Recommend a campsite in South of France

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Futurelookin

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Visiting a family member in SoF around Cannes / Antibes area in early July.

Looking for a recommendation for a 5* or really good campsite with decent accomodation.

Thanks
 
Well here's your lucky day. I've been here,

http://www.labaume-lapalmeraie.com/fr/accueil-sp1.php

Stayed in a mobile home, which I wouldn't do again (just not me) but they were of the best types but the place also has a few holiday home and we stayed in one of those. It's vast, lovely swimming pools, kids loved it, very clean and near to bustling Frejus/St. Raphael. There are loads of pitchs for tents too. The place is divided into two.

Bring some fans with you. It's very hot, especially to Irish people.
 
It's better to stay up the end with the main pools, in my opinion. Also there's a bus into town if you want, but it's not very often if I remember rightly. One reason I liked it so much was the main swimming pool was heated. I can't stand cold water. The kids loved running from pool to pool. But I or my OH always supervised them. The is a pool attendant but it's a more lacksadasical affair where the attitude is you need to look out for yourself as your own personal responsbility. I saw a couple of teenagers doing mad stuff in the pool when the attendant was distracted. That can happen everywhere of course. It's a pretty large place and many 'English' mobile home companies operated there. And there's quite a few Dutch go there because they love tents. The showers/sinks seemed well taken care of but we weren't using them. I can't remember the laundry room but there must have been one. Also one of our party freaked out at a load of ants in the mobile home one day, but that's normal when you're udner the pine trees etc adn it was easy to get rid of them.
 
Hi Bronte,

What's the population mix like at the campsite? Is it mainly Irish / English with some Dutch or is it more "authentic" with French families? Also (and most importantly!) is it near a decent boulangerie and somewhere that sells decent wine?

Tks,
Firefly.
 
I don't remember it being mainly Irish/English. Mostly French. But I'd notice the English or Irish accent more easily. I'm sure there were Germans there too. This is a very well known large campsite so it has all kinds. In my experience the English/Irish don't tend to make it that far as they mostly congegrate on the Atlantic seaboard side as it's more convenient with the ferries to Cherbourg and Roscoff. Also the heat puts a lot off.

Now you're testing me on the boulangerie. There's a shop onsite but you'd have to drive a little distance (memory - maybe 5 km) to a place that had a couple of delicatessens etc. Do google maps and follow the road to Frejus/St. Raphael. It's a place on the left !!

Unless you're flying in I'd advise stopping on route. I refuse to do long trips wihhout stopping somewhere nice (we have at this stage lovely places depending on the route we're taking or on how far we plan to drive to (always doing the long haul on the first day. I recommond a Logis de France as the best group for price/value/experience as there's no way I'm staying in anything like the Formula 1 boxes. We also don't eat at the rest places on the motorways. We bring a full picnic including tablecloth and eat at different times to everybody else to try and beat the traffic. The French pull in from 12 noon and we pull in at 2pm when they are mostly moving again.

Also there was an Irish traveller scam going on last year. Sob story and looking for money, it was in the newspapers. Naturally we never leave the car out of our sight as it's full to the gills. And no Bronte does not bring the groceries like the Dutch do. I do a big shop in the likes of the Carrefour/Le Clerck. But I do bring fans and fly swatters to stop those pesky wasps for the picnics. My children also remember a rat or two one year when they went over to the edge of the picnic area !!
 
Hi Bronte,

Thanks for that. We used to go camping in France a lot when I was a kid and brought our own crew last year. We went to the Vendee but it was rammed with Irish & English and the weather was too patchy so hence the plan for the south next year. We are planning to take the ferry and go for 3 weeks and go to Disneyland Paris for a few nights on the way down too - it will break the journey and the kids will love it.

I love frying up on the way down I must say - I bring the delights from the English Market and get the camping gas out and fry the bejasus out of everything. Wash it all down with a Barry's Tea too before piling into the car again!

We'd love to go this year but are currently doing up the whole house so the finances are a bit stretched!

Anyways, thanks for the tips and to the OP, Bon Vacances!

Firefly
 
If you took Disney out of it you'd have a lot more to spend. I don't do the camping thing myself but I totally understand the camping gas thing. Our kids love the picnics as do we. Great fun and experience and memories and cheap too ! I've got better at it too. We leave with a picnic for two days and buy the baggettes where we stop overnight. Or buy a cooked chicken. Now I wash the lettuce in advance, one time for a reason I'll never understand my husband was washing the lettuce in the men's loos but it was hot water only, now how strange is that when France only has cold running water !!

I've a better place for you than Disney though, Efteling in the Netherlands. Magical. And close to Eindhoven airport.

You'll get the heat in the South, plus you're close to a beach too. As in easy driving distance. I bring the Barry's too wherever I go. I even bring real milk in the cooler so I can have a proper cup in the morning of the first days before I can buy it. I can survive without food but not without my cup of Barrys of a morning.

I do not recall the place being rammed with English/Irish. But it's a couple of years since we went. I would go back. We got a train to Monaco at some stage. But we always holiday in France. This year it's Chamonix near Mont Blanc. An absolutely amazing place and we have great accommodation for that one. Surprisingly hot too. But you do have your heavy rain days. Been to Cannes a few times too. It's a must to park the car underground because of the heat.
 
Bronte said:
If you took Disney out of it you'd have a lot more to spend. I don't do the camping thing myself but I totally understand the camping gas thing. Our kids love the picnics as do we. Great fun and experience and memories and cheap too ! I've got better at it too. We leave with a picnic for two days and buy the baggettes where we stop overnight. Or buy a cooked chicken. Now I wash the lettuce in advance, one time for a reason I'll never understand my husband was washing the lettuce in the men's loos but it was hot water only, now how strange is that when France only has cold running water !!

I've a better place for you than Disney though, Efteling in the Netherlands. Magical. And close to Eindhoven airport.

You'll get the heat in the South, plus you're close to a beach too. As in easy driving distance. I bring the Barry's too wherever I go. I even bring real milk in the cooler so I can have a proper cup in the morning of the first days before I can buy it. I can survive without food but not without my cup of Barrys of a morning.

I do not recall the place being rammed with English/Irish. But it's a couple of years since we went. I would go back. We got a train to Monaco at some stage. But we always holiday in France. This year it's Chamonix near Mont Blanc. An absolutely amazing place and we have great accommodation for that one. Surprisingly hot too. But you do have your heavy rain days. Been to Cannes a few times too. It's a must to park the car underground because of the heat.
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Yeah, Disney will cut into the time but we should still have just over 2 weeks in the campsite which will be perfect. Chamonix will be amazing. Our kids are probably too young to enjoy it though...if the kids are happy, herself is happy and if herself is happy then I am happy!!
 
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