For those of you that know me in real life you know I don't "do" holidays that have the words camping, caravans or the great outdoors in the description.
I have adamantly refused to go camping unless it has an en-suite and room service
So the idea of Euro Camp was a little alien to me (my husband has just admitted he thought I'd finally lost my mind when I suggested it)
But as we have to cut our cloth accordingly and we are no longer just a couple travelling alone, I decided to "give it a go"
As I didn't want to get stuck somewhere horrendous for a week, I booked us 3 nights at Paris La Croix du Vieux Pont and it was in a caravan not a tent but hey it was almost camping... Right?
And I wanted to take the girls to Disneyland Paris so two birds, one stone and all that...
Price was as cheap as chips, 3 nights including the ferry was £220 and then just fuel costs on the top, so all in about £340, which lets face it for a family of 4 is pretty cheap.
We set off early on the Sunday morning, hoping that the girls would sleep the majority of the way to Dover, Isobel pretty much did whilst Amelia never closed her eyes, she was amazed at stars in the sky and I think she was just far too excited. The girls were fabulous on both journeys and as it was a bit further than I initially thought I was amazed at how good they were. Isobel had a slight blip on the way back where she cried for 30 minutes because I wouldn't let her have a lolly 30 seconds after complaining she felt sick but apart from that they were both great.
Lesson learned on the travel side of things - give a day for travelling and don't leave the return journey too late in the day, get home for a reasonable time as it knackers the kids out too much
Ok so we get to site and I am amazed at how beautiful it was, I don't really know what I was expecting but it was lovely.
Booking in was very simple, English agents see you to your caravan so no language problems, marvelous.
The van was ok, it was clean (ish, as expected for a holiday caravan), beds were ok and after hearing a few horror stories about beds I was pretty relieved that the beds were clean and comfortable. They supplied most kitchen/eating equipment and they even supplied a BBQ and coals (not that we used it) which I thought was excellent.
I have to admit the worse bit for me was the staying in a caravan, but that was me and my snobbery issues rather than anything being wrong with the caravan itself. It was also pretty cold at night and the early hours of the morning it was freezing so next time we need to take warmer clothes.
But the actual site was fantastic, pictures don't do it justice. There was lots for kids to do and the facilities were great.
The only gripe about the site was eating/restaurant facilities weren't great. You have to reserve a table to eat in the restaurants even if they are empty??? So the first night we had to go to their fast food hatch, which was very overpriced and the food was pretty rubbish. Then when we did go to the restaurant it was pretty much the same story very average food that was overpriced.
My last gripe is that the shop shuts ridiculously early so the night we got back from Disney at 8pm there was no where open to get milk and we had to go off searching for milk which we found for sale in pub of all places a mile from site.
All a learning curve for us Euro Camp newbies and next time we go we will definitely be far more prepared.
BUT we loved it and are looking to book again for Easter holidays. As long as I can get over the fact I am in a caravan and I may have to cook a bit but apart from that I can't recommend it highly enough, the girls loved it which at the end of the day is the most important thing, it was beautiful, lots to do and a great (cheap) family holiday.
(Oh and I must add that I was very surprised at just how "Middle Classed" the clientele was, far more Abigail and Thomas's than, well, lets not get into the whole name debate but you know what I mean)
Its just deciding now where we go at Easter.... Brittany... Vandee.... Normandy.... Decision, Decisions...
And we are looking at going Glamping at Warwick Castle next summer as well, next thing you know I will be buying a sheewee and an inflatable mattress ;-)
