Month: February 2017

Le Litteroral – Argeles Sur Mer, Roussillon, South West France

Published on by Paul Hickman

MS Vacences

Date Of Visit: August 2014      Unit: Tent

This was our first trip to the south coast of France. The company that owns this site also own Les Brunelles in the Vendee which we have visited 3 times and absolutely loved, so for our first venture this far we decided to stick with a company that we trusted to provide a high standard. We were not dissapointed! 

We had planned well for the long drive south or so we thought. We did not expect to get all the way to Perpignan, we had bought a small 4 man tent with the idea of pitching on the grass at an Aire, but as we got further south the ground looked rockier and dryer and not so comfortable so I decided that idea was a non starter. We arrived at the site at 8pm ish and had a quick look around. We then headed back to Perpignan via the local Intermarche for some food to find a hotel for the night. Should have booked in advance!

We arrived at site around 11 am and checked in, was given a pitch which tured out to have a tree stump in the middle, fine for a caravan but not for a tent. We were given the choice of 3 other pitches. We found one against the back wall that worked for us. It was a little cramped but we still had room to put up the 4 man tent to house the stroppy teenager while we had the 6 birth tent to ourselves.

The site has all the facilities that we expected.

  • Pool
  • Bar
  • Shop
  • Lanudrette
  • Sports Facilities
  • Entertainment
  • Kids Club
  • Access to the beach

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Our First D.A. Camping Experience

Published on by Paul Hickman

This weekend was our first experience at D.A. Camping. (D.A. is District Association, a kind of local branch of the Camping & Caravan Club)
D.A’s organise low cost weekend meets/rallies, any member of the C&CC can attend any meet arranged by any D.A. anywhere in the country, you’re not restricted to the D.A. listed on your membership card.
Anyway this weekend was the first meet of the year organised by Lancashire & Cheshire D.A., the one listed on our membership. So for the princely sum of £15.40 for the weekend we joined the gang in the car park of Helsby Community Sports Club. Yes that’s right we went camping in a car park! Sounds nuts but when you think about it you can camp anywhere in a caravan.
A caravan has gas or electric heating, gas or electric fridge, gas or electric hot water, 12 Volt lighting & water pump. So as long as you can get some fresh water and have a gas bottle your set to camp anywhere. Our van has a toilet and even a shower.

Caravan Car Park

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Le Chant D’Oeiseau _ Loire Valley, France

Published on by Paul Hickman

Date Of Visit: August 2015 Unit: Tent

LE CHANT D’OISEAU
49390 Mouliherne, France
Tel: +33 2 41 67 09 78
Web: loire-gites.com‎

Let Chant is owned by ex-pats Stu & Syb Bradley from Yorkshire. It was their 10th year of ownership in 2015.

The site is in the commune of Mouliherne Probably the closest largeish town is Saumur which is famous for its sparkling wines.

The site is small with only 10 pitches and 3 gites. A small pool, children’s play area, BBQ area, toilet & shower block and a campers kitchen which is a welcome addition for anyone who has only basic cooking equipment. There is a large “barn” which is a covered area which houses tables and chairs at which our hosts served a meal, pizza and fouee 3 nights a week. It also houses a table tennis table and a pool table. There is also a TV which shows the occasional film or cricket match.

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Camping Le Soliel, Angeles Sure Mer, Roussillon South West France

Published on by Paul Hickman

Route du Littoral
66702
ARGELES sur MER Cédex
France
Tel: +33(0)468811448
Website: http://www.camping-le-soleil.fr/

August 2016  Unit 6 berth tent.

This was our first visit to this site but our 2nd visit to this area and indeed Angeles Sur Mer.

We found this site on the internet actually on Google Maps, looking at the area in satellite view. The plus for this site was that is was closer to the beach than the first site we had visited in this area. In fact it was almost right next door.

The site boarder is in fact the beach. Can’t get much closer. There is a short walk from the site through the small dunes to the wide sandy beach. The site have added a blue carpet like flooring on the path through the dunes which makes the walk very easy and even pushchair/wheelchair friendly.

The site is as far as we can tell independently owned but is very well kept and is used by all the major European Camping companies, keycamp, eurocamp etc… It’s not a small site with over 1000 pitches and we expected it to be very crowded. It wasn’t even though the site was full it didn’t feel too full.

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Veryan C&CC Site Cornwall

Published on by Paul Hickman

Veryan Camping and Caravanning Club Site, Tretheake, Veryan, Truro, Cornwall, TR2 5PP
Tel: 01872 501658
Managers: Nigel Benn & Lynn Benn
Latitude: 50.2364 Longitude: -4.8985
Web: http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/campsites/uk/cornwall/truro/veryan

Date of Visit: October 2016

We arrived at the site at around 14:30 and were greeted by the warden. We had booked the holiday online and had paid a deposit only so the remainder was to be paid on arrival. We had been given a voucher by Glossop Caravans when we bought our van which entitled us to a free night.

After sorting that out we were offered our choice of pitch. October half term is not very busy so we had a wide choice. We opted for Hardstanding near the Bathrooms.

Our Pitch

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Welcome

Published on by Paul Hickman

We are Paul & Halys, That’s us below. We are from Manchester and are embarking on our first year of caravaning. We are experienced tent campers but have decided it’s about time to upgrade.

Paul & Halys

We love France and will go at the drop of a hat or beret 😉

We bought our first caravan in October last year (2016) and spent our first week away in Cornwall at the end of the month.
We’ve had a bit of a break over Christmas as we already had a trip to Paris planned for our Anniversary at New Year and we have had plenty to do here around the house.

We joined the Camping & Caravan Club and took advantage of the cheaper insurance and our first holiday was at their Veryan Site in Cornwall.
We will add a review of that site in the Review Section of this site.

We head off for our first C&CC rally next weekend (Valentines weekend)
The C&CC is split into many D.A’s or District Associations. These are basically local smaller divisions of the main C&CC. When you join you are assigned a local D.A. ours is Lancashire & Cheshire but you are free to attend any meet/rally organised by any D.A. in the country. So for our first Forray we are off with Lancs & Chesh to Helsby where we will camp for the first time sans electric. Wish Us Luck!