Where have you been? What have you seen?
#1477738
I thought I'd explore a few customs entry points to France for future use. Calais can be windy and both it and LeTouquet can get sea fog, I'd also prefer runway options and grass.
Ive recently been to Dinard and Deaville. The three I tried were quite different.

I emailed for customs at Abbeville LFOI bsi-abbeville@douane.finances.gouv.fr but no one showed up. There was no one on the radio, supposed to be air to air (in French). I asked Lille for the surface wind but they advised to overfly to view the wind sock (however they do parachute there so be careful). There was a glider being towed to the grass but it was very wide and I landed well to the side of it. A few people and planes around; there seems to be fuel. Some nice chap booked me in and took a 4E landing fee and sold me a coke at the small cafe. Seemed informal and pleasant. Looks like its close to the town for a wander and a meal.

On route to Caen LFRK I spoke to Lille, Paris and Deauville and skirted round Rouen. The Seine is interesting as it snakes around. Joined Caen at EY reporting point for a straight in on 31 grass parking by the fuel. The tarmac is huge. The tower asked someone to fuel me up (do it before going to pay the landing fee, they give you a ticket). 20litres was 35E and landing fee 9E. Quite a queue for fuel was builing up with 4-5 small planes. All very pleasant and good English in the office. Obvioulsy geared up for commercial traffic but also GA including microlights.

Departed to Cherbourg LFRC taking to Deauville again. Good english on Cherbourg radio. One other plane there and one doing circuits. Again geared up for commercial and having resident customs, admin and tower. Landing fee was 12E. There was a very pleasant lady in the cafe, come wine store, come pilot/book shop. Had a coffee and brought an aviation map. The tower had phoned and adjusted the time on my return flight plan without me asking which was helpful. They seemed very keen to encourage UK traffic and make them welcome. Like Deauville the runway is on a plateau.

So, my conclusion; Abbeville - great, cheap, inland, grass, runway options, fuel - just have to plan re the customs notification and be prepared to try to speak in French for air to air circuit calls.
Caen - great, reasonable cost, inland, two runway orientations both grass and hard, fuel, presumably resident customs - have to remember to park near the terminal or be prepared to walk a distance to and fro.
Cherbourg, good for a shortish crossing, reasonable cost, good cafe, compact, resident customs - could suffer from sea fog and sea breezes.

Once again, to me it all seemed very daunting but was actually straightforward.

ImageImage2 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC08920 by Abbeville, on Flickr

ImageDSC08923 by Abbeville fuel, office and cafe, on Flickr

ImageDSC08941 by Graeme Bird, on Flickr

ImageDSC08942 by Caen, on Flickr

ImageDSC08943 by Fuel Caen, on Flickr

ImageDSC08945 by Approach to Cherbourg, on Flickr

ImageDSC08947 by Cherbourg Tower, on Flickr

ImageDSC08949 by Customs, Landing fees and cafe building Cherbourg, on Flickr
Last edited by Birdyboy1 on Thu Aug 18, 2016 5:46 pm, edited 3 times in total.
User avatar
By Rob P
#1477777
Birdyboy1 wrote:Cherbourg, good for a shortish crossing, reasonable cost, good cafe


Luc and Edith are famed for their hospitality.

Good write up.

Rob P
Last edited by Rob P on Fri Aug 19, 2016 3:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
By smokescreen
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1477811
I went to Abbeville last week - emailed Customs and received the reply that they would be attending my arrival. On arrival, the aerodrome operations man closed the flight plan, charged me 8euro landing fee (P28R) and informed me that customs would be attending my departure! Sure enough, the customs man was in the bar area of the terminal building and checked my passport and licence as well as my passenger's passport whilst he completed a form which required the address of the aircraft's owner and the address of my passenger. I've been to Abbeville several times over the past few years and this was the first time that customs have been in attendance. FYI the aerodrome operations man will call a taxi for you, about 12euro, to the town centre where there are good restaurants and a large Carrefour supermarket in the town.
User avatar
By Rob P
#1477839
Those 24 euro for the taxi would fall just a couple of euro short of paying for two, three-course meals with wine here, within walking distance of the airfield.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restauran ... cardy.html

Run by this bloke Les Routiers who seems to own a huge chain of such establishments :wink:

Formal lunches in the airport restaurant are very high quality and not mind-bogglingly expensive.

I've seen the authorities at Abbeville, arrived by helicopter and gave an N-Reg owner quite a hard time about VAT or somesuch.

Rob P
User avatar
By smokescreen
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1477881
Interesting Rob - did an overnighter 2 years ago and stayed at the Relais Motel on airfield - good rates, excellent food both for lunch and dinner. Will check out your restaurant recommendation next time but will still need to get to a supermarket to stock up the wine cellar!!
Mark L
User avatar
By Rob P
#1477882
It really is amazing.

Transport caff, near indecipherable menu on a big chalkboard, one price, 14 euro for three courses and wine. (Per person). Rammed full when we went.

Rob P
User avatar
By Rob P
#1477953
Yes, we got there early. A lot of the customers seemed to be local pensioners. Of course it may just have been pension day.

Rob P
#1478114
Thanks for this, it's very useful information to have in the knowledge bank.

I've used Cherbourg and recommend it. It's like tumble weed there but with permanent customs and a short crossing (from my part of the UK anyway), it works well.

As has already been stated, the people that run the café are very nice and do a lovely 'sandwich complet' - basically, everything bunged into a large french baguette and covered in foil. Yum :x

I'm flying from Dinard next week so can report on that afterwards.