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Hi Brian,

Ive also booked this site in July,when r u goin.im also looking for things to do down there.Am goin to Barcelona for a day or two and also goin to Andora.Wll leave van on site and stay in hotels.

JB

We stayed there last year in July/August, and had a mixed experience.  The whole area is really, really windy, so nights in a tent are quite noisy and out of 16 days only 5 days on the beach were possible, as the other days we'd have been exfoliated in the extreme.

There is an excellent indoor/outdoor pool complex as you're driving into Narbonne called the Espace de Libertie, which cost us about 14euros for a family of four, we used this a couple of times when the weather got particularly bad.  Carcassone is a good day/evening out, plus the Pyrennees are within driving distance.  Then there's cycling along the canal or walking round the etangs near Gruissan looking at the wild flamingos. There's a good permanent market called the Halle (I think) that does very good quality food.  The area is the premier location for wind surfing, and the site does tuition.  As you drive from the site into Narbonne there's a few chain restaurants, there's a grill and a pizza place, but best of all is the RestauMarche, part of the intermarche chain which was great and really good value - the seafood buffet on a Friday night was excellent.

The site has a lot to offer, if your kids like to get involved with the animations, football tournaments, foam parties, all sorts for all ages really.  We even had a forest fire last year - lots to watch for the afternoon.  The pool gets quite busy but always had a nice atmosphere but nowhere near enough loungers.

The pitch surfaces are gravelly, ours was particularly bad - quite rocky, you'll need rock pegs in places.  Other pitches did look better.  The pitches are all long and narrow, some are shaded others not.  Also, even though we notified the site that we were tent campers, the pitch was quite slopy.  But it was a good site, clean, well maintained, and when we forgot to go home (don't ask), the site was very helpful and didn't just bull doze our stuff out into the road.

Hi sean

We arrive on the 14th July and leave on the 24th July.  We once stayed in Andorra for a week.  Its lovely there.  We have been to Barcelona for a day trip.  How long do you think it will take to drive to the pyrrenees?

Brian 

Thanks for the info Mel,Your the first person to reply with any info on the area.

Brian,we will be there from 20/07/08 til 10/08/08.Il be there on my own with the kids for the first week or so the the War Office flies into Carcosonne on the 24th I think.

Dont know how long to the Pyrenees but I recon at 3/4 hrs to Barca.

JB

I might see you around there sean.  We will be with two noisy little girls. ( they are not that bad really).  I am sure the weather can't be any worse than our last trip to France (north of Paris), when we had torential rain for a lot of the time.

brian

Hi

We stayed on this site for two weeks afew years back and booked our two kiddies onto their wind surfing course. It seemed to be very windy for afew days and then it settled down. Don't book the windsurfing like we did immediately you reach the site, as they will take them on the water what ever the wind strength. The problem with that,as my two discovered, is that you spend the whole time capsised, as you quickly become too tired to pull the sail up!

My children enjoyed the site however I must be honest and say we were not that keen. We hired bikes and cycled around part of the Etang and went out early to Carcassone for the day.

The emplacements were very large but we found the pool to be quite small. However our kiddies enjoyed themselves as they got to know a number of Dutch teenagers.

What do u mean U MIGHT SEE ME.of course u`l see me.Il be the good lookin bloke with the 2 angelic children WRECKIN the place.......You are right about the weather,we were in Royan last year and nearly traded the van for a submarine.CRAP.Had better weather at home.but the wine was cheaper.Lookin foward to it now countin the weeks

JB

Reasonable site, but beware the mossies. My husband was badly bitten and needed treatment when we went in August 2004. This is due to the proximaty of the lake. Can be very windy as others have said.

Food on site was good, but expensive. Some pitches can be quite narrow, but very long - we struggled with our Cabanon frame tent to get it on the site due to size widthways.

Pitches have their own shower/toilet block which was good.

Pitches can be very hard - we needed a claw hammer to get our tent pegs out (kindly lent to us by our more experienced Dutch neighbours)

Can recommend the yellow train which goes up into the pyrannees, can't remember where it goes from, but google will find it, well worth a day trip.

Thanks for the info.  I will take claw hammer, masonry drill and various hardstanding pegs.  We will try out our clearlite lamps again for the mozzies. I just hope the pitches are wide enough for the van and awning.

We won't be trying windsurfing - kids too young.  Will try and find out more info on yellow train.

Brian

Brian

http://www.tourinfos.com/gb/r0011/d0066/m0001/j0024/xterne/x000495.htm

Not cheap, but well worth the visit. Also Google 'yellow train' and there are loads of links

Janet

thanks Janet.

Brian