Has anyone been camping in South West of France in August?

[honeybeeplusone]

We are thinking of saving some money and instead of renting a mobile home going camping in a tent. But as we are thinking of flying we cannot take that much equipment with us. We will have a 2 and a 5 year old with us - my main concerns are 1)is it going to be too hot? 2)what do we do once the kids fall asleep? 3)will we manage with kids and the toilet situation 4) we won't have a fridge... Anyway would love to hear about your experiences and any tips you might have... Thank you!!!

I assume you're not taking your own tent with you if you're flying?

We're going camping to France this summer having done our trial run in Kent last year. I'm fretting over booking it but once that is done I can't wait!

In answer to your questions:

1. Heat - yes in August it will be hot, but depends also where you are. We're going inland to a moutainous region on a lake so there are options to escape some of the heat and cool off.
2. On our trial run last year our kids didn't fall asleep until 9/10 (they will be 3 and 6 this year when we go) because it was too light outside and they were having fun. That worked for us because we read then went to sleep ourselves and they didn't wake up until about 8 the next morning which was perfect.
3. Depends how nice the campsite is. If you're on a good quality one there should be decent toilet blocks. You just have to get used to going to the loo and not having one close at hand but its not as bad as it sounds. 4)Some campsites hire out fridges for a small charge per day. Failing that, take a sturdy cool box but that will need looking after (regular bags of ice and putting your cool blocks in a freezer to refreeze).

If you have the right mindset for camping it can be great.

We have taken our own camping gear to the US, but the luggage allowances are much higher on transatlantic flights (or they were when we did it). We are very minimalist campers and had only either a Trangia or a tiny gas stove for boiling water for tea - all campsites in the US have either a fire ring or a barbecue for cooking and a picnic table to sit at. We just have backpacking style camp mats to sleep on and bought a cheap cooler and ice when we got there. We were usually touring with alternating camping and motels. At least in the south of France you don't need to worry about bears when you are heading to the toilet block in the middle of the night.
Camping when it is very hot can be miserable, we have abandoned camp once when it was just too hot to sleep at night. We have stayed just outside Cannes in August, in a villa and it was very hot, we needed a siesta in the middle of the day, I'm not sure that would have been great in a tent . It depends on your tolerance to heat, I don't like it much.

Thank your answers... Yes we were thinking of taking our own tent but now thinking about it I realise we would need sleeping bags etc etc so would pay lots on Easyjet for extra luggage... Oh dear - need to think it through again.

Drive? Can take lots of stuff and have an overnight stop off/day trip on the way down

I would either drive with an overnight stop on the way down, or hire a chalet/mobile home. Have a look on the select sites website or Alan Rodgers. There are some lovely sites, with pools and in August lots of activities on site.
Tbh, it will be hot at that time of year and it is a long journey for one's that small. Why not look a bit further north? The Vendee and Southern Brittany are very family friendly, the beaches are great lots of pretty seaside harbours and the like. If you went overnight on the ferry to Roscoff, you would be on site at the latest by mid afternoon. We have stayed at La Baie at La Trinitie due Mer, spotless and clean facilities, pool and right by several good beaches plus easy to walk into the town which has a harbour and lots of boats. DD priced a fortnight there and including the ferry cost very little more than camping in the UK on a fully equipped site.

The Charente Maritime region is an easy drive from the Caen/Cherbourg ports in a day, and has a lovely climate.

Have you looked at Matthews Holidays as we found them the year we considered renting a tent and found their vans were really cheap. Limited sites to choose from but we have been with them several times and always had a good holiday.