppe or Calais though.
The routier at Vendargues was crap, not to put fine a point on it, better than nothing but not much. The food was dry and tasteless and, with 2 large kirs and a coffee to follow it came to €20. Not surprising that there were only about 6 French drivers in.
I didn’t even get a decent conversation out of it. I sat down as the last man at a table of 8 only to discover that they were all yattering away in a mixture of Portuguese and Ukrainian. 
I don’t think they were drivers, saw no Porto wagons on the park, probably contractors or something. They were as impressed with the food than I was.
did france regularly till about 3 years ago and routiers getting quite expensive at an average of about 12 euro a time which is about £10 for only the basic French type cheap meal. o.k. wine is in with it but the limit now is only about 1 glass.nothing the same these days. 
shirtbox2003:
did france regularly till about 3 years ago and routiers getting quite expensive at an average of about 12 euro a time which is about £10 for only the basic French type cheap meal. o.k. wine is in with it but the limit now is only about 1 glass.nothing the same these days.
Depends where you are, some limit you to a quarter litre flask, but many still include the bottomless bottles on the table.
Like the one I stayed at for the first time last Monday night. About 5 minutes along the RN 164 from the RN 12 at Montauban de Bretagne. Nice meal, a properly rare faux filet with saute potatoes after an extensive choice at the vitrine and a cheeseboard with getting on for a dozen different cheeses on it. €13.70 including a kir, apero and petit cafe afterwards. Brilliant.
Contrast that, mentioned above, with the dry and tasteless offering I received near Montpellier a couple of weeks ago when the generous patron relieved me of €20. 
chazzer:
La Maison Brulee just past Rouen towards Le Havre, an old Routiers but excellent food, probably a bit close if you were going for the ferry but very handy being next to the interchange with the A13 if you were coming up from Alencon on the D438 or from Evreux on the N154.
got sold to new owners and went broke. So now closed!
What trucking was all about, forget laptops, TV’s, pot noodles. Park up and go look for some proper grub and something to wash it down. Tomorrow’s another day as yet untouched.
Not a truck stops as such but some very memorable nights, used to be first night stop on a Sunday and race to get there before midnight. On a normal night just enough time to get a beer or three before Rita called it a night. On a good night … did I ever tell you about Mr Bean’s birthday?
Another fine stop. great on a summer’s evening when you’d dine on the veranda. On the A10 between Landau & Pirmasens at Kaltenbach if memory serves me right. A road with overnight weight restrictions which didn’t seem to apply to the German trucks. I was sat on the veranda one night when half a dozen Ferraris turned up. Great sound coming up the valley.
Again not a big truck stop and mainly frequented by French drivers just off the N2 east of Senlis at Vaumoise in and old railway yard. I discovered it when Paris was going through a troubled time and didn’t want to be too close. You had two choices on the menu, take it or leave it. And if you didn’t sit down when dinner was served you went without. The daughter spoke a little English. 
WHAT ABOUT THE MONKEY HOUSE?
Does anyone out there know if the bake house @ St.Cyr-sur-Menthon is still there?
I haven’t driven this way for years and the last time must have been in the 90’s
I’m hoping to do a “nostalgia trip” next year and I will be looking out for some of the old “Routiers” including this one so any info would be very welcome regards kendavies
ex: Alltransport/HTS/SCA/Laeubli/HND and a few more too numerous to mention.
kendavies:
Does anyone out there know if the bake house @ St.Cyr-sur-Menthon is still there?
I haven’t driven this way for years and the last time must have been in the 90’s
I’m hoping to do a “nostalgia trip” next year and I will be looking out for some of the old “Routiers” including this one so any info would be very welcome regards kendavies
ex: Alltransport/HTS/SCA/Laeubli/HND and a few more too numerous to mention.
It certainly is Ken, I came back from Geneva on the old road a couple of months ago and was surprised at how many routiers were open on a road which is banned to through trucks.
I called in the Bakehouse in 2002 with the wagon, just before I retired and chatted to the patron who said he was the grandson of the chap who owned it in the glory days back in the 80s when I was regular there at the weekends.
This time though was outside of meal hours so can’t testify to how popular it is or even if they serve food in the evenings. Back in 2002 I ate a very good midday meal there, but was alone as a diner. Just a few locals using it as a pub.
I was astounded by how little parking there is and, thinking back, if you weren’t there early it was a long walk back from your spot on the side of the road.
I put a couple of short videos on Youtube. One of coming through Nantua and marvelling at the autoroute which now by-passes it clinging precariously to the side of the mountain. The other descending the Cerdon to the Maquis monument at the bottom and remembering the time when I wacked that little wall with the trailer while hurrying back home for a family emergency.
youtube.com/watch?v=igIKVpHCQyw
youtube.com/watch?v=F5j02WFb9p0
Just a word of caution though if you watch with the sound up. I was suffering with a very bad case of bronchitis at the time and forgot that the mike picked up all the 'orrible throat noises. 
This one at the top of Somma Sierra, Spain, on the N1 was a good place to stop in summer.
And Santa Lucia (Spain) was a great favourite with North Africa drivers.
There were 2 or 3 at Medinacelli, just off the N2 in Spain. The one pictured below was a proper truckers-only place with excellent grub and vino.
This one was up the mountain just before Baleta Pass on the National going towards Pamplona. When the tunnel was built I expect it lost all its freight trade. Can’t remember what it was called.
‘Containers’ in (Dabas, was it?) Hungary was another lively place to weekend, especially if there were a few long-haulers parked up.
This one was an excellent stop. It’s somewhere in the bottom end of France and I know I had loaded in Marseille when this picture was taken. Unfortunately, all my notes are in Blighty and I can’t remember its name. Can someone jog the brain-cell for me?
This one, translation ‘End of the World’, was at Amfreville in the southern suburbs of Rouen down by the river opposite the Pirelli factory. It was Algerian-run and excellent. I used it a lot.
This was a really good Routier stop, somewhere north of Chartres - I think on the N154.
Another excellent Routier that got bypassed by the N154 road improvements was this one at Tivoli. Sorry you can only see my lorry but the place deserves a mention!
Between the Routiers of Vivonne and Les Minieres on the N10 in France, lay a fabulous Routier at Couhe. It was always very welcoming. One of my favourites.
As Londra Camp Istanbul is just inside Europe, here’s a pic I took there.
I know all those Robert, The last time I ate at the one at Amfreville was more than a dozen years ago and the meal was good but it was run by an Indian from London who spoke good English. The lorry park isn’t as big as your photo suggests and, because it is just a couple of hundred yards into a banned route, nearly always accessed from the south and is a bit of a challenge for left hookers reversing in off the road. I often pass that way now and always look towards it from the roundabout but get the impression that it is no longer a routier.
The Relais de Beauce too I recognise but can’t place it just at the moment. I have passed it within the last month or 2 though.
Tivoli has long been a favourite and is still going strong. I passed it a short while ago but stayed up the road at Thomas la Sogne, mainly to see if it too still survived. It does, and I ate well, though the company was less than sparkling. The evil square eye on the wall was the culprit. 
The one at Couhe is called Macadam, I think, and again you’re right, the grub is excellent, but I normally overnight at Vivonne. The company is nearly always good there (no telly ) and they are very traditional in filling each table with diners before starting on another. The time before last I got into the company of a Brazilian driver who lives in Bordeaux and didn’t get to bed till midnight, several digestives after the end of the meal. The last time was when I was running to Bordeaux on a Sunday from Bethune. I had tried to park the night before at the Arcotel in Rouen but it was closed, so bought some salad from the Total on the dual carriageway north of Chartres and parked up further down in a layby. Vivonne serves Sunday lunch, so I ate there knowing I’d get nothing when I got to Bordeaux.
Even got unexpectedly tipped both sides of Bordeaux after being given Monday morning rdvs and parked up, again with salad near La Reole. It was the parking of a routier but it wasn’t open at 6 on the Monday morning so may be extinct.
Spardo:
I know all those Robert, The last time I ate at the one at Amfreville was more than a dozen years ago and the meal was good but it was run by an Indian from London who spoke good English. The lorry park isn’t as big as your photo suggests and, because it is just a couple of hundred yards into a banned route, nearly always accessed from the south and is a bit of a challenge for left hookers reversing in off the road. I often pass that way now and always look towards it from the roundabout but get the impression that it is no longer a routier.The Relais de Beauce too I recognise but can’t place it just at the moment. I have passed it within the last month or 2 though.
Tivoli has long been a favourite and is still going strong. I passed it a short while ago but stayed up the road at Thomas la Sogne, mainly to see if it too still survived. It does, and I ate well, though the company was less than sparkling. The evil square eye on the wall was the culprit.
The one at Couhe is called Macadam, I think, and again you’re right, the grub is excellent, but I normally overnight at Vivonne. The company is nearly always good there (no telly
Even got unexpectedly tipped both sides of Bordeaux after being given Monday morning rdvs and parked up, again with salad near La Reole. It was the parking of a routier but it wasn’t open at 6 on the Monday morning so may be extinct.
Thanks for all that Spardo. You were allowed to run the ban just to reverse into the parking at Amfreville (I asked the French drivers!). You are so right about Vivonne! And Sunday lunch was always a marvel because all the families for miles around came to meet for their weekly Sunday lunch - grannies, kids, drivers: wine enough to drown. Wonderful! What about Bordeaux? There used to be two very good Routiers there. I used to use the big dodgy one where all the gypsies parked. Happy memories! Robert
So the three wheel dog express has run its course ,Spardo?
harry:
So the three wheel dog express has run its course ,Spardo?
The 3 wheeler was never for the dogs Harry, but has run its course on the road long since and is now doing sterling service as a log store just outside the back door.
The dog express is still in full swing, with the Berlingo and the (re-chassised) Teardrop sleeper. It was with 2 big male Dobermanns that I was travelling that Saturday/Sunday mentioned above. I had collected 2 Galgos (Spanish Greyhounds) and 2 smaller dogs from Cestas services on the Friday lunchtime, overnighted at the only remaining routier in Chateau Gaillard, south of Paris, and delivered them to Douai in the Nord Departement Saturday midday. This is a regular run for me.
On Saturday afternoon I collected the 2 Dobies from nearby and Bethune and headed south with them. One Dobie was very frightened and nervous and made a lot of noise when the car stopped. After failing at Rouen I pulled up at the routier, now by-passed at St. Germain la Gatine, north of Chartres, fed them, walked them and prepared to settle down for the night. However Rocky, the nervous one, set up such a howling and barking that I thought it better to move on, the routier patron lives on site and there are neighbours. I finally pulled in behind a Spanish frigo south of Chartres on the N10. I reckoned I wouldn’t hear his frigo from there, and he wouldn’t hear my dog.
After Sunday lunch at Vivonne I was intending to overnight on the parking in the centre of Carcans which is halfway up the Medoc peninsula NW of Bordeaux. However, with Rocky being so noisy I thought the middle of town wasn’t a good idea and so continued the half hour further on into the wilds to the animal pension that was to be his new temporary home, intending to sleep there till my rdv at 8 on Monday. Good job I did because Eddy the boss was on site and took him in there and then. I then went across Bordeaux and down past Langon to park up with my other ‘mate’, Eliot. Again though, at this other pension the owners lived on site (I hadn’t realised that) and took him too! Result! So I was home Monday morning instead of afternoon.
Robert, I have remembered the Relais de la Beauce. It is the one just north of Ymonenville and has benefitted from the bit of new road running past it. The entrance is now from a side road and the lorry park is bigger, if anything, than I remember it. Long time since I ate there though, it was another good one I think.
At Bordeaux my favourite was always the Albatross, one of 5 restos almost under the Pont Aquitaine but only that (now renamed) and the Monte Cristo next door remain. I was looking to eat, but not stay there, on a recent Friday night but they were both closed so I went round to the Centre Routier round the corner where the food couldn’t be faulted. Especially not for about 14 and a half euros all in.