Aire camping-car Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule

03 · The write-up

What it is like to arrive here.

Seventy three places, free, open all year. Most French aires are 4 to 12 bays, so this is an outlier, and it is the commune of Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule that says so on its own website.

The wording is unambiguous: the aire has a capacity of 73 emplacements and is open free of charge all year, near the Stade de la Moutte. The tariff table on the same page gives “Emplacement : gratuit”, then 4 euros per electrical charge and 4 euros for a drinking water fill.

What is actually here

An electric charging borne and a drinking water borne, both paid by bank card. The commune explains that the water borne also dispenses tokens for the electric charging, again by card, which means you need a card rather than coins.

An electrical hook-up and a waste disposal point. There are no toilets and no showers, so do not plan around finding a sanitary block here. Water is on site and it is metered: the commune describes a drinking water borne at 4 euros a fill.

The parking costs nothing and the bornes cost 4 euros a go, so budget for the services and not for the night.

Where it sits

Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule is in the Allier, in the wine country on the Sioule between Moulins and Vichy. The aire is beside the Stade de la Moutte, on Rue de la Moutte, which puts it on the edge of the town rather than in its center.

This is the northwestern corner of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the densest cluster of free communal aires in the whole region. Lapalisse, Varennes-sur-Allier, Chevagnes, Cérilly, Chantelle, Montmarault, Le Montet and Rocles all run one. For a British visitor working south, the Allier is the easy part of this region: flat to rolling, ordinary roads, no passes, and towns close enough that a full aire costs you very little.

Altitude and season

Nothing here depends on altitude. The Allier is low country, the roads stay open, and the commune states the aire is open free of charge all year without a seasonal qualifier.

That is a real difference from the eastern half of this region, where a mountain aire may be legally open in January with the water shut off and the access road under snow. If you want a winter stopover in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes that will still be working when you get there, the Allier is where to look, and 73 places is a lot of insurance.

The rule that applies

The commune sets the rules for its own aire, and the page publishes no maximum stay. Read the sign at the entrance before you plan a long stop. Our French bivouac rules page covers the national legal position on sleeping in a vehicle, and what an aire actually is explains why a French aire is not a campsite. The posted sign at the entrance and the mairie’s current guidance beat both.

Before you rely on this

Read the commune’s page linked below. It is the primary source for the tariff, the capacity and the year-round opening, and it is the first place a change will appear. Bring a bank card if you intend to use the bornes.