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Pager 33

Suprised on comments on the Carbanon, with exception of my Espace i can complete (pegging ect) on both my other Cabanons in less than a 1 hr.

The laguna(cabanon tunnel) was 45 mins. I wish i could have had these times with modern domes. If you are intrested there is a Cancun on ebay currently,it is basically a Biscaya without sig, and only 3 poles.

we had camping cheques and had paid a deposit of 120 euros to cover the kids so we just lost that which didnt matter after 24hrs horrendous rain and meteofrance predicting a further 3 of heavy rain. Wouldnt return to the site, Dutch owned ( not a problem) kids club ran in dutch, refused to let us have our ordered bread/ croissants 2 mornings in a row saying we hadnt ordered when we had, english lady on reception very abrupt, a complete surprise as I has emailed her and spoke to her before arrival. Asked to use computer (as advertised) and shouted at it would cost me!!!

Sapper, I've already spotted the cancun! trouble is I think I really want a SIG. This trip made up realise we actually quite like changing sites and think I will go for a Montana 6 with free canopy from World of Camping. The frame and canvas on the Athena was easy to get up, it was the  keep having to hang/ take down the bedrooms/groundsheets ( stupidly just put a breathable Isabella bolon one down when we initially pitched on the Sunday, we  hadnt checked weather forecast at this point. The next day it was raining and I said to OH oh dear we need to put swap to a plastic groundsheet) but he said no it will be fine, we came back from shopping having also got lost, the site was very isolated and yes I was right we had water coming up through the groundsheet. So out it came, all the stuff in tent shifted around too (wardrobes/ tables etc having only set up the day before). It rained all day, all night, woke up the next day to horrendous wind and rain, draughty tent. Decided at this point to check weather, Montpelier showing 35C, we had 12c!!! Packed up wet tent ( never again, the canvas weighed a ton) and left!! Stupidly I had left our camping guide books at home ( never dreamt we would move sites) so we headed for a Castels site (cant go wrong IMO) called Domaine de Massereau, we arrived late and they actually lent us 2 pop up tents for the night. Pitched the cabanon the next day, site great but pitch crap, dust, dirt with tree stumps. Took hrs to pitch, groundsheet ended up full of holes( binned it down there) huge pitch but must unusable. Stayed for 7 nights, left mainly due to hassle on the last day from an unlicensed dog on the next pitch ( site owned mobile) To cut a long story short the police were involved, the dog went for our daughter, owners were kicked off site. We loved the area, Sommieres is beautiful. hDrove to the coast, had a look at Le Boucanet ( great beach but pitches too small for us, they let us in as day visitors, kids went out on a pedalo), Neptune ( loved the area) Champs Blanc ( terrible location nr busy road and gravel pitches). Loved the Carmague too so next year we are definetly heading down there for 2 weeks) Travelled up to Burgundy and spent 3 nights at La Grappe d'Or, very few English on site. Great location with amazing views down over the vineyards ( sat and watched the pickers working!!)

Hey Pager33, that must explain why I didn't spot your tent on our tour of the site.  Did you go on the Tuesday?  We got there on the Monday and it was RAINING, but we got the Khyam up in about 35 mins, which I thought was pretty good.  Got soaked to the skin, everything from Gortex jacket, through to underwear!!!!!  Never had any problems with the staff on the site, they were all really pleasant especially the owner and the people who ran kids club - our two went, and didn't find it run in Dutch, they were put into a group with some English lads and a few english girls on the first morning and they seemed a decent group and stuck together for the rest of the holiday. The people running it on the Tuesday were really good it was my daughter's 5th birthday and everyone sang happy birthday to her, (in english, dutch, french, german and chinese) she was well chuffed.  We didn't get 3 days of rain of rain after you left thankfully, glad I didn't know that I might have thought of leaving as well. Tuesday  morning it rained,but was lovely in the afternoon, spent the day in Nontron, Wednesday it rained a lot, but after Thursday the weather was lovely by the weekend it was 35º and we had a lovely time. It's funny isn't it how two people can go to the same place and have such different opinions of it.  Glad you enjoyed your holiday in the end.

Liz

hi liz, the owner was lovely, the problem we had was with the english lady called Jeanette, when we arrived she couldnt even be bothered to look at us when we booked in and snapped at me twice on the Monday, it left me feeling uncomftable going to reception. Our daughter went to kids club on the Monday and I stayed for a while and on that day she was the only English person there. We left Tuesday lunchtime. it had rained from late Sunday evening til Tuesday lunchtime, we thought it was cold too! We probably didnt stay long enough and looking back perhaps should have stuck it out, we had a great pitch too (17) but when we saw the forecast we just couldnt stick it, perhaps with a SIG it would have been different. We also thought the site was a bit remote for us too, still glad you had a nice holiday.