Looking for Lucycat!

[milkybarsrus]

hope your around Lucycat or anybody who can help? Off to the Dordogne middle of august for 2 weeks and can't get onto the (hush hush) site til 3 days after our ferry crossing! can you reccomend a municipal site or site with a pool for a stop of 3 nights about 250/300 miles from dunkirk please?

Hellooooo you found me!
Which route are you taking from Dunkirk? We are going straight through paris on the peripherique (ahhhh foolish woman I hear you cry!)
If you want a basic stopover site 300m south off the E9/A71 then we are using this site near Salbris
Or one nearer Orleans is at Olivet more like 270 miles It is a municipal but looks lovely just off the N20.
There is also Chateau de Marais near Mer, about 30 mins west of Orleans so a little out of your way but if you want to stay for 3 nights might be ok? we went last year and it was 'ok' - nice pools with slides but very dull landscape.
Apart from those 3 I'm not sure. We are doing the journey down a little differently. Day 1 travel to Bien Assise near Calais as we have the delightful trek to Dover. Day 2 down to Limoges to the Castels site there so that for our last day we only have an hour or so to get to the site fresh.

are you as excited as Batteryhuman yet?

No, I'm more excited!!!! 6 weeks today and we will be there!!!!!

26 days and we'll be there! yippee I cannot wait.

jeez i need to get a move on with insurances and the like!

and my 'spices' box with teabags/coffee/marmite/ketchup & tins of tuna which are horrifically expensive in France!

Well now we are all together how are we going to recognise fellow MNs. We have a dark blue peugeot 807 (bus) with a top box and a blue outwell sunvalley 6. Arrive 9 august.

I am SO more excited than you mzmum! I am already meal planning....

Well our tent is on my profile
tbh there aren't that many English on the site so we'll be easy to spoti.e we might be only ones!
Batteryhuman we cross over by 6 days - feel free to pop in and say hello the wine is always open! Although i do have a policy of offering a cup of tea to new arrivals. What sort of pitch have you gone for?

I can also recommend the saucisses au canard et frites at the bar at Reception - cooked by Mdme herself - delicious.

Nice tent . Thanks for the recommendation sounds yum

Click here
This is the thread where we put pictures of our tents before!!!

We arrive on 10th August so looks like we'll all be crossing over for at least a few days - can thoroughly recommend those weeks in August - we arrived on the 14th last year and the whole place was beautifully quiet with just the right amount of people I'd say - enough buddies for the kids and plenty of sun loungers for me!! At a guess I'd say the site was 60/70% full - no guarantees this year I suppose as am sure more & more people will have recommended it for good reason!!

Oh, our pitch is the one right down the bottom nearest the pool wash block.

Haven't started to get that organised yet but as soon as the school hols hit, I'll be virtually packing!!! Think our car was pretty much packed about 3 days before we left last year.... Don't think I'd put the kids in by then though.....!

Thanks Lucycat for your reccomendations, I think the Olivet campsite fits the bill, so may try that one. But.... the peripherique? wow, your very brave indeed! You will deserve a very large glass of wine when you arrive at your destination. We won't get there Batteryhuman until the 15th Aug (thats a hint to get the kettle on). You will most definately recognise me as I will be the mad woman running after a mad 4 year old! Lucycat, do you mind me asking whether you can use ordinary barbques on site? and is the food at the restaurant reasonable, i mean price wise and taste wise? Getting very excited now, but its still weeks away!!!

Hi milkybarsrus - just noticed your post after I did mine. Am sure Lucycat is the expert but just wanted to say we ate at the restaurant 2/3 times and loved the food - except our last night which was very hit and miss as it was literally one of the last nights of the season (it was about 27th aug). They had run out of loads of stuff so I would say eat there in your first few days rather than risk looking forward to a last night meal and it being a bit iffy. Price wise think it was something like about 8-12Euros a main course.

ooh ooh...... right, now if you can please tell me EVERYTHING, I know its late so tomorrow will do. anything, like how you spent your days, temperatures day and night, supermarkets, places of interest, is there a sort of kids club? other restaurants you tried and liked/or avoid! was your journey there good or long and tiresome? thanks in advance.

Ooooh crikey, I could write a book on all that!! Let me try and get the best bits of info across....

Days - round the pool, canoeing on lake, walking round lake, DH tried a bit of fishing, DS played for hours in playground next to pool. Also visited some chateaux and little local historic towns - just ask at reception for their recommendations.

Temps - hot hot hot - in 2 weeks, had 1 whole day of rain & it really rained... the day was a complete washout. Were glad we were under the trees at the bottom near the pool as it kept the temps lower. Nighttime temps very pleasant & balmy.

Supermarkets - we tried the Lidls/ Aldis but then succombed to being ripped off in the large "touristy" one (sorry can't remember name) as the produce was better....

Kids club - none but every couple of days they did a morning activity like painting at reception. Your 4 year old won't need a kids club as play areas and pool/ lake are lovely.

Restaurants - only ate lunch out once I think - again, ask reception.

Journey - yes, long but very pleasant as I much prefer the toll roads being so much quieter than our UK motorways - we did an overnight both ways due to having baby & 3 year old. There's lots of different routes to get there - pick one, be happy with it and get excited as you get closer and closer to the site!!

Hope that helps.. Will post again if think of anything else or the supermarket/restaurant names come to me.

Aaah, Le Bugue was the main town for shopping and restaurants but loads of other nearby places too like St Cyprien.

Sounds perfect . and thanks for your reply. are barbies ok (the charcoal kind) do you know? Feel free to write your book, i feel like Im some sort of stalker for all things LV anyway so a book would help my dordogne appetite, lol.

Barbies are fine - they allow open fires. There's also a fire pit near the lake that anyone can use for a proper camp fire and sausages/ marshmallows!!
Off to bed now, will post more shortly....

Supermarkets - nice newish Intermarche in le Bugue, just across the river from the centre. There is also an older one in Siorac which is downhill from LV and quite a bit nearer - it also has a tabac which if you really want to will sell English newspapers as well as a petrol station.

You will need to put your bread order in before 11pm each night - there were a few occasions where dh and I squabbled over whose turn it was to run up the hill at 10.45pm!

reception doesn't have a shop as such but will sell UHT milk (de rigeur en france), cold water, jam etc.

The Bergers are lovely people an although their English is limited they will go out of their way to help you - just watch out for Ulaan the mahoosive dog, he wanders around a bit when it goes cool this is the gorgeoous mutt

As the site is up away from the river you do get lovely breezes too - happy days.

I didn't know you can book specific pitches, not having been before. It all looks lovely though but I do hope we get some shade. My DS3 who is 8 is very good at introducing his much shyer parents and big brother (18 and ASD) to all around so you will probably meet him first.

DS2 is 17 and staying behind as he has a holiday job. First time he has been left on his own so we will be worrying about whether we will have a home to go back to (granny is on hand to supervise).

I am looking forward to reading lots of books, lovely food and wine in the fresh air, canoeing down the river(s), chateaux and caves and markets. Will 2 weeks be long enough?

Thanks for all the tips.

All the pitches are shaded so there's no worry there - we have a pitch with 'facilities' this year >

you may just have to go back - I fear 2 weeks may not be enough!

Lucycat, may need to come and have a nose at your "facilities"!!!!!!! Very intrigued as to what they will be like. We did go for a fridge this year having struggled to find ice easily last year.....

Everyone - you can hire fridges. We thought it was worth the extra 5Euros or so a night as they looked quite big and we don't need to worry about not having cold wine & beer! Is having a fridge glamping????!!

Hi all, just got back from a one nighter camp and it was hot hot hot! i kept thinking is it gonna feel hotter than this in France? could I possibly cope ? then i remembered the chilled wine and swimming pool and not forgetting the river that will be sooooooo lovely to cool down in. Its a bit of a chore, but Im sure I'll cope .

Wow fridges to hire! That is surely glamping. Probably better tahn the electric coolbox which is not very effective when it is v hot.

We take our electric coolbox and it's fine as there is so much shade.

ahh yes the sun...cold wine, cool pool and pottering around the lake on a canoe

Facilities might just = glamping - no bunting though...the Dutch would think we were ridiculous!

Hi there,
No bunting? No solar fairy lights? Hanging baskets? . Yes, I saw them all this weekend, and felt that I needed to up my game, lol. but seriously, a fridge is glamping, but so what! warm wine, cold wine? Its a no brainer so glamp away and hire a fridge! Do you think my 2 teens could be bored there? Just seems sort of quiet? too quiet? they are happy to hang around with us, but getting a bit anxious that 2 weeks could lead to them being a bit bored, which could spoil our chill time . 14 year old is happy to kick a ball with anyone, and 16.5 says shes happy to read, ipod, swim and sleep (but do they really mean it)? ......slight panic setting in....
HELP!

You won't spend every day on site though. They will love canoeing on the river and there are lots of lovely shops in Sarlat to browse. Limeuil is pretty for lunch and for a day messing on the river - you could even gatecrash Soleil Plage at Vitrac if they wanted other English teenagers and a go on the water slides!
Ponies? lots of them about and there may even be bike hire close by if you ask at reception.

They sound 'easy teensgers' though and there were a few Dutch teenagers there too that they could hang out by the lake with in the evening if they wanted to.

Thanks Lucy,
yes they are 'easy teens' very happy with most things, and i'm feeling a little sad that it may well be our last holiday all together as next year my oldest may want to do her own thing ? So really just wanting to make sure we all really enjoy it, and that she doesn't think of her 'last family holiday' as a boring disaster (like I did at that age). Is Soleil plage far do you know? do you buy day tickets then? thanks in advance.

DS3 will be very happy to kick a ball with a teenager. I am still kind of hoping that DS2's job falls through and he comes with us. maybe if I tell him there is a 16 yr old girl he might be keener.....