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Reviews of Domaine De Chalain
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Domaine De Chalain
Lac Chalain
Doucier
Franche Comte (Browse area)
39130
Tel: 0033(0)3 84 25 78 78
Visit their website
   
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Pitches: 472
Open: 29/04/2024 to 19/09/2024
29/04/2025 to 19/09/2025
Rating: 
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 Tent Pitches |
 Caravan Pitches |
 Motorhome Pitches |
 Small Campervans |
 No Glamping Units |
 Holiday Homes for Hire |
 No Statics for Sale |
 No Seasonal Pitches |
 Electric Hookups |
 No Hardstandings |
 No Fully Serviced Pitches |
 Show Full Facilities |
| Who's it for |
 Families Welcome |
 Not Members Only |
 No Rallies |
 Not Naturist Site |
 Dogs Welcome |
 No Dogs Allowed |
 Groups Welcome |
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| Facilities |
 Toilet Facilities |
 Hot Showers |
 Washing Up |
 No Bathroom |
 No Baby Changing |
 Laundry On Site |
 Drinking Water |
 Disabled Friendly |
 Chemical Disposal |
 No Battery Charging |
 No Gas Exchange |
 No Recycling Facilities |
 No Kitchen Facilities |
 No Freezer / Fridge |
 No Motorhome Point |
 Wifi Access |
 Shop On Site |
 Bar On Site |
 Restaurant or Cafe or Takeaway On Site |
| Activities |
 Kids Playground |
 TV Room |
 Games Room |
 Evening Entertainment |
 Fishing On Site |
 No Wild Swimming |
 Indoor Pool On Site |
 Outdoor Pool On Site |
 No Horse Riding |
 No Cycle Hire |
 No Golf |
 Tennis On Site |
 Beach On Site |
 Watersports On Site |
 No Boat Launch |
| Other Features |
 No Sea Views |
 Not Working Farm |
 No Campfires Allowed |
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 Coastside Pitches |
 Public Transport |
 No Dog Walk |
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Reviews:
13 in total, now showing 11 to 13
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| Date of Visit: August 2009 |
Unit: Touring Caravan |
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| Reviewer: Fourfold |
1 review from this member |
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 Good to see new reviews of this site as there were none on at all prior to our visit this summer. As both previous reviews are so comprehensive then I will not add much in terms of detailing facilities, locality etc. But will hope to give an impression of our experience.
The lake is fantastic – particularly given we had very hot weather. We took a double sit-on kayak with us and our two boys (aged 16 & 14) spent hours paddling around and jumping off/capsizing the kayak. Swimming in such a lovely lake in a beautiful setting was really quite an experience – as a bit of a challenge to ourselves my wife and I even swam from one end to the other one afternoon, approximately 2.9km, you’re a long way from the side when you get tired!
Like previous reviewers we found facilities to be clean and never waited once for a shower or washing up. We were though amazed that all the tiles were still on the walls given the amount of pressure washing they endured each morning.
I would guess that around 90% of campers were Dutch - this in itself is not a problem – but makes it less likely that your teenagers will “pal up” with others of a similar age.
We really liked the surrounding area. Lakes, views, some gorgeous villages but somehow not “showy” or “pretty pretty”. Locals were as usual in France friendly and helpful.
But to paraphrase the old football cliché – this is a site of two halves. Halves of the day that is. For all its considerable merits in the day the noise at night from teenagers returning from their gatherings in the woods meant that most nights I was woken up a number of times by screaming, shouting etc as late as 2 or 3 a.M. Such a shame that the rules regarding noise at night were not enforced. These kids were decent enough but high spirited (in every sense) and I’m sure security (which was only seen around the karaoke a couple of times) could have impressed upon them the need to consider others. Security wasn’t to be seen again even after we reported a couple of French “hoodies” who were hanging around the toilet block for hours, spitting, climbing over cubicles and who we had seen rolling joints on the beach. We suspect they were dealing.
This is a site and an area that in many ways we would like to return to - would it be different at a different time of the year or even on a different pitch? On reflection we feel that this site has possibly changed our view of large sites. If the highlights of the holiday are, by consensus, swimming, table tennis and relaxing in a beautiful setting do you need the facilities that are on offer for and the company of the few thousand other campers? 
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| Date of Visit: July 2009 |
Unit: Touring Caravan |
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| Reviewer: RoseFamily |
2 reviews from this member |
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We have just returned from two great weeks at this site. It really is in an amazing location right on the shore of Lac de Chalain in the Jura region of Eastern France. Pitches can be rather tight and it is certainly large and rather crowded in peak season. However, there is a very nice atmosphere and all went quiet around 10.30 - 11.00 at night.
Try and get a lakeside pitch. Although these are not necessarily next to the lake or over-looking it, they are in that area and seemed nicer than the ones in the middle of the campsite. Vacancesoleil have some ready erected tents in the lakeside area and at the very back of the campsite Keycamp / Canvas statics are present.
Showers are clean, reasonably roomy, warm and powerful. Toilets are ok - remember to take your own loo roll. There were a few blocks dotted around the site along with washing up / laundry sinks etc. You have to visit several small specialist on site shops for your essentials - the Boulangerie / Patisserie, the Cremerie, and Epicerie for general shopping. Also a newsagents, and several gift type shops. Also a takeaway with a very large selection, restaurant 'Jeremy's Grill' and a Glacerie selling gorgeous ice creams.
There is also 'Jeremy's Pub' which we didn't use but looked good and some evening entertainment for the children with competitions, karaoke, dancing outside in the theatre. Mostly in Dutch but still good fun.
Supermakets nearby in Champignole and Lons Le Saunier.
The onsite water park 'Les Lagons' is really good with several waterchutes, but water rather cold! Also an indoor pool area which was fine. We did most of our swimming in the lake which I can't praise enough really! It was so beautiful - clear and strangely warm! Much warmer than the pool and great for swimming, and mucking about in a dinghy, canoe or pedalo. Also you can wear shorts in the lake not just the budgie smugglers you have to wear in the pool which pleased the other half!
You can walk up in the hills around the lake to a look-out point where you get a great view of the lake and campsite - also bike routes around the lake and up into the hills (some rather strenuous routes!) The Lake beach and Les Lagons is open to the public and got very busy with locals on a Sunday whilst we were there. Not really a problem but did make it rather crowded on the beach!
Places to visit in the area include the Cascades du Herisson. These are a series of beautiful waterfalls which it is possible to walk next to, swim in, picnic by. Cost for car with four occupants was 9 Euros including car parking. Great value. Some of the walking was very steep and unsuitable for our three year old unfortunately so couldn't do the whole lot.
There are also several Caves that you can visit and lots of pretty small towns such as Arbois, Poligny and our favourite Baume Les Messieurs which sits at the bottom of a steep gorge. There is an Abbey here which you can tour and a really nice cafe. We also did a trip into Switzerland by train from La Cure to Nyon followed by a steamship across Lake Geneva back into France again to Yvoire. This cost 22E each adult and 16E for children over 6, under 6 free. Superb day out, both towns fantastic but Yvoire was my favourite of the two - medieveal walled town with meandering streets full of flowers and ice cream parlours! Some lovely looking restaurants. Great views of the Alps in the background. You can also drive to Geneva for a daytrip from the campsite in about 1.5 hours.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the site and the area which is beautiful and unspoilt. The Dutch certainly seemed to love it! There's so much to do on the site that I can't remember it all but their website is very good. The lake is what would really bring me back here. On the morning we left I walked down to the lake at around 6.30am to take one last look. My lasting memory is of fisherman on the lake completely still and quiet (fishing for Perch?) in their electric boats with the morning mist just rising off the top of the lake. WOW!
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| Date of Visit: August 2009 |
Unit: Touring Caravan |
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| Reviewer: CaddyClan |
23 reviews from this member |
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We have just returned from a two-week stay at this site. As this is the first review, I will cover as many aspects as possible.
The access road to this site brings you parallel with Lac Chalain which is absolutely breathtaking - we had never seen such a turquoise lake, it became the focal point of our holiday.
After checking in, we were shown to our pitch. The drive through the site immediately rang alarm bells. The majority of pitches are small (especially the 'premium' lake-view pitches), uneven and crammed in like sardines with little or no privacy (no hedgerows, just the odd shrub here and there). Incidentally, it is not worth paying extra for a lakeside pitch as there are only a couple that actually have a clear view of the lake.
Our 'lake-view' pitch was grassless - just dust and after siting our 6-berth caravan & awning, we only just had room for our car (parked in front of the awning).
It is a very large site (779 pitches) and home to many tour operators - Canvas Holidays, Vacances Soleil, Keycamp amongst others. The tents are pitched here there and everywhere but the static caravans are away from the main touring area.
There are several large shower / toilet blocks dotted around the park. On first inspection I was dismayed. The toilets had no seats, there was no toilet paper and no soap to wash your hands with afterwards. However, in their favour I must say that they were cleaned thoroughly twice a day (and I mean thoroughly). They start the cleaning by spraying - with a jet wash - a strong disinfectant and cover every surface. They then use a high power hot jet wash to rinse. The fact that the toilets didn't have seats meant that they were probably much cleaner. There was never any mess in either the toilets or shower blocks (other than a bit of sand / grass in the showers at the end of the day). The showers were powerful and hot - in fact when I was there at 7.15 every morning they were SO hot I had to let them run a couple of minutes before I could step in!
During our stay we only saw a handful of British families (considering there are 779 pitches!). The vast majority were Dutch, with just the odd Brit, French or German family.
There are lots of facilities - a bakery, shop, cremerie, butcher (all of which were excellent). A couple of gift shops, a newsagents, a large well-equipped beach shop selling everything you could possibly want for the pool/lake or fishing. A take-away, restaurant, a couple of bars, cycle hire, launderette (which also offer service washes), first aid point.
For those who like sports, there are tennis courts, a couple of volleyball courts, numerous table-tennis tables dotted around the park, crazy golf, bungee-trampolining, pedalos, canoeing, cycling, football, archery etc.
There are lots of well sign posted walks around the lake, some taking you high upon the hill surrounding the lake and affording a breathtaking view of the lake. We went cycling and running a few times around the lake using different routes and thoroughly enjoyed them.
We spent an hour or so each morning at the pool complex 'Les Lagons' which is fabulous for children. There is a very shallow pool for young children and a large pool for older children/adults. There are also several water slides / chutes. The water however is very cold and we preferred to do our swimming in the lake in the afternoons (see below).
In addition to the swimming pools, there was a rope climbing frame, two large bouncy castles and a great water feature for kids which had a bucket fill with water and tip down over them periodically - as well as other sprinklers and such like. Ours had great fun running in and out. There is also a jacuzzi & sauna. The pool area is surrounded by lots of grassy areas with the odd picnic table, benches etc and really very pleasant. There is also an indoor pool - again, a shallow toddler pool and separate adult pool. The indoor pools are heated.
Each afternoon we went to the lake. It is much warmer than the pool and really very pleasant to swim in with it being warm, clean and clear - not to mention such a wonderful inviting turquoise colour!
The main expanse of beach is a shingle/sand mix and I would really recommend taking beach shoes - if only because several children got stung on the feet by bees/wasps that were sitting on the stones etc. They do sell beach shoes on-site should you forget or decide you need them.
Further along the beach it becomes much sandier and here there is an area of water which is cordoned off for children to play in. This is the only area of the beach/water that is life-guarded.
For the most part, the beach was not overly busy during our stay - comfortable I would say. However, as the beach & lake is open to the general public, it becomes very busy on Saturday & Sundays when the locals come out to play and the beach reminded me of something I would expect to see in Benidorm.
One thing to bear in mind, there are quite a lot of biting insects in the evening and we got through a bottle of jungle formula bug repellent! This is in contrast to our holiday in the Loire last year where we had no problem - so please do take some. We saw a lot of people with large midge bites on their legs and even had a few ourselves the first night or two.
Unless you really like cycling/walking there is not a lot to do in the surrounding area. You can go kayaking on a nearby river for a price - it looked inviting but we didn't get around to it. The waterfalls at Herisson were disappointing but this was due to the lack of water in the river - so they were less than spectacular! I imagine that they would be wonderful in winter or after a lot of rain.
We did however treat the kids to a microlight flight for 35 euros each. It was 8 mins long and took them up and over the lake and the super-friendly pilot showed them the mountains of Switzerland and the French Alps. The air base is located just a 10 minute drive from the site (on the road to Lons le Saunier). It was the highlight of the kids holiday.
Although there are ample shops on site to fulfil your needs, if you want to visit a supermarket then the closest is in Champagnole which is about a 20 minute drive.
Incidentally. Diesel/Gazole on the autoroute was 1.12 at best. In Champagnole it was 0.94. Fill up before you leave!
All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday - the lake / surrounding walks / pools etc were fabulous. The pitches were a disappointment as they were so small and the Keycamp pitches looked overgrown with weeds.But this really did not detract from our holiday. We had wonderful weather with just a couple of dramatic thunderstorms and have all come back with a tan and lots of beautiful photos.
The sunset over the lake is just wonderful.
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13 Reviews in total, now showing 11 to 13
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Common Questions
Is Domaine De Chalain child friendly? YES, it accepts children & has a playground View all facilities
Does Domaine De Chalain have a swimming pool? YES, there is a pool on site View all facilities
Where is the nearest shop to Domaine De Chalain? There is a shop on site View all facilities
Is Domaine De Chalain dog friendly? YES View all facilities
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