I'm getting boggle eyed looking at French camping websites....where do you savvy campers recommend?

[Downfall]

Wanting to book for next year. We have to go end July/early August due to work, and will be taking our own tent. We are family of four, two boys aged 8 & 6.
We would like a site with great pool/slide type facilities.
Happy to drive fairly far down to get some good weather.
Not bothered about being on the coast.
Places to visit/things to do in the region would be great.
Thank you!

have a look at camping castels

lovely campsites, clean and very family friendly. stayed at one of their site in brittany this year and normandy a few years ago.

Thanks Mousy. We had looked at sequoia parc. Good to hear re family friendliness. Many are booked up already!

Hiya

It's a mind boggling choice! We have just plumped for La Letty, Brittany. Think it was about £300 for 12 nights. W are taking the ferry from here to Claias then doing the mammoth 8hr drive as the closer ferry is quadruple the price!

Good luck

we went to Camping de la Plage, in Brittany.

en.camping-plage.net/

lovely site, on the beach, in between two lovely villages, La Trinitie Sur Mer and Carnac ..... highly recommended, booked to go again this year.......... we went in a Tithome but would happily take our own tent there too..........

Oh yes, Camping de la Plage or it's sister site Camping de la Baie at La Trinite are fab. The sites are both fairly small and are really well run - the location is absolutely fab. We went with Eurocamp.

Thanks for the suggestions.

We were going to book 11 nights - £300 is a really good price maturenanny!

I remember having a great family eurocamp hol myself as a young teen at Trinite Sur Mer - it is a good area from what i remember Mrs & ISing.

What are your experiences of the climate in Brittany in July/Aug? We spent our 2012 summer hol camping in Cornwall and it rained, and it rained. We were prepared next year to take the pain of driving further south to get some warmth!

Oh, and forgot to say, we are going by tunnel courtesy of Mr Tesco, probably planning to book a motel or similar for one night en route each way, so any tips for that appreciated also.

We quickly discounted the overnight ferry on the grounds of cost too maturenanny.

we went in early July Downfall and the weather was a bit iffy..... but apparently unusually so according regulars we spoke to.... southern brittany is much warmer weather wise than north so they say, we had rain for 4 out of 7 days and all but the first day were rather overcast but its was warm and we got to the beach and pool everyday and it didn't soil, 20 degrees most days and got the first day was glorious 25+ degrees (and i got a bit burnt!)

before deciding to go back to la plage i was thinking of going a bit further south to get better weather (pre ds we did egypt for a few hols and i was craving some definite sunshine!!) and did a bit of googling, apparently the Vendee and nr La Rochelle etc is on average warmer so maybe look there too...? i looked on google maps and is only an hour or so further to drive than La Trinitie is.....

erms meant 'didnt spoil our hols .... not soil

we were in carnac (next to trinite) end of august and had perfect weather. always around the 25 degrees and sunny. a bit cold in the nights but bareable with thick sleeping bags and lots of blankets.
beautiful beaches (also check out oberon peninsula).
lovely markets with fresh (as in alive) seafood and fruit and vegs.

Thanks Mrs and Mousy for the replies.Your hols sound lovely, soiled or not ;-)

I think we'll investigate the vendee sites, and if not sure, then look at Southern Brittany.

I dont know why, but Brittany seems 'safer'

Thanks again.

Downfall - are you me?

We are looking at camping in Southern France next year after two weeks of rain in Cornwall this August.

I really don't think that I can put up with the terrible weather again, even if the campsite itself was lovely.

My two (aged 6 and 8 too ) love the water, so a decent pool (and possibly beach) are a must.

Will have a look now at the sites that have already been recommended, but if you come up with anything else, can you let me know?

We have been going every year for the last 3 years. The first 2 years we went to the Dordogne to St Avit de Loisirs and Moulin du Roch (boys preferred St Avit expressly because of lazy river but both are nice sites). Last year we went to Val de Bonnal in Franche Comte (Amazing site - my favourite). All were Castels sites and we loved them all. I would say that the drive to Franche Comte is great if you are going by the Channel Tunnel. We are thinking of going to this area again this year but trying somewhere new - maybe one of the campsites near Lac Chalain. Weather wise we have been for 2 weeks each time and only had 2-3 days of rain each time which we use for site seeing, the rest of the time has been hot enough for the pool. Kids clubs are great at these sites too. Last year the boys went every morning between 10-12 which gave us a chance to relax a bit!

We agree about the weather - after a very damp year in the Dordogne a few years ago we now head down to the South coast of France for the sunshine.
Domaine de Massereau is a Castel site and is lovely - but it is just 30 mins from the coast so a couple of days drive from Calais. Nice pool with slides, small shop, clean facilites and not too many Brits! we spent a couple of days down on the coast at L'espiguette plage which was stunning.
I've just booked a week down at Serignan Plage for next summer and I'm in the process of building the rest of our holiday around it.

Brittany can be very much Cornwall - just a few degrees warmer. Head further south you won't regret it!

We went to this site last year. Really nice site, lots going on, good pool complex and the area known for its reliable weather. Driveable in a day from southern England.

I wish we lived in Southern England at times - well only when we need to cross the Channel actually. I did get a bit fed up of meeting people from kent who only lived 20 minutes from the tunnel .....not 5 hours like us in the sun drenched north.

Pin Parasol is very popular on ukcamping - it gets lots of mentions, as is Garangeoire.

Ooh, thanks all for the update posts. I've been off line this week, so am chuffed to have some new leads to follow .

Sandwich we do sound the same! We were in Heligan Woods in Cornwall. lovely site, but god the rain. We spent £££s eating out coz it was just too miserable to cook in the tent. I'm going to check out the links kindly updated here, and I will report back. Have you seen the Puy de Fou (spelling?) theme park in the vendee - medieval tournament, lots of jousting, fighting and the like. My boys would love it, so we have been looking for sites around there, but I can't shake the nagging feeling that Brittany=Cornwall...

Yorkpud Thank you, I will have a look at your suggestions, lazy river sounds great.

MrsMinivers Reliable weather, I like the sound of that.

Lucycat We are in the North West so have to think about the knackered factor of the UK leg of the drive added onto the journey too, but, the thought of plowing all the way to Brittany and still getting cloudy wet days is not good!

We've been to Holiday Marina at Port Grimaud for the last 2 years. Static, not camping though.

Do you drive there Poor? If so, would you mind sharing your journey details?

We have actually stayed at Yelloh Les Tournels in that area in a static a couple of years ago, and loved it. It was a last min deal and we flew to Toulon and hired a car. We went right at the start of September for a week so managed to get it cheaper because the French have all gone back to work and school by then. But next year we are tied to the expensive end July early August weeks, so think taking our own tent and driving will be most cost effective, but driving from NW England to SW France seems like it would eat 4 days of the hol though?

We drive right to the South coast - yes it's a long way but I want to be sitting out in 18c at 11pm with a chilled rose and some nightlights.

It takes us two days - leave home 9am say Thurs and arrive on the Saturday pm. But we don't especially rush.

I've spent many summers at Étoile d'Argens in St-Aygulf. Lovely part of the world, and a long drive but worth it! The campsite is on a river which is great for fishing for the kids but there's a shuttle boat down to the beach as well as two pools and everything else you'd need. About half way between Nice and St Tropez, and an easy day trip to Monaco/Italy.

Downfall,
Leave home South Wales very early and catch 7am ish tunnel from Folkestone. Usually in France by 9am. (We have awful form with the tunnel, it doesn't matter what we do there is always done trauma which means the train runs about 20mins late).
Drive, drive and drive, lots of and then stop in Novotel Valence Sud. Usually there by about 8ish assuming we haven't gone anywhere near Paris ring road (bitter experience).
Lots of stops cos have 3 kids all under 8.
Up the next morning 4 hour drive to Port Grimaud.
It's a lovely place and the campsite is first class. But, the traffic round there is atrocious and completely unexplainable. It took us 90 mins to go 6 miles to water park. And 15 mins to come home. For no apparent reason. This is 1 if the reasons we are going to Lake Garda next year!!!