Is Camping De Bellebouche child friendly?

YES, it accepts children & has a playground View all facilities

Where is the nearest shop to Camping De Bellebouche?

There is a shop within 1 mile View all facilities

2 Reviews of Camping De Bellebouche , Mezieres En Brenne, Loire Valley Campsite. Review score 8/10

Date of Visit: August 2017

Unit: Tent

Reviewer: Dav8

6 reviews from this member

Great stopover site! Is it the best campsite ever? No. But it does actually have quite a lot to offer and (especially if the weather is good) is very child-friendly and well-located for a stop on the way south.

We met my parents here in August 2017 for 4 nights en-route to the Dordogne. We drove south from Calais via Chartres and Orleans and the campsite is about 30 mins off the A20. There's a Decathlon at Chateauroux, which is 30 mins away.

You can't book in advance (I tried), but the site staff say that they are never full.

Given how many Brits were on this site, I'm very surprised that there are no reviews for it already. I struggled to find any (in English) before we went and didn't really know what to expect.

FACILITIES

There are 52 pitches and just one wash / washing up / laundry block, but we never had to queue for a shower or sink. Mixed toilet facilities and separate male/female showers and basins. Accessible for wheelchairs. The pitches were a good size and it is generally quite a quiet site. Clean.

I think we paid 17 euros per night for pitch + car (two adults, 2 children).

Very helpful in reception with lots of information about cycle routes etc.

Not really a shop, but they do sell toilet roll (you need your own) and other basics (all held behind the reception counter) and you can order bread and pastries the night before. If they have any left over they will sell them to you, but not until after 10 am. They were good.

Nearest small supermarket is 15 mins away in Mezieres. There's a big Leclerc in Le Blanc.

The campsite has a restaurant, but you have to book your place earlier in the day or the day before. It has a buffet for the starters and desserts and was 18 euros per adult for the the set menu with a glass of wine in 2017. The children's menu was pretty standard (3 options, including burger and nuggets) but our children were more interested in the adult options, so we decided to eat at another restaurant (5-minute walk away).

Bike hire on site but we had our own.

Children enjoyed just riding their bikes around the campsite and using the facilities at the lake. Small enough campsite that they could just run around by themselves. Saw bats after dark.

As the campsite wasn't busy, we could play badminton on an empty pitch next to ours.

It's a natural park, so no open fires/bbqs. We used gas.

No playground on the site, but plenty of play options down by the lake.

BASE DE LOISIRS BELLEBOUCHE / BELLEBOUCHE LAKE

The campsite is about 50 m from the lake, and a couple of hundred metres from the campsite there is a sandy beach (with toilets), cafe/restaurant, pedalo and kayak hire, children's playgrounds, volleyball net, and a footpath that takes you around the lake and from which you can visit bird hides and look for wildlife. If you are staying at the campsite, you get free access and a discount on the pedalo hire - which is cheap anyway, but I think with the discount I paid around 12 euros for 30 mins pedalo AND 30 mins kayak!

Day-trippers can pay 4 euros to park near the campsite reception and use the lake.

We were there the first weekend in August and they had inflatables on the lake, which our children (8 and 5) went mad for! I don't think they are always there, but there seemed to be activities arranged throughout the summer. E. G. After the inflatables had gone there were going to be donkey rides.

We had good weather, so were happy to hang out at the lake.

It is a swimming lake, but the water is quite murky, not clear.

We had a meal at the restaurant and very much enjoyed it. We decided it represented better value for money than the campsite restaurant. I think that mussels and chips were about 11 euros - and they were great (kids ordered that). My husband and I both preferred our starters (excellent!) to our mains, but the whole meal was nice. They do have 'menu' options.

WIDER AREA / THINGS TO DO

The landscape in this region is very flat and the campsite is in the Brenne 'parc naturel', which appears to be something of a hidden secret. My parents joined us from their holiday home in the Vendee and said that their French neighbours had never heard of the Brenne!

There are lots of cycle routes in the area, including a 'voie verte' (traffic-free cycle route). The campsite reception has full details and was able to provide us with maps. We drove to Ruffec and cycled the 6 km to Ciron and back again. It was flat, but this was far enough for our 5 year-old. Definitely take your own picnic unless you plan on ending up at Le Blanc - we tried to buy sandwiches in Ciron but could only get kebabs and they took FOREVER!

Our 5 year-old had not long learnt to ride her bike and wasn't up to long distances, but the roads in the area are quite wide and flat with pretty good visibility, and not too busy. So I think that it would be quite good for cycling with older children, especially if they already used to going on the roads.

There are a few local places for horse riding. We didn't have time for it, but would definitely consider for another time.

You can also hire canoes/kayaks to go down the river.

Le Blanc is OK, but not amazing. Very cheap ice-creams, though! The whole area is not very touristy, so everything was quite reasonably priced.

ONE WORD OF WARNING

On the first weekend in August (and on two other weekends per year) the campsite 'hosts' hundreds of people for a horse riding / walking tour of the Brenne. They had their own facilities in a field next to the campsite, so didn't use the actual campsite, but had a party on the Friday and Saturday nights with loud music that went on quite late. As we had got up at 3 am on the Friday morning to cross into France and drive for several hours, this wasn't great as a first night for us. However, if you want to experience an authentic French event then it had a great atmosphere and was quite fun. We took the kids to have a look and they enjoyed the music. It did not spoil our enjoyment of our stay. Kids also enjoyed seeing all the horses and traps setting off/returning each day.

If, however, you only want to spend one or two nights there as part of a long drive, it could be a real pain. That said, there seem to be municipal campsites in every town in the area. We looked at the one in Ruffec and although we didn't go into the wash block, it is in a nice location, with big pitches, walk to a restaurant. So could be an alternative.

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