Maubeuge

I learned skydiving there so I am biased. Great vibe, a lot of students and experienced skydivers so you can always find someone to jump with you. Jumps at 13'000 ft with one pilatus. The weather is not great as it is the north of France, and the scenery has nothing special though. Huge landing area, and a lot of space to chill on the ground. DZ specialized in Relative Work

Finally got to visit after living nearby for eight months. It was really great.

Facilities: Clean and spacious. They have three consecutive hangars connected. The paved space in front of the hangars was full of spectators; including children playing. The restrooms were clean and spacious. Plenty of parking. The café next door had plenty of tables and chairs outside with a great view of the DZ. It also had a fenced in play area with a sign that said it was specifically for the children of café customers and skydivers. There was a clearly defined swoop area front and center and a HUGE DZ. No real reason to land out. But if you did, agricultural fields abound, so you are safe. The runway is on the opposite side of the DZ, so they ferry you over with a van that has custom benches built in.

Organization: There are television screens on the walls that are constantly scrolling through the future loads, who is on them, time remaining, height each jumper is going to, and which plane the load is on. When your load is up, your name is showing and the time indicated is "NOW". Get on the van and go. They issue you a card the size of a credit card when you register. It has your name and a barcode. When you are ready to jump, you drop it in the "in" box at the front desk. They scan you in and your name starts showing up on the screens when your load is displayed. Your card goes in the "out" box for you to retrieve when you want it. If you are jumping with a group, you rubberband everyone's cards together and throw them in the box like that. They had a large board listing their instructors, management, camera people, and such. Each had a picture of the person so you knew who to go to with questions. Andre is the Administrative Manager. He's mostly bald with a huge beard and glasses. Very helpful. Speaks great English. Richard was the safety who briefed me. Also spoke great English. Very helpful and thorough.

Equipment: They have a Pilatus and a Caravan. Both appear to be in excellent condition. Rental gear was plentiful and in excellent condition.

Services: Everyone was helpful and friendly. There were enough English speakers that it wasn't a problem. The safety brief was very efficient. The packers were quick and friendly. The café was reasonably priced and the food was good. Having a play place for kids was really nice. The family atmosphere was pretty cool. There were lots of tents, RVs, and trailers behind the hangars. It appeared clean and neat.

The airfield was reasonably busy, but all recreational stuff. I counted five sail planes active near the runway. There were a few powered paragliders in one corner of the DZ. Three antique US Army Jeeps came in to visit at the cafe. There was an antique Porsche roadster as well. There were photographers and plain old spectators. At least four motorcycles were parked in the lot.

It was truly an outstanding operation in every way. I look forward to my next visit.

Maubeuge is a large DZ, generally ranking 3rd for jumps in the year (22,000 approx).
Since 2011 it operates a Caravan and a Pilatus, so is not short of lift, to include for 8-ways. Tandems do not crowd out the others.

The team is very professional and does its best to put people in the air, even in marginal weather, which is quite acceptable considering the size of the DZ and the fact it is in the middle of nowhere. I read, in one comment posted a few years ago, that it was short in English speakers. Well, I can tell you it is not the case, to start with Dédé Vanhaudenard and Paul Minjauw, the technical staff, and many other members are proficient enough to brief, debrief, generally assist English speakers. Military of various nations from nearby SHAPE with zero French language skills have no problems.
There often are Dutch teams around, which makes Maubeuge very much a tri-nation club (with the Belgians nearby, of course!). This makes for the right combination of professionalism and decontraction.

Many RW teams train here, to include the World Champions, and coaching is accessible at very good rates, quite often in the season, to include vertical RW and freestyle.
For beginners, both options are available, AFF and traditional, at average rates.

What singles out Maubeuge is its new infrastructure, since 2008. Accomodation for more than 50 people in a spacious building, rooms of 2 or 3, all amenities available. The club house is open during the week-ends and you can get good food at reasonable rates (8-15 euros). There is a large camping area with showers and toilets close by.

The area for packing is pretty basic and can get crowded, but it is good enough.
I do accuracy and enjoy a very large pea pit, but regret the absence of a tuffet. That said, being the only one...

Given its infrastructure, this place has a potential for 30,000 jumps per year. All it takes is you (and friends).

Yoo! Maubeuge en force !
Vive l'ASPU !
Super DZ, il fait pas toujours très beau mais en tout cas il y fait toujours chaud !

This was my first visit abroad to a DZ. It was a very pleasant experience and I will return here in the near future.

There is very friendly atmosphere and everyone is willing to help you get started but there were only two or three people who could speak english. It's France afterall so that was to be expected of course. They have two very nice looking Pilatus Porters and therefore lots of lift capacity. Landings are in front of the hangar which I thought was pretty cool as I never done that before.

Compared to the Netherlands prices are also very friendly. 20 euros/13000ft and rental gear is only 7 euros. The choice of gear is excellent..they have something for everyone.

This is where I started and it's a really cool place to practice skydiving: everything is impeccable; instructors are friendly (Claude's quite known for his farts!); the cafeteria has a respectable menu with good pricing (especially if you're staying the night), and the general ambiance is pretty cool!

... and did I mention the World's Silver medalists for 2004 in many categories have their base here???