Activity holiday in France

[Fink]

Hello all,

We're going to Switzerland to meet up with family in the summer, and I thought I'd drive (have done long-distance driving holidays before so that bit doesn't bother me) and break it up with a few days in France, somewhere roughly en route between Calais and Geneva.

We'd love Center Parcs, but it's not ideal this time because:

1. inflexibility over dates and length of stay. I need to arrive in Switzerland on a particular mid-week day and I don't want a full week stop over on the way, so I'm looking for somewhere that doesn't have set changeover days.
   

2. There will only be two of us on this leg of the journey: me and DD (12). All the French Center Parcs seems to only have entire cabins as accommodation, which means paying €€€€ for a chalet that can hold 6-8 people when there's just two, not great.

Apart from that, I'm looking for something fairly similar to the Center Parcs concept, but I haven't tried any other holiday village/ organised holidays, we usually book on airbnb/booking.com and do our own activities.

We'd definitely want a water park/swimming pool with slides. We like treetop/high ropes type things. Lots of space to be in nature (forest/countryside), if possible with bikes. Some other activities but not fussed which in particular. DD absolutely will not go to a kids' club type thing so that doesn't need to be on offer.

I'm looking at Eurocamp and Pierre et Vacances, but have no experience of either. Has anyone tried either, or something else along similar lines, and do you think they would suit us? Or do you have any other suggestions?

Thank you!

[MissAmbrosia]

Domaine de Chalaine in the Jura has a lake and high ropes course, and is sort of on the way - as in not massive detour. www.chalain.com/en/ Eurocamp and Canvas I think have mobile homes there. Nice pool there too,

[Mummynextdoor]

In my experience campsites and mobile home type resorts only let you book for full weeks in the height of summer - at least that was my experience pre pandemic.

We haven't done your particular route but when we wanted to do something similar we found a resort that had camping and mobile homes but also a hotel which used all the same facilities and did allow short bookings.

[rookiemere]

Not a Center Parcs place, but Morzine fits most of your requirements.Theres a pool with slides and so forth at Avoriaz, mountain biking and a village centre with outdoor pool at Morzine and loads of hotels where you'd be able to stay for a few nights, possibly apartments as well.
You get the summer pass when you're there so you get free lift passes and local buses.

[Fink]

Thanks all. The Domaine de Chalaine looks good, I'll take a more detailled look when I have the chance this evening.

@Mummynextdoor Sorry to sound ignorant, but how would I find a site like that, please? It sounds ideal but I wouldn't know how to find one! I've just been going through the companies' websites directly, is there some way to search for a resort and then find a company that operates there?

Thanks @rookiemere, we are actually meeting up with a larger group of family in Morzine and doing the last leg together. I haven't been there before so it's good to know it's a recommended location! I'm looking forward to the via ferrata and we did a lovely day trip to a similar ski station in the same area before, with a hike and dry slope tobogganing. We haven't booked accommodation yet but it looks like there's a fair amount on offer: some stuff is still full week only booking in high season, but there's other stuff available shorter term.

[Bosephine]

Eurocamp let you book exactly the dates you need.

[Fivemoreminutes1]

This campsite www.campingduboisdereveuge.com/en/activities/ but it might be too close to Geneva for you

[lumpofcomfort]

I haven't been there but remember seeing this when I was searching for campsites. Seems to let you book for less than a week.
www.eurocamp.co.uk/campsites/jura/ju013-le-val-de-bonnal/ataglance.html