Camping in France - want to book another holiday now! Anyine camped in the Jura??

[2babyblues]

We went to the Dordogne at the end of August for 2 weeks. Stayed at St Avit Loisirs near La Bugue in the Dordogne. Would highly recommend the site. As we had such a great time and my boys are still talking about the holiday I have already started to think about next year!

I was wondering if anyone has been camping in the Franche Comte/ Jura region of France. I am considering these sites: Val de Bonnal, Le Pergola, Lac Chalain or the other site at Lac Chalain which is called Camping Lac Chalain. Any advice would be appreciated.

we stayed at Lac Chalain a few years ago. it was a good site and a beautiful area, VERY quiet i.e. there was absolutely nothing going on for miles around, no tourist infrastructure, not necessarily a bad thing, just maybe not much to do on a rainy day. We hired bikes and cycled round the lake with dd1, that's mostly what I remember, oh also I think it was freezing at night but it was the first week of the season. Nice memories.

Lac de chalain is lovely but it is only really warm in the Jura in July and August. Beautiful part of the world. Would you drive there?

We camped at Val de Bonnal this year for our second week.

The site is big but almost split into 2 we wanted a quiet site so booked at the far end away from the shop etc and it was lovely, much more open , grassier and quiet.
Nearly all tents and lots of space whereas the first part of the site was a real mixture of ready tents, trailer tents, motorhomes etc and much less grassy.

Pool was lovely, not over big though, lakes and walks very lovely.

Highly recommended as log as you go for the far end - and have bikes, else it's a bit if a hike for brekkie!

Many thanks for your messages. They have given me something to think about! We would be travelling in August so hopefully should be warm!!! I did part of my degree course in Besancon and I remember the whole region being really beautiful (not that I appreciated it at the time!). Will have to think about the bike thing as my youngest would probably be ready for a proper bike my then, but then I would need to get one too!

Anyone know about the kids clubs on any of the sites? Are the lakes nice to swim in/ take inflatable dingies in?

We stayed somewhere around Lac de Chalain at the end of August about 10 years ago. Depends what kind of site you're after, but it wasn't what we wanted at all - too big, too much entertainment, pitches too small and no seats on the loos (although lots of that may have changed since). We were also VERY cold at night.

We were staying in a Canvas tent and there was barely room to put the car (Peugot 406 saloon) on the pitch and still open the door. At night we had every single blanket we could find on the bed, and piled towels on top as well. And we were still cold. We'd planned to stay about a week and then do a week in Burgundy, but we changed and moved to the other site ASAP.

That said, the lake was very attractive on the site, we loved the scenery and the Cascade du Herisson were amazing. But I'd be very cautious of going back.

We didn't use the kids club at Val de Bonnall, so can't help on that front, seemed to do lots of activitesThey did have a good tree top walk thing - like Go Ape, which was good but you had to book in advance.

One of the lakes had a swimming/dinghy/ paddling section, with lifeguard, and then a deeper part that was just for dinghies etc.

You could hire canoes and do a 1/2 day travel back to campsite. This was pretty popular and you could wath the returning canoeists riding the small rapids under the campsite bridge- very entertaining!

Would recommend Val de Bonnal.