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Camping

Our UK Camping forum has all the information you need on finding the right equipment for your tent or caravan.

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Original poster

Site in Brittany as plush as La Garangeoire?

17 replies

MrsBadger · 02/08/2009 18:41

any recommendations (for next year) gratefully received

or is it worth doing the longer drive to the Vendee in hopes of better weather?

in which case are there any other Vendee gems we may have missed? (kids will be just 4, just 3 and 6m, so beach / pool / swings rather than abseiling / kayaking)

OP posts:

Original poster

MrsBadger · 03/08/2009 11:07

oh come on

else we shall be back at La G with the rest of MN

OP posts:

Mummyisamonster · 03/08/2009 13:07

Check out 'Cool Camping, France'. I borrowed it form the library a while back and seemed to recall it had some great recommendations. Is there a range of campites called Indigo? They got a very good write up....

GrapefruitMoon · 03/08/2009 13:15

How about another site in the Castels chain? - I'm pretty sure there is one in Brittany.

The islands of the coast are supposed to be nice - Ile de Re, Ile de Nourmoutier, but don't know what the campsites are like.

Mummyisamonster · 03/08/2009 13:19

Yeah, I think the Indigo one I read about was at Nourmoutier...

Original poster

MrsBadger · 03/08/2009 13:34

ooh that looks hopeful

am swooning over the Indigo wood/canvas tents at Noirmoutier but I think we are going to need something with running water

will obtain book forthwith

OP posts:

FantasticMissFox · 03/08/2009 17:14

www.lesormes.co.uk/ Is very nice and big so has lots to do and lots of other children for your dcs to play with. i think they have a childrens club in the summer but not sure. Dol de Bretange is also very near St Malo which there is a 10hr (long enough to get some decent sleep) overnight ferry service to. HTH

Original poster

MrsBadger · 03/08/2009 17:48

can I ask a question re Les Ormes?

'as plush as La G' was really a euphemism for 'as politely middle-class as La G'

am afraid we may be a bit precious when it comes to 'other children to play with' as have just come back from a week at Holmsley in the N Forest and am having to stop dd using some of the choicer expressions she picked up on the site.

Apart from that we are firmly wedded to the fastcraft crossing from Portsmouth to Cherbourg or Caen as we are better road travellers than sefarers

actually looking at the distance from Cherbourg to the S Brittany coast we might as well go to the Vendee - there's about 10min in it

Ile de Noirmoutier looking ve good though, also area round Saint-Nazaire

OP posts:

Milliways · 03/08/2009 19:51

MrsBadger - if you are not good seafarers I wouldn't recommend the fastcraft to Cherbourg - it's other name is the Vomit Comet

It's a bit better to Caen though.

My kids do the dover/calais, and long crossings fine, but after 1 trip on the Vomit Comet we vowed never again!! It is also boring as has nothing to do on board. The slower crossing is only about 2 hours more but has entertainment, restaurant, places to walk about etc. How about a night crossing??

You can get to the Charente Maritime in 1 days driving - which is much warmer and has great beaches. We went to Les Charmettes twice when kids were small and it was great. Loads of little pools (as well as big one) and one has a climbing frame for kids in it, as well as an indoor pool.

Mintyy · 03/08/2009 20:04

We liked Camping La Yole (iirc) in The Vendee last year. And we have the same kind of middle class issues as you .

But it was grim time on the fast crossing Portsmouth to Cherbourg. We were lucky to get on it because we missed our standard crossing Poole to Cherbourg by about 10 mins (!) and Brittany Ferries were absolute stars and took pity on us and let us go on the Portsmouth crossing a couple of hours later. But it was vile and not even particularly rough. DS who has never had travel sickness of any kind threw up all over DH. DD, again, a brilliant traveller, was heaving into a sick bag and I was very miserable .

La Yole was fine. I don't really know what to expect from Eurocamp sites and haven't been to La Garangeoire. St Jean De Monts is awful and we couldn't even get in to St Gilles croix de la ville (traffic) but we did have a fantastic day on Normoutier. I vowed to go back to Normoutier this year but finances have conspired against us. If you can get a high quality campsite there, I'm sure you'd have a fabulous time. It really had a special feel. Old fashioned and lovely.

DonDons · 03/08/2009 20:10

We recently stayed in Angles near Tranche sur Mer in the Vendee. We were in a gite but had a look at the nearby campsites for next year this looked like the nicest one. The village itself is quite small but has everything you need, supermarket within walking distance and a larger hyppermarket 5 minutes away. Tranche sur mer was about 10 minutes drive but there was also a lovely beach (I forget the name) about 5 minutes from Angles).

It took us 4 hours from Caen (portsmouth to caen crossing was fine).

Mintyy · 03/08/2009 20:11

Oh bollocks bollocks bollocks. Just realised you want Brittany. In which case ignore me completely .

DonDons · 03/08/2009 20:14

oops....me too

crockydoodle · 03/08/2009 20:16

WE were in Les Ormes at the start of July, it is about 2 and a half hours from Cherbourg all motorway/dual carriageway to Dol, the nearest town which is lovely.
There is a new covered pool and an outdoor wave pool. We went with Canvas Holidays which seemed to have the best kids clubs and activities for the whole family.

Tortington · 03/08/2009 20:24

we are hoping to go to chataeu des ormes next yeaR. we went 10 years ago when it was seriously not as teched out as it seems to be now (treehouses!)

i hope its not seriously MC

lilibet · 03/08/2009 20:35

We went to Des Ormes last year with a 15 and 11 year old and it's not somewhere I would ever go back to for lots of reasons.

Try La Grande Metarie, it's smaller, but not too small and so much nicer, we have been there three times and are planning another visit next year.

This year we were at St Catherine de Fierbois in the Loire, some lovely places around there.

Original poster

MrsBadger · 03/08/2009 20:40

oh no Vendee reccs are valuable too

what about Des Ormes did you not like, lilibet? [nosy parker emoticon]

OP posts:

lilibet · 03/08/2009 21:05

Not nosey at all, I just didn't want to go into rant mode if no one was interested.

Firstly, it's massive, if you are on the outskirts you can have a very long walk uphill to the pools/shop/bar. I'm past pram time but imagine it would be hell on a hot day with a pram/toddler.

They have a nightclub for over 16s which is open until 3am every day.

One of the pools has no seating area, there are safety gates (not objecting to that at all) and no way of taking a sunbed in there or no grass to put a towel on, if your child wants to go in this pool you cannot sit and watch them, unless you want to perch on a wooden rail.

While we were there they had a pool party in one of the other pools. I have rarely seen anything as unsafe, the pool has a very deep bit which has a wave machine, this was on and the waves were massive. I went in during the day when it was on and it swept me off my feet. This party was open to all, it was dark with only a prisoner of war camp style searchlight, the music was very loud, and the wave machine was on. Ds2 was in there and I was petrified as we lost sight of him. It was packed. If anyone was in trouble in the water, no one could have seen or heard them. It was so frightening.

On the plus side, the golf site is beautiful to walk around, ds2 loved the climbing wall, zip wire and paintball, there are some gorgeous places to visit round there, Auray is well worth a visit jsut to sit at a cafe in the harbour and eat moules frites.

We've been to about 10 different sites in France and the one that I would recommend is always La Grande Metarie.

Here

And it's still near to Auray!!

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