The warm days of summer may still be some months away, but we don't think there's ever a bad time to be dreaming of a trip to France. In this blog post, Anne explores a less well-known option you might want to consider when planning your journey.

Last year, on an autumn road trip to the Loire Valley in France, I saw a sign by the side of the motorway that piqued my interest. I was familiar with the large brown tourist signs depicting local landmarks or places of interest from many car journeys through France as a child, but I had never come across a sign indicating a village étape before, so I decided to find out more.
So, what could village étape mean? Linguistically, the meaning of the word village is clear, as it is the same in both French and English, but what does étape refer to? As a linguist, I have encountered the term étape many times before, both as a cycling fan (in the sense of an individual stage or leg of a longer race such as the Tour de France) and as a technical translator (where it often refers to a step in a process). In this case, however, it relates to the idea of a stop or stopover. So village étape could be translated into English as ‘stopover village’, although we don’t really have an equivalent concept in the UK as far as I’m aware.
What is a village étape? In a nutshell, it is a small town, not always a village, with fewer than 5000 inhabitants which must be located less than 5 minutes or 5 kilometres from a public motorway or national road (under state management rather than privately owned). It provides a charming alternative location for motorists to take a break or stopover, a contrast to the ubiquitous rest area or service area (aire de repos or aire de service) found alongside French motorways - the equivalent of our motorway services. Officially, it is a certification issued by a French government department, the Ministère de la Transition écologique (the French Ministry of Ecological Transition), to municipalities that have to meet a range of criteria. The certification is valid for a period of 5 years, after which it can be renewed provided that the original criteria are still met.

What are the other criteria that a village étape has to meet? Besides the restrictions on number of inhabitants and location already mentioned, the following must be available: a range of basic shops (butcher, baker, newsagent, grocer), a variety of eating establishments, at least one classified hotel and alternatively bed and breakfast accommodation or a campsite, sufficient parking spaces (including a shaded parking area and a designated area for camper vans), a tourist information point or centre, a telephone, an ATM, public toilets (including facilities for those with reduced mobility), and a picnic/play area.
All shopkeepers, hoteliers and restaurateurs who take part in the village étape scheme have to sign a quality charter, and they can be easily identified by a sticker showing Philémon the hedgehog, the village étape mascot, displayed in their window.
The first village étape was created in 1995 and at the time of writing there is a network of 78 of them throughout France. In 2002, a national association was established (Fédération Française des Villages Étapes (FFVE)) to represent their interests and to develop and promote the network. Further information about each individual village étape, including local attractions, regional specialities and even which day of the week is market day (a very important piece of information in France!), can be found by visiting their website (www.village-etape.fr). There is an interactive map online or you can download a free digital version (in pdf format) or even order a paper version by post.
So, why choose a village étape? Well, you can find 10 good reasons why on the website (only available in the French version), but it sounds like a no-brainer to me. To take a break from the road away from crowded motorway rest areas, in the countryside and with all the facilities that you might need, to support the local rural economy, to have a little adventure and, who knows, maybe to discover a hidden gem. It’s a shame I didn’t know that such a thing existed before my holiday last year, but I’m definitely planning to incorporate one into my next road trip!