campsites in france - recommendations please

[charity2]

We are looking to go to france for a couple of weeks in the summer. We would like a site that is no more than 4 hours drive of calais. Need swimming pool, preferably some entertainment for our 9 & 7 year olds, play area, clean toilets & showers, and near a lake/beach/man made beach would be good too.
Oh, and if we can walk into a town that would be a bonus, but its not essential.

There are thousands to look through. Any recommendations?

I shall watch with interest as this is more or less our criteria for this year. On my shortlist so far is Chateau des Marais as I know DC will love the pool area. Though it's 5 hours from Calais and I'm not sure if it's near a lake etc.

Hopefully my reply will bump this too.

charity, that site I mentioned is worth a look as it's only just over 4 hours from Calais and has good reviews from here. HTH

Thanks, we have also looked at chateau des Marais, and it is on our shortlist. But, we have now also looked at la pergola which is much farther south in the jura mountains. It looks good but we would have to make a 2 night stopover on the way to break up the journey. The only thing putting us off this site is the weather in the jura mountains, many reviews we've read say it rains alot.

We went to chateau des Marais last year and the children loved it. Pool area was great - although sometimes quite cold. Its right by Chambord estate which is fantastic chateau and grounds. Nearby Cheverny is gorgeous.
Our other option was a bit further east but still in the loire - Les Alicourts. A frined went there and loved it.. that has a lakeside beach as well as a swimming pool complex.
Charity2 - we want to go a bit further this year, possibly Jura area or germany so will watch with interest...

Smith, have a look at Le Fayolan, someone on another thread has booked this one for summer and it looks great. Its now on our shortlist aswell.

Pushing it slightly on the timescale but camping de la baie at trinitie sur mer in brittany is lovely.

We are driving 7 hours (towing traile) from Calais to the vendee. Camping guyonniere, went last year and it was amazing, going for 17 nights this august

we went to chateaux des marais last summer and it was fab. we are actually going back this year for a few nights before heading further south.
It has a great pool complex with toddler pool, hot tube, heated pool and decent slides. It is also is a really nice small site.
The pitches all seemed a good size, certainly bigger than other sites we have been on.

It is good for under 10's especially i think, lots of children 3-10 and we felt happy to give our dd (7) a lot of freedom around the site on her own as there were so many other children and she made great friends.

Lots of lovely cycling to do in area - 5mins to the Loire , which is great for cycling along and also a fab hour long cycle ride to chambord along clearly marked cycle routes, mostly flat - our dd could manage this pretty easily with biscuit stops etc and a younger child in a bike carrier. We also really enjoyed the night light show at chambord which is on every night.
evening entertainment on site good too, with a film all the children went to and two play areas - also tennis, mini golf.

It was quiet, no discos , loud music etc which suited us, everywhere quite by 10pm. A nice restaurant and 10 mins to a hypermarche.
A really easy going friendly relaxing site. Shower blocks always clean and pleasant to use. Bikes good to bring although you can hire them there.

Lots of other chateuxs in area - Blois about half an hour away. Not as good as Brittany for markets but still good.

Another vote for Chateau de Marais here. We loved it - going back this year

We are the only people in the whole world who didn't like Marais. Although we had just moved up from a fabulous site in the Dordogne - I cried when we eventually managed to squeeze our tent onto the pitch

I so wish we'd enjoyed it, it would have helped if the pools had been heated - the boiler had broken so the slides dodn't work either - oh and boy did it rain!

Sorry that wasn't much help was it?

We now do serious south.

jumping on this with 2 comments.

Have stayed at chateau marais - we had good weather and enjoyed it - think children were 6/8/9 something like that. We did get a bit bored of the region though and would go again but just for a 3-4 night stop. Didnt take own tent either so can't comment on pitch size.

This one for Lucycat - can you recommend any sites in the south - we are planning to do that this year with own tent. I am now terribly confused as have looked at too many places. We don't like really noisy but do like a good pool with slides. We also like to be able to walk into a village/small town. We dread going to sites full of Brits - we are Brits - but want to feel as though we are on holiday so really pleased with a good mix on site. Any suggestions truly appreciated.

Ah yes - 3rd comment - we have done short ferry crossing/long ferry crossing and Eurotunnel. On long ferry we got bored (there is a theme here - we get bored easily - struggle to sit still). Short crossing was not a pleasure at all - just fell like we all crowded on - ate - crowded off. Eurotunnel was a breeze - plan to do that again.

K.

We stopped over at Chateau de Marais last year - didn't like it - pool was lovely but thought site was really chavvy - don't really know why, it looked so nice, but the atmosphere was just not there. Etang de la Breche in Saumur is lovely. Alternatively the Vendee is great if you get good weather, beaches are beautiful but it is very touristy (French tourists).

Hello again. We have now had a think again about our plans and really dont want to take our own tent. Looked at Chantepie at Saumur which looks lovely and they do their own safari style tents -much cheaper than the big tour operators. Site loooks lovely but reviews say mainly for younger children and we now have a teenager - so we are looking for something similar - have also changed our destination plans - dont want to drive too far.

Requirements - able to walk into a village or town (dont want to use car every day)

maybe beach nearby - maybe not - could be happy with a lake nearby

site with cafe/shop/restaurant & pools with slides

activites for older kids - but not too rowdy

not full of brits - like a good mix

any suggestions appreciated - Loire/Dordogne/Vendee/ - would like bit of sunshine but as long as plenty to do in the area we can cope with occasional cooler day. Will wait for inspiration KK

Katie, in my experience (although not that vast), there are not many sites with all your requirements that are walking distance to a town. The ones close to a town tend to be very very quite sites with nothing on. We have only been to France camping a few times, but our requirements where pretty similar to yours so we have done lots of searching online. We found we had to choose between facilities and location on the whole.

How about Cote de Nacre in Normandie? Walking distance of beach and town, although still maybe a bit toddler focused. Or Domaine des Ormes in Brittany looks like plenty for teens there. Not sure what destination your looking - both Vendee and Dordogne are further from Channel than Chantpie at Saumur.

The issue with sites with pools and slides is that they tend to attract lots of older kids and Brits especially. The walking distance to a town can be a problem too.
The Vendee might be a place to look at in terms of beaches or maybe the Alps where there is lots to do.
Pin Parasol is v popular on ukcamping but we've not been there personally.

I didn't read OP very well first time round. If you don't want loads of brits, ignore my suggestions above!

This is a lovely site

Have been to most of these sites. Chateau de Marais. Fab would go back. Pin parasol, don't know if they do ready pitched, ground was rocks!! Pool was freezing! Park de alicourts, lovely but miles from anywhere, and I didn't like the pool complex because it wasn't life guarded and I couldn't see the whole pool from one spot so was constantly on the go looking for 2 kids in 2 directions. We love domaine de dugny a siblu site. (you get mn discount too) pool is well life guarded, good kids club and evening entertainment. Quite Brit though and a drive to town for shops, but has onsite shop. Also le croix de vieux pont, not Loire but just ne of Paris, good site with fab pool complex and lake. Short walk to town. Hope that helps

Hi,

This place was brilliant and we're going back this year - www.campinglecapeyrou.com in the dordoigne.
Highly recommend it!

canvasali I thought that site looked lovely too - what time of year did you go? Was it toddler friendly?