Well, we camped for the first time ever this summer and we loved it. Many of you gave us advice as we bought our equipment - thanks to all.
If anyone is interested some comments on our trip follow, including our personal opinions of the five sites we stayed at in France - Val de Trie near Abbeville; L'etang near Angier, St Martin in Moliet, Les Ecureils in the Vendee and Le Brevedent in Normandy - they can all be founbd in Alan Rogers, and they all have their own websites.
There is Gail and myself, plus two kids - Jack & Sophie (13 & 12). We've invested this year in a Vango Aspen 700 - its got loads of room, even though the poles weigh a ton. We'd erected it twice before setting off and got it down to about an hour. During the holiday we pitched five times, and although we nevere timed ourselves we managed to get our site set up (including airbeds blown up, table and cooker ste, etc) within two to three hours. It was never laborious, although sometimes hot.
We took with us a Sibir fridge which we intended to run from our electrics - however we never got them to work satisfactorily. We had our French adaptor and a reverse polarity cable (which we had to use in our first four sites).. It was a Suncamp adaptor, and everytime we switched it on, the right hand switch would stay switched, but the left hand would flip off. We managed to get it to work by wedging a match in place to keep the left hand side "open", but weren't happy about using it this way. We reserved it for the occasional late night light and a very occasional kettle boil.
It was really annoying as we'd paid for electrics at each site and basically couldn't use them. We've taken it back and exchanged it - I guess we should have checked it'd work before we went. We're certainly intending to check the new own out soon.
Anyway, the Sibir frdige also runs on gas, so we bought another gas bottle an installed it in a little beach tent alongside the main tent and all was fine.
We had a wonderful (!) 10 hour journey from Rawtenstall (near Manchester) to Dover - two accidents, motorway closed, missed ferry etc. We actually arrived at our first site at 9.30 pm and ended up pitching in the dark - talk about a baptism by fire. Anyway, we got everything up and into the tent - and then it rained for the next two days. Fortunately we reamined dry and had plenty of space to live in the tent. We cooked and ate under our gazebo outside.
Le Val de Trie was a pleasant site - lots of mature trees, clearly defined pitches, sanitary blocks clean and well maintained. We'd probably have more postive things to say, but our activities we curtailed by the weather.
We then moved on for a three day stop at L'etang just outside Angers. This was a lovely site and we'd readily return. Our pitch was large and well defined although there wasn't very much shade. The site was impeccable and the toilet blocks oustanding - they we being continually monitored and cleaned - as were the flower beds and the play areas. The site employs a group of disabled people and they do an outstanding job. The pool was nice and there were plenty of loungers. There was a nice bar and take away. Just next door to the site was a free children's leaisure park which was really good - it would be even more so for children below 11.
Our next move took us to Camping St Martin, at Moliet Plage, not far from Biaritz. Like the rest of the sites we visited, this was a four star site and had a good write up in Alan Rogers. WE WOULD NEVER RETURN TO THIS SITE EVER. It may be that our expectattions were too high having come from L'etang. Nevertheless, if we hadn't prepaid for 9 nights, we'd have left after two.
The site was massive - and the way tents, caravans and mobile homes were jammed on it began to resemble a refugee camp. Now I'm a first time camper - so maybe I'm being too harsh - but thats not the environment I want to camp in. Our pitch is what I think Alan Rogers calls "free and easy". It was a patch of ground delimited by white marks on the floor or on nearby trees. It was completely surrounded by other pitches, so the only way onto our pitch was to walk through someone elses. By the good grace of one of our enighbours I parked our car on the edge of his pitch.
We had two trees growing on our pitch which meant we had to work very hard to get our tent pitched. The toilet blocks were smelly, dirty and seemed to be cleaned (well, hosed down) no more than once a day. The water in the toliets was yellow and stank - could they have been using recycled urine to flush? There were big signs saying that the toilets were clsed at 11 each night - so we crossed our legs a lot. It was on our penultimate day we discovered that the sign had been incorrectly written and that it was just the showers that were closed overnight.
The pool complex was fine - although the number of recliners/chairs was woefully inadequate. Our son (the recliner king) only managed to spot two free recliners during the course of our stay. We spent 99% of our pool time lygin on the pebbled floor.
There was an indoor pool, but we didn't find out until too late that you had to pay an extra fee to get into each for each morning or afternoon session. However, even in the fee paying section there were still few loungers.
The worst things though was the Karaoke bar. The site made a big deal about silence after 11 pm. This was fairly pointless as the Karaoke bar just off-site didn't shut down till 1 a.m. and was soooo loud.
Was there anything good about the site? The weather was fantastic; there was direct access to a fantastic beach with amazing waves and there was a really good little supermarket just outside the gates.
NEVER AGAIN - and I'll take what I read in Alan Rogers with a pinch of salt.
We moved north to the Vendee next and stayed at Les Ecureils in Jard sur Mer for a week, and our spirits rose. We'd return to this site anytime. Pitches were clearly laid out, although we found ours a little tight with tent, gazebo and car on it. Fortunatlely the Aspen has three doors, so we pitched it sideways on and used one of the side doors rather than the main door. The pool was great (loads of loungers and chairs), we were walking distance to the beach and into Jard, the toilet blocks were clean etc etc. There was a nice bar, and reasonable shop etc. There were loads of little kids though - that didn't bother us, although it could be a pain to others.
Finally, we headed into Normandy for two nights at Le Brevedent. This was the only site where we were greated with an English person at reception, who launched straight into English. It was a very English site, but we didn't mind. As mentioned earlier, this was the only site where we didn't need to use a French adaptor or to reverse the polarity of our sparse electrics. The toilets were fine, but there was no hot water at all while we were there, which is a bit off on a four star site. Nevertheless, the site attempted to deal with the problem, so all credit to them.
Well, its home now and tented packed away.
If anyone has got this far I'd appeciate any responses to the following....
1) We ended up with pine sap/resin on the tent from the trees we camped uner at St Martin. Any suggestions how we can remove it - its all dried on now.
2)Any suggestions for sites we can try on our next trip to France? The key features that matter to us are clear and spacious pitches; peace and quiet (especially after 11); decent sanitary facilities; decent pool.
Best Wishes
Paul
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Topic: First time lovers
