Message Forums

Hi folks

Just wondered if anyone has been here (it is featured in the CC's European Travel Brochure) and is one of the Yelloh VIllage campsites, have looked for reviews but must be searching wrong coz I can't seem to find anything particularly useful!  Would like good or bad points, we are going with two teenagers so the bigger and noiser the better I think....as long as I can sit with my wine outside my van rubbing on the aftersun....roll on next year

Thanks

I have driven by it a couple of times but don't know it. We prefer to be on the sea rather than inland although its only a couple of miles from the sea. The Camargue is an interesting area. I have a blog here with some pictures http://www.davidklyne.plus.com/france_2003.htm

David

We looked at that site as we are planning to go to that region next year. Loads of reviews here:

http://www.zoover.co.uk/accommodation/testimonials.aspx?accommodationId=86211

We thought the reviews were pretty good, but it's not our thing -too big and noisy- but sounds as though it might be right up your street.

It seems that finding anything about the Camargue, apart from generalisations, is pretty difficult. The websites that I seem to have found would please some-one from the US of A but not people who want to tour around.

I posted THIS back in late August and there was just 3 replies. I would have thought that given the size of UKCS that there might have been more. So that means one of two things: One its too far to travel or 2 people are keeping it to themselves

Quote: Originally posted by happybonzo on 05/11/2008

---

It seems that finding anything about the Camargue, apart from generalisations, is pretty difficult. The websites that I seem to have found would please some-one from the US of A but not people who want to tour around.

I posted THIS back in late August and there was just 3 replies. I would have thought that given the size of UKCS that there might have been more. So that means one of two things: One its too far to travel or 2 people are keeping it to themselves

---

To be honest, I think plenty of people head in that direction, but seem to either flock to the St Tropez/Cannes/Frejus part of the Med coast, further to the East, or alternatively head further West to the Argeles/Perpignan areas, both of which are much more developed, with busier more "touristy" resorts. Which is exactly the reason we are avoiding them and heading for the Camargue!

It is a long way, and if you ask on this site for information about sites in the Loire, Britanny or the Vendee, you'll be inundated with replies, purely because of geography and that people are more likely to travel there, but everyone I know who has been to the Camargue region says it's an amazing place.

Hi happybonzo - missed your posting in August because we were on holiday - sorry. 

We've been to the Camargue loads of times - as recommended Aigues Mortes is good, but touristy - a lovely town set out in a very geometric way, with walls you can walk around, St Maries de la Mer is good, but touristy - white houses and churches, some tourist shops, and a very hot beach which can get quite windy.  La Grau du Roi is good and touristy (but mostly French), with good fish restaurants serving very cheap meals at lunchtimes and evenings.  All are definitely worth a visit, St Maries has a festival for 'Gitanes' (not the cigarettes) in May, which is a must - but it gets very crowded then.  The bird sanctuary at Pont de Gau is excellent, but very hot on a sunny day - and the mozzies are vicious there.  There are thousands of flamingoes there, but you may see gangs of them in many of the other etangs.  The beaches to either side of Grau du Roi are good - showers on the main beach to rinse off, gently sloping sand, and very shallow sea for a long way out.  On the other side, towards La Boucanet the beach is narrower and the sea shelves more.  On the Port Camargue side you've the huge marina, and then the Plage de L'espiguette, which is sand dunes and naturisme - though many people still keep their clothes on!

The Camargue is mostly about marshy lakes, bulls and white horses, and there are some amazing bull-running festivals in mid-summer, well supervised and not at all like Pamplona.  There are also the 'Courses Camarguaise' - a type of bull-fighting with no killings, where young men compete to remove ribbons from the bull's horns.   There's also 'Taureaux Piscine' where gangs of young men try to escape from a bull by leaping into a swimming pool - and so does the bull.  Younger kids take part with bull calves and my sons won a trophy once for getting the most balloons from the bull's horns!!   There's also water-jousting, where bright coloured boats row towards each other, to the sound of a mediaeval instrument, and young men compete to knock each other off the bow with a long wooden lance (wouldn't be allowed in England - none of the above)!   There's a league, and fierce competition during the summer months.

Arles and it's roman history is fascinating - and very 'Van Goch' - with lots of Americans, but still well worth a visit.  Occasionally there are specialist markets there - we went to a Potters' Market, where local artisans were selling their pots for charity for 10 euros each - and we got two fantastic pieces. 

On the way from Aigues Mortes across the Camargue there's a 'Bac Sauvage' - which is a free ferry crossing over the Petit Rhone, it runs every half an hour and is worth doing - you may share it with a troop of white horses and a Gardian!  I don't have my map handy, but there's also a great village right in the middle of the Camargue, which definitely goes back in time, and could be still in the last century.  I'll look up the name.

On the other side of the Rhone you can follow a route out across the sand to an amazing shanty town, built on a spit of sand which looks so fragile that you imagine it might be washed away with the next large wave.  You feel as if you are in the middle of the sea.  There's a kite-flying competition there, regularly, and you can see the colourful kites from way inland.   Again I'll look up some names on the map.  Edit later:  This is where Rick Stein had an amazing meal in a shack!  (I think it's now been pulled down, so perhaps that applies to the whole 'town'.  The Canal du Midi which becomes the Canal du Sete et Rhone crosses the Camargue - and it's very strange to see boat roofs appearing at the side of the road.

To the north of the Camargue you've got lovely mountains, and east(ish) you've got the 'Alpilles' around Les Beaux - which is also worth visiting.  The market in St Remy de Provence is lovely, small and authentic (Wednesdays), then from there you're within striking distance of the olive oil mills where everyone sells their own 'medal-winning' oil!  Again, a bit further afield and you can see Fontaine de Vaucluse, which is a spring rising up from the ground, which immediately becomes quite a raging torrent.  Then you're in Peter Mayle country, with the hilltop villages of Gordes, Bonnieux, etc.

It is a long way to travel - obviously, but definitely worth doing if you're into wild unmanicured France.

Quote: Originally posted by Val A on 05/11/2008

---

Hi happybonzo - missed your posting in August because we were on holiday - sorry. 

Post last edited on 05/11/2008 08:28:44

---

Disgraceful - that's the most pathetic excuse I've ever seen on UKCS   -

 many thanks Val

Thanks for all the great info guys, it sounds like a fantastic area, we have been to Port Grimaud/St Tropez side and near Narbonne so fancied trying the middle area, Val A you should write a tour guide, brilliant!

THanks again!

We stayed at Petite Camargue this summer, the facilities were great and the kids loved the pool and disco.  If you like evening entertainment, it's quite lively but all in French.  We found the site to be too busy and noisy for us - it advertises itself as a paradise for teenagers - which seems to mean large, wandering groups of noisy, bad mannered boys. We also had a pitch on what felt like a main interchange of site roads, complete with lamp post, which meant that every group of teenagers returning from dancing the night away (til 4am), stopped there to complete any unfinished business.

We also had a few problems with thefts - one boy, about 13, actually took a toy out of my three year old daughter's hand and disappeared, another time, whilst I was bathing the baby somebody reached round me and took her towel/clothes/swimsuit - the site management didn't seem too bothered, but a security guard hung about the toilet block for a few nights.

I wouldn't go back to Petite Camargue but we definitely would go back to the area - it's lovely, wild and romantic in places, lively and touristy (but not too much) in others.  I really liked Aigues Mortes, which as Val A says, is a touristy, walled town, which is much nicer, I think, than Carcassone, not so renovated.  Also, prices weren't too bad either,  we ate in the main square in the evening a couple of times and for a fixed price menu of 7euros for the children and 9.50 for us.  More flambouyant menus seemed to be available for about 14-20 euros.  

Like an earlier poster said, don't forget your mossie repellent, and Avon Skin-so-Soft, and eat marmite and citronella candles.

If circumstances for next year allow, we'll probably try La Boucanet, on the beach.  All the beaches are great - we preferred to drive out a little, past Grau du Roi where they are quieter and wider, with loads of free parking.

So, shhh, let's just keep the carmargue to ourselves.