this may be of use to someone
truckstops in kermit land
Thanks for that link, I will try to download it to excel so I can print it off easier.
That is the yorkshire coming out in me 
I use a Les Routiers book, but there are some good routiers that do not subscribe to Les 
Did you notice the prices for the set menu??
For those people not yet initiated into the French Routiers.
The set menu consists of:-
-
Starter, usualy a salad, sometimes self service, sometimes served to you, but NOT two lettuce leaves with a bit of tomato and a bit of cucumber, this is a selection of coleslaws, rice salads, noodle salads, potato salads and cold meats and fish.
OR
a slab of pate, served with half a fresh crisp crusty baguette. -
Main course, usualy a choice from probably 3 meat dishes (there might be a fish dish), any kind of meat, cooked the way you prefer when that’s appropriate, served with a choice of pomme frits (French fries), rice, haricot verts (green beans) or potatoes.
Please note, the wine is included in the price of the menu and you usualy have a choice of the house red, white or rose (in certain areas, Britagnie for eg, you can be offered cidre instead, excellent local cider).
You will get either a 1/2litre jug for you, or a bottle on the table to share between two, tho’ an extra bottle will often be given on request.
-
The cheese board, served with more fresh crisp crusty baguette.
-
Dessert. The French don’t do proper puddings, like treacle sponge with custard, but the desserts are usualy perfectly acceptable. (Things like ice creams, small slices of gateau, etc. My favourite is floatant, exactly what it looks like - floaters
, soft meringue balls floating in custard with caramel drizzled over the top). -
Le cafe
This is only the set menu, then, for some extra money, you can go a-la-carte. I won’t go into the delights of a proper French a-la-carte menu. Its late, I’m tired and I don’t want to go to bed drooling 
(besides which, the set menu is usualy plenty good enough).
These Routiers restaurants are intended for drivers to use. They are found on main routes, are usualy of good quality and have plenty of parking. The meals are only served at set times, for a limited period unless its at a big truckstop. I’ve been caught out several times. Its alway when I’m a bit pushed for time, so want to get on now and find something to eat later. Then ‘later’ is too late 
SIMON
SSHHHHHush!
You will have them all wanting to go on European work
Too late,
And when looking for a good one to stop at pick one with a lot of French trucks parked outside as they will tend to be the best, the French drivers don’t mess about when it comes to important stuff like eating.
hmmmmmm. are you sure about the “floaters” bit simon?
By the way, if you’ve got a Laptop with MS Autoroute on it, Ossie has put a link to a European Truckstop database in Here, which he has made up.
You have to go down the thread to the 8th post in the thread, which has this link :- http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26959.
That site seems to be mainly about Streets and Trips (Autoroute, American style). All the S&T tips, plug-ins etc work just as well for Autoroute as they do for S&T though.
Hello trucknet people! This link did not work for me 
, but going to www.truckinfo.be easy enough to navigate to the truckstop list, sorted by departement #. Has any managed to get this into an Excel sheet, or some other way so it can be printed? This list would be very handy for me in the cab. I do have have the Les Routiers book, but have found it to be totally unreliable. (arrived at a town the other day to find the “routiers” listed had no car park and was not serving food this at 21:30 despite being in the book as serving food until 23:00) and me totally out of hours. Ended up sleeping in the town square and eating kebab
Can’t you just hit the “Print Page” button?
I know it’ll take ages to do it, but you would end up with a printed list. An Excel document would presumably be easier to handle.
If you’ve got a laptop you can keep the entire list on the hard drive as a searchable set of documents, by having the Truckstops Europa page in your synchronised website list.
Sorry to be a bit negative here but having searched both the lists mentioned above I find them highly deficient in their content. Checking a short random list of those I have as my favourites I found non mentioned.
What were mentioned heavily, especially in the UK were MSAs, have things become so bad these days that even these are now recommended for truck drivers?
One which I did recognise from years gone by is the Salt Box on the old A50 in Derbyshire. Is that really still going? If so it is a remarkable achievement given that it was by-passed without a convenient access. I remember some 30 odd years ago signing a petition in there campaigning for an access from the proposed new road. In the event the new road had to wait many years but the access wasn’t granted.
Some time back I think it was BritPete who posted a link to a Dutch website. It wasn’t very comprehensive, in France anyway, and the owners invited recommendations. I posted a couple but said that I could not possibly find the time to give them all I knew. They emailed with thanks asking me to send them anyway. 
I did however offer to help anyone who emailed me, so far no takers. I reckon these Dutchman are sufficiently switched on to the situation without any help, I have rarely eaten in a routier without the company of at least one Dutchman 
. Wish I could say the same about the Brits .
Bon appetit!
Salut, David.
The last time I looked Spardo (early on this year), the Salt Box was still going strong.
Access is a bit of a nuisance, you can only get to it from the Uttoxeter end of the old A50. There’s a weight limit through the village and I’m pretty sure that there’s a weight limit coming up from Burton too.
The saltbox is still doing roaring trade david yes. The food is (in my opinion) excellent and reasonably priced too
Yes the salt box is going strong, bit posh maybe, they use whitecap for cooking
Its not so far off the beaten track if you come off the A50, there is also a keyfuels garage next door. Even from the A38 its only 5 /10 minutes.
As for the France routiers, i have a book written by a bloke called Les. I only use it for emergencies as normally I use mine and the French drivers judgement, if the bar is full and you cannot get in the parking area, fight hard until you can
“A bloke called Les?” is the book widely available? I often find myself running out of hours and needing somewhere to stop. I have the Les Routieres book, but find it unreliable, as someone said above, a quick look for stops I know is enough to confirm that it is by no means comprehensive, and stops that are listed are not necessarily any good…
Would that be Les Routiers or Les Routiers European Wheel Nut 
Simon:
Would that be Les Routiers or Les Routiers European Wheel Nut
Thats him
That is nearly a true story, on my first trip to Germany I was 18 and went with another driver, he had a caravan transporter and trailer, I had a 3 tonne rigid. we doubled them up to save money on the ferry and I went in his cab as second man. On our way across Germany I was getting all the tales and he told me that if ever I broke down or needed help, I had to ring Les Routes as he operated a breakdown service for UK drivers I believed him then 
Wheel Nut:
I use mine and the French drivers judgement, if the bar is full and you cannot get in the parking area, fight hard until you can
Right on, the only infallible way. Only trouble is if you are a little bit early it’s not much help as often the parks are deserted until about 7pm. Still you will be first at both and if it’s no good you’ll know for next time.
Salut, David.
When you’ve decided on the route
follow this link to find somewhere to stay / eat
if it dont load remove /index2.php
ops a bit slow i see