Camping la Sirène

We had a brilliant four-night stay here with Canvas Holidays, who invited Mumsnet to review this huuuuuuuge (by English and French standards) site. There's an eye-bogglingly enormous swimming complex, three cheap-and-cheerful restaurants, a bar, a pub (well, an 'interesting' French interpretation of what an English pub must be!) and shops selling everything from baguettes and regional cheeses to cringey souvenirs and cans of baked beans.

We had a really rather plush three-bed mobile home, with air conditioning (a real must in the scorching Mediterranean heat), two (count 'em) bathrooms and a zinger of a gas-fired BBQ out on the decking. We all loved sitting out on the decking at breakfast, basking in the early-morning warmth, necking croissants and giggling at the slightly "hi de hi" morning announcements from the campsite organisers.

Because the site is so mahoosive, it's a good idea to hire bikes - and our Londoner kids (13, 11 and 7) gloried in the unaccustomed freedom of zooming off all over the place on their own. (Cars are allowed on the site but not only are the avenues all one way, the speed limit is sub-snail-pace and everyone observes it religiously.)

The kids' clubs are excellent - catering for all from the very small to the very teen - and you can drop in and out to as many morning/afternoon sessions as much as you want.

Next to the kids' clubs is a decent-sized - and wonderfully shady - crazy golf course. Which was, basically, where our children spent almost every moment of the day that wasn't devoted to whooshing (and whooping) down the water slides in the pool complex. The pool complex itself is ginormous, and, as well as the slides, there's a Jacuzzi, waterfalls, and a very good children's pool. It's not the place for a leisurely ten lengths of breaststroke but, if you like your swimming splashy, you're in for a treat.

If you're the sporty sort, there's a good selection of activities and scratch tournaments on offer, from archery to tennis and scuba lessons. We had a go at mountain-biking down an actual mountain - really good fun, although I probably did enough squealing and falling off to permanently damage my maternal dignity.

Evenings at la Sirène are pretty lively down near the restaurants and pub; it's a very popular campsite for families with older teen children but non-partying, early-to-bedders needn't fret as the noise doesn't travel over to the emplacements. The French 'animateurs' also put on an ambitious (and v enthusiasticlly received) programme of nightly stage shows (Grease, Lion King etc etc), if that's your kind of thing.

Most people seemed content to stay in the campsite (it had everything you could want on hand, after all) but there is a dinky little road train you can catch that takes you down to the (heaving, hot) beaches nearby.

Argelès is right down in the south of France, on the Mediterranean coast, not far from Perpignan and very close to Spain. So, it's more than possible to pop over the border on a day trip - we went to the Salvador Dali in Figueres for a surrrealist spot of high culture.

Closer to the camp, we also visited the Valley of Tortoises (very hot, very tortoisey) a farmer's maze (made of maize, obvs) and ate out at a very good 'posh tapas' place just down the road.

All in all, a fun, well-run place with a nice atmosphere and loads to do; our kids would go again like a shot!