In the Papers

PETE HALE was looking for a camping holiday with a certain je ne sais quio. Where better than Brittany for a family half term break with Eurocamp.

Dad, can we go camping? I wish I had a fiver for every time I’d been asked that question by my two sons.
So this half term, and as elder son James has begun learning French at school, we decided to stop talking about it and check out the camping options in France.

As a Welshman, and having heard many fine reports of the area, I’d long hankered after a visit to Brittany to check out my Celtic cousins over the water. And that was how Eurocamp came to the rescue. I was delighted to discover loads of options in it’s current brochure for the region, which boasts fine beaches, a laid-back local populace, and, of course, has the bonus of fantastic regional produce and fine, inexpensive wines.

We opted for the Eurocamp site at La Baie at La Trinite Sur Mer, as it looked lovely in the brochure, wasn’t to big for our taste and had not one but two fantastic beaches right on the doorstep, the nearest only 100m away. The campsite, with room for 170, was only half-full this early in the season, and we were pleasantly surprised by the Verona mobile home. It had a central kitchen/lounge area, shower and loo and a bedroom at either end. It was fully equipped with fridge, cooker, and gas fire and outside there was seating galore with dining table and parasol and plenty of room for the car too. But the best thing about any Eurocamp site if you travel with children is, of course, the facilities for the young and the young at heart.

La Baie has a fine small pool with fun slide, football court, table tennis, volleyball and – joy of joys for our two boys – a basketball court. Huge fans of the sport, their faces lit up when they saw it, and they spent many a hour on court during our week-long stay pretending to be Michael Jordan. Camp staff also run a fun club for various age groups, and it was so successful, and the staff so, and enthusiastic and inventive, that our younger son Edward, seven, became a regular morning visitor. (With all this unexpected spare time, I read three novels in a week. Unheard-of!)

Inevitably, our lads developed a hearty daily appetite. And this is where La Baie scored so heavily that we decided we would simply have to return one day: for just outside the camp, alongside the nearest beach, is a bar with lovely terrace overlooking the sea, providing meals and seafood in the style that only the French can. There’s also a bakery serving up delicious baguettes, pain au chocolat or aux raisins and croissants for breakfast, and a takeaway pizzeria, which serves up unbelievable homemade pizzas.

We loved the town of Trinite itself. A mere 2km, 10-minute stroll away, or two minutes by car, it has a lovely aspect on the water and reminded us of a mini-Dartmouth, clearly attracting discerning visitors, French and foreign alike, to its waterfront bars and restaurants. We quickly settled on our favourite venue, where grilled sardines and moules became a big hit. We enjoyed our outings to the nearby ancient towns and were astonished by the standing stones at Carnac, just five minutes down the road by car. Legend has it that they were Roman soldiers turned to stone by Merlin (that Celtic link again) and they stretch in straight lines for an extraordinary three miles or so. The Tuesday morning market at Trinite, with its stalls selling everything from fresh fruit and veg and crepes to furniture and craft ware, is an absolute must.

And one of the great joys of this sort of holiday is that even the simplest of pastimes can become fantastic fun, weather its having a foursome at tennis (the nearby Eurocamp site of La Plage has courts, plus mini-golf for sharing), a splash in the pool or a visit to the beach. One morning the tide had deposited a host of oyster shells at the watermark (the bay is renowned for its oysters). Enabling our two boys to selected the best two bucketsful they could find. They now take pride of place in a glass bowl at home, a permanent reminder of the joys of France, Eurocamp style. When we departed for home, was it adieu to La Baie? No, it was definitely au revoir from the Hale clan.