Camping near Sarlat -Camping Les Granges or Camping La Palombiere?

[Methe]

Has anyone been to either of these sites?

We'll be going end July next year. We had a stop over at les granges this year and liked it but we were only there for 16 hrs so would like some more info.

there are quite a lot of reviews for both on ukcampsites and also on one of the eurcamp/canvas holidays type sites - sorry i can't remember which but if you google you will find them. also trip advisor. i spent some time recently investigating sites in the area, and looked at both of these. i have a feeling that la palombiere had some comments about dog noise in one area of the site, but i might be getting confused and i was looking at mobiles anyway

Will have a look, thank you :)

We've stayed at La Palombiere a few times - it's lovely. It's on the edge of a river, and you can hire canoes for the hour/day.

The toilets were the most spotless campsite toilets I have ever seen - you could eat your dinner in them. They also have big showers for family showering (great when DCs are small), and even a bath - which I've never ever seen before.

There are lots of great things to do in the area too. Canoeing is a must. You can hire canoes one way - so canoe down stream to a pre-arranged meeting place, and you get brought home in a minibus.

I'll try and answer any specific questions, if you have any.

We stayed at Palombiere last year and had a fab time, would happily return.

My main questions are is the site quiet in the evening and is there enough to do to in that area to keep us busy for a fortnight? We went right down to the Mediterranean coast this year and it was a great site (le soleil) but it was ruined by local noise.

The canoeing sounds awesome! Is there an age limit though? My youngest will be 5 and a half.

Btw isnt that campinguk site horrid to look at! That yellow is awful!

There is a restaurant on the site, and some entertainment - but the area where the tents/vans are is quiet at night. You're not allowed to take your car on to the site if you arrive home after 11pm.

It's really safe for kids and we had no qualms about allowing ours to run around on their own with other kids they'd met there - they were about 7 or 8 at the time. The gang would rove from one tent to another cleaning each out of crisps, nuts, biscuits etc as they went!They also hired bikes from the site office on occasional days, for use on the site only.

The pool area on the campsite is also good, and there are organised children's activities.

There is LOADS to do in the area. Lots of pre-historic sites where people used to live - you can visit ancient cave dwellings etc. and the cave paintings at Lascaux are not far away. Lots of pretty villages, and local markets.

We went to Rocamadour from there - that's a really pretty village on the edge of a cliff. And there is Le Parc des Singes, where you can feed "wild" monkeys, which your kids will love.

There's a brilliant cave called Le Gouffre de Padirac, where you can go on a boat on an underground river.

Five and a half is fine for canoeing - they give you life jackets, and the river is pretty shallow for most of the way. You can stop lots for picnicing and stretching legs along the route.

I would highly recommend that site.

That's really helpful, thank you! It was our first trip ver to France this year and we are hooked. It is so nice to get personal reviews. I'm always a bit wary of tripadvisor.

tysysog - did you see the cave paintings at Lascaux and any others? did you have to book and queue for very long? I'm thinking we really ought to see one lot when we go, but don't fancy loads of hanging around to do it. which are easiest ones to see?

methe - as tywso says I think there's loads to do in the area, especially if you like history/countryside/old towns etc. I've got a book from the library and i've already highlighted over 12 places i want to go on the map, within about 15 miles of sarlat.

We went to Lascaux - its not the original its a replica but still well worth it. You get timed tickets in the village, we queued a bit for these, not too long though, then went and had lunch before going on up to the caves. The car park near the caves is shady and has a gift shop whilst you're waiting for your allocated slot.

Re Lascaux - what sucky sez.