Confused first time mobile homer! Any advice on Loire Valley or Jura sites please?

[zeebee]

Says it all really. Was looking at Loire Valley but then realised not much further driving time to Jura region (from Calais) and may get better weather. Or anywhere in between.

Please could you recommend a site with mobile homes based on your experiences? Many are fully booked and we need a 3 bedder.

Have been looking at Parc de Monsarbet and Flowers Val de Loire in Loire area. No clue on Jura. Don't want anything with loads of noisy evening entertainment and have DC aged 11-4 so need to be able to keep tabs on the younger ones quite a bit. Also would like a loo & shower, hence mobile home even though some of the safari tents look fab. Canvas, Eurocamp prices too high for usso looking elsewhere or booking direct.

The ground at the Loire ones looks a bit scruffy/dusty in the virtual tours. Is this to be expected? See, I know nothing....

Many thanks for your help. I really need to get something booked before all choice disappears!

Have a look at some of the campsites on this website, the standard of the ones I've stayed at has always been excellent.

www.camping-castels.co.uk/

You will see that they all offer mobile homes/chalets as well as tents.

The Vende also tends to get good weather.

I can recommend the Alsace region. Nice hills, lakes, wine villages and a day trip to Frieberg in Germany.

Look at val de bonnard in rougemont. Is a castels site and has Eurocamp etc there. Tis lovely. Lac de chalain is ok. Not stayed there but we poked our heads round when we were visiting nearby nd it looked nice.

In Loire I recommend Etang de la Breche. Huge pitches and very good riding school. Got a funny golf course thing as well. Is also a castels site.

We went with venue holidays to clairveaux Les lava, in the Jura last year. Loved it, although we were lucky with the weather ... Apparently it can be quite changable. Lovely scenery, not too far from Calais and within driving distance of the alps, Switzerland and Italy. Lake is brilliant at the site, and very safe for children.

Lava = lacs

Thank you so much.

No 3 bed mobiles at Val de Bonnard and Etang in Loire is also full. Have been looking at Castels so good to know I'm on the right track.

silver viking could you please tell me how long it took you to drive from Calais and, if you stayed in a mobile home, was it roomy enough? They don't look as modern as some others, but don't suppose that really matters. Also, how busy does it get? We usually rent gites in v small groups so am a little anxious!! Last time I didthis type of hols I was a child! What did you love about it? We're after a relaxed holiday with pottering, lake swimming and some water or other sports for those old enough. Sorry for so many questions!

Am also considering Le Pergola on Lac de Chalain if anyone has any knowledge of it.

I know a nice gite in Normandy if anyone needs a recommendation!

Thanks SilverViking have booked Clairveaux. Kids thrilled, I'm relieved to have something affordable to look forward to! Brilliant.

ZB, on French motorways, you can easily average 65mph plus time for stops.we take picnics, so it was about 6.5hours driving time plus 2.5hrs stopped. (we usually do 2 hrs drive short stop of half hour, 2hrs drive then hour and a half stop... And repeat!).
We had 4 DC with us at the site, from 17 to 11. Mobile big enough (for us!), as decking gives a lot more space. Mobile was clean & modern. Just don't expect the space you would have in a gite, as bedrooms are small! E didn't spend much time in the mobile, and w were there for 3 weeks.

What we liked..
Pool on site, spots/play area, lake with access from site to play in or use small inflatable boat, and diving board a short walk away.
Walking to the village door French bread along the lake in the morning, walks inn the woods and roads nearby, cycling through local villages and longer forest tracks (we brought our own bikes).
Away from the site, herbosson waterfalls, with forest walk, bain Les messieurs box canyon, cheese making demos, and vaugblan dam.
Father from the site, the alps and drive into Switzerland. We also drive down into Italy, through the Mont blanc tunnel, drive up into the mountains, and then stayed overnight in Soars valley.took cable car up Mont blanc, before returning to France over the col de petit St Bernard.

Disadvantages:
In early July, there were no other UK children on site, and although the Dutch, German and french children friendly, or children felt a bit lost at times as each group tended to sick around together ... But our children did make some great friends.

Also we were lucky with the weather, and I feel it would be a long couple odd weeks if it was raining all the time (as one of the Dutch families tools us it had done on then the previous year), but that is a risk you take.

We were the for 3 weeks. Really enjoyed it, but will go somewhere different this year, as there would not be enough new to do for another years holidays.

Hope that gives you some info to go on!

Spools for all the typos ... This phone had a mind of its own ... Does what I tell it to say, not what I want it to say!!

Also liked tree climbing course, just outside the site for the more adventurous and fit!

Have a great holiday. If you have a similar dilemma next year don't write off the Loire Valley instantly. People often assume that the further south you go the better the weather. This is not always the case. Apart from the latitude the climate is quite strongly affected by altitude. Proximity to Alps or Pyrenees means some southern locations get a bit of rain too. Loire Valley has on average slightly less rainy days than many areas in Aquitaine which so much further south. See the averages for different regions of France:
www.meteopassion.com/moyennes-de-juillet.php

We're off to le fayolan in the jura which is really close to clairvaux les lacs, so really grateful for all the recommendations SilverViking.
Zeebee when are you going?

Silver thanks SO much for taking the time to post all that. That's just brilliant. It sounds really great, let's hope we get good weather too! Had spotted mention of a tree climbing course somewhere in research and mentally earmarked it!

Our 4 DC smaller so space should be fine then even though its not one of the biggest ones. Thankfully kids also can go for long periods in the car without a break!

kmski thanks for advice too. Will save the Loire for future years as still really fancy it. The lake sold Jura to us this time! Had a great time and good weather in Normandy last year.

Going in August. Whoopee!

We're going in august too. We went to the auvergne region a couple of years ago and had the most amazing holiday. Superb weather, amazing scenery and excellent campsite. It had a lake as well as a pool complex. Hoping this site will be very similar - and the region seems pretty similar too.

SilverViking, where did you stay near mont blanc? This is our plan too, although the cable car seems very expensive!

Millimat
PROPERTY:Hotel Hotel Dujany
ADDRESS: Via Risorgimento 104
CITY/PLACE: Nus, Italy
We booked via veneer.com or trivago while we were
In France .... And had better idea of weather to pick which days we wanted to travel. hotel was about 45 mins down the valley from Mont blanc. Clean, basic, cheap accommodation.

Cable car was expensive, but we really enjoyed time up the mountain, before the cloud came in! The office at the bottom well give info on expected weather, but best to go early in the morning before the air heats up an gets hazy. There is a cable car on the French side (somewhere) as we spoke to a Dutch family who were up it.

Another thing we enjoyed was spending the afternoon driving up some of the local roads, to small villages in the mountains either side of the aosta valley. They were very rural, and gave a totally different view of the local people and life away from the main roads.

One thing to bear in mind is that fuel was a lot more expensive in Italy, so fill up before crossing the border!