National Parks in France (Parcs Nationaux)

There are currently six national parks in mainland France. These are the Vanoise, Port-Cros, the Pyrénées, the Cévennes, the Ecrins, and the Mercantour. A National Park is a territory which is protected and managed due to its biological diversity, scenic beauty, cultural interest and character. Every year they attract millions of visitors and each park offers spectacular views and incredible biodiversity to visitors.

Why not stay at the Airotel Pyrenees to vsiit the Pyrenees National Park ?

The Cevennes National Natural Park is located over parts of three départements – Lozère, Gard and Ardèche – and two regions, Languedoc-Roussillon and Rhône-Alpes. It is an area of great biodiversity, with more than 2250 species of flora and 2410 species of fauna. It has lower mountains than some of the other national parks, with the main peaks including Mont Lozère (1699m), Mont Aigoual (1567m) and the Causse Méjean. There are valleys with winding rivers of clear waters and hill slopes covered in forests of sweet chestnut and mulberry bushes. The summits of the Cevennes are made up of a succession of plateaux. There are many walking routes, including the "Tour of Cevennes" and it can make an interesting alternative to the more commonly visited areas such as Provence. If you plan to visit, there is an information centre at Florac.

We have attempted to draw a map showing the approximate locations of the different national parks relative to some of our campsites :

The Ecrins National Park is located between Grenoble, Gap and Briançon. It has 740 kilometres of walks and includes peaks like La Meije (3,983 m) and La Grave (3,946 m). You may see chamois, ibexes, marmots and golden eagles while walking ! The Ecrins National Park.

The Mercantour National Park is where you can explore the “Vallée des Merveilles” with its 40,000 prehistoric engravings as well as visiting the largest altitude lake in Europe. You may even catch a glimpse of a Wolf !

The Port-Cros national park stretches between Port-Cros and Bagaud islands and is the first marine European park. The small town of Port-Cros has a castle and an ancient harbour.

La Vanoise National Park was created in 1856 to protect ibexes against the hunters. The ibexes are now numerous but you can expect to see other wildlife like chamois and golden eagles.

The Pyrenees national nature park has high mountain peaks and many high altitude lakes and a rich variety of flora and fauna, including raptors, lynx and the last wild bears in France.  (Is that true ? - have any of you seen a bear there ? Maybe not a good place to pitch a tent !!)

If you like the sound of these areas and enjoy wildlife, walking or scenery then why not book one of our campsites near these areas.

Go Back to Best French Campsites

Vet Vocab - French phrases/words when visiting Veterinaire in France for Pet Passport

If you are like us and are fairly proficient in French but not exactly fluent, and.....you plan to take your dog to France with you on holiday.....then you will require to visit the Vet in France to get your dog (or cat) or rodent - a tapeworm treatment, before you return to the UK.

Here are some useful phrases you might like to use - if you can send us any more good Vet Vocab then please do ! :

Je voudrais prendre un rendezvous pour mon chien/ma chienne avec un vétérinaire pour les exigences du passeport des animaux.

Le transpondeur/la micropuce de mon animal - the pet's microchip

Le numéro d'identification de la puce doit avoir été implantée avant la vaccination contre la rage = the microchip needs to have been implanted (and the identification number recorded) before the vaccination against rabies

Programme de Voyage des Animaux de Compagnie - Pet Travel Scheme.

un test sanguin = a blood test

ticks - rhipicephalus sanguineus  (tick treatment is no longer a requirement of the pet passport - check DEFRA website to be sure of details)
worms - echinococcus multilocularis

Tapeworm treatment must contain praziquantel
Le médicament doit contenir praziquantel.

Votre chien doit être vermifugé (contre l'échinococcose) avant son voyage vers la Grande-Bretagne

Go Back to Best French Campsites

Camping near Blue Flag Beaches in France

Our favourite beach near Nevez which has won again !

The blue flag eco-labelled beach awards have been announced for 2012.

The awards are voluntary but winning beaches are found to have :

• quality bathing waters,
• good waste management, and have,
• made efforts with environmental protection as well as environmental education. 

 Winning Beaches can fly the recognisable blue pendant flag during the summer. 

In France, 377 beaches and 87 marinas have gained an award this year, with 15 new winning beaches this year. New awards have gone to 8 beaches on the Atlantic Coast and one on the English Channel.

Languedoc-Roussillon is still at the top of the labeled regions with 28 communities winning awards, followed by Cote d'Azur with 19, Pays de Loire with 15 and Basse-Normandie  with 15.

Some beaches which were commended for gaining awards for a continuous 25 years are : "Le Grand-Village-Plage" (Charente-Maritime), "Villeneuve-les-Maguelone" (Hérault), "Argelès" (Eastern Pyrenees) and "La Londe-les-Maures" (Var). We have campsites near Argelès on the Mediterranean listed at http://www.bestfrenchcampsites.com

To gain a blue flag award, bathing waters should be found to be classified as "Excellent" when tested at least five times over the season. The results should be displayed on the beaches.

You can check the beaches in France that have won awards at :
http://www.blueflag.org/Menu/Awarded+sites/2011/Northern+Hemisphere/France

Go Back to Best French Campsites

Brittany - a great destination for a holiday

One of our favourite holiday destinations is Brittany in the North West of France. What does Brittany mean for us ?

Crepes...galettes.....rugged beaches with beautiful white sand...coves and inlets, blue/green seas.... rocks and lighthouses and the ancient Breton language which you see in road signs and place names...granite cottages with colourful hydrangea bushes outside and fishing ports.

The campsites we have visited offer all of these aspects of Brittany and by visiting them all over the years we have learned more about Breton culture and history. But if you are just looking for fun, relaxation and a great holiday by the sea they also offer all of those ! Let us take you on a quick tour ! The following campsites : Le Chatelet and Chateau le Galinee at St Cast or Chateaux des Ormes in the north of Brittany offer a great introduction to Brittany without being too far from some of the main ferry ports.

You can visit the famous tourist attraction of Mont St Michel which is on the border with Normandy on the north coast.

You can also visit the historic walled town of St Malo and learn of its history of pirates or corsaires and also of the history of how it was largely re-built after World War 2 - all very interesting.

And you can enjoy a range of meals or takeaways in the various restaurants inside the walls. Then finish your day with a walk around the ramparts - a total distance of about 2 kms, although you can chose to walk just certain sections of it as there are plenty of exit and entrance points !

There is an interesting aquarium to visit at St Malo as well.

Other locations which make a great holiday include Carnac and its close neighbour Trinite Sur Mer.

You will marvel at the thousands of standing stones that stretch for a couple of miles. What were they for ? Who put them there and how did they manage it ? You might find the answers while you are there !

There are a few interesting museums to visit in Carnac - one lovely one that was founded jointly by a French man and a Scotsman - the Museum of Prehistory (Musée de Préhistoire James Miln-Zacharie Le Rouzic) and also a more modern museum near the Standing Stones, Archaeoscope.

Les Deux Fontaines campsite and Raguenes Plage campsite allow you to visit a quieter and possibly more scenic area of Brittany but with one of the most beautiful beaches, Tahiti Plage ! In that area we enjoyed visiting a lovely old village Kerascoet and also a botanic gardens.

Benodet is a favourite for many and British people have been visiting this resort for about 100 years and there is a flavour of that when you are there. From here you can take a glass bottomed boat so you can view fish on a visit to the beautiful îles Glénan, an archipelago of islands twelve miles out to sea.

Quimper was nice to visit and has a very historic cathedral, as has St Anne d'Auray. I would also recommend a visit to Pont Aven - a beatiful village sitting near the mouth of a river. This village is proclaimed as the Capital of Crepe making ! And we certainly enjoyed a delicious crepe in a restaurant which was previously an old mill sitting on the river. It has also been home to numerous artists over the years and you can visit quite a few art galleries and see if there are any paintings you would like to take home with you. There was art to suit all tastes, from modern to more traditional. And a final favourite in Pont Aven was a lovely glass blowing workshop and shop where you could watch the glass blowers at work and then buy some of their beautiful glassware.

This year we are heading to the North West of Brittany, an area we first visited about 20 years ago. What are your favourite things to visit in Brittany ? Would you recommend a visit to this area or have you other areas of France you would suggest for a visit ?

If you would like to stay at some of the great campsites we stayed at in Brittany then we have listed them on our websites at www.bestfrenchcampsites.com

Learning French - Using Online Resources

There are so many fantastic online resources to help you learn French. The French TV Channel TV5 provide this learning resource to help us learn French. It has examples of useful language to use for Greetings, Hobbies, Housing and Meals : Click Here

RFI have lots of interesting online articles/news for learning French, including a "News in Simple French" which you can listen to and there is also a translation so this is a great way to keep your French vocabulary completely up-to-date with current issues : http://www.rfi.fr/lfen/statiques/accueil.asp

The famous French dictionary LaRousse provides French words but also typical examples of usage and you can even listen in to what is should sound like with "soundbites" of French speakers using the words. http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french-english There is also a version to download for your iphone via itunes !

And of course there is the good old BBC ! They have some great language learning resources online at : http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Go Back to Best French Campsites

Top 10 Board Games and Card Games to Take on a Camping Holiday

A camping holiday is the ideal time to create some special memories and spend some family time or time with friends playing some of these excellent board games and card games. I am not going to mention Cluedo, Chess, Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit as you are probably familiar with them but instead am going to mention some slightly different games which we have enjoyed. If you can suggest others which we should try please add your comments - who knows they might overtake some of the ones we have put in our top 10 ! :

So here are the Best French Campsites Top 10 games :

1    Timeline was a new game to us but it is the simplest idea and can lead to a great game - it consists of some beautifully drawn cards featuring inventions and discoveries and your task is to place them in the order that they were invented.

You are given 5 cards and all you have to do is place them correctly ! A simple idea but you will find it is not quite as easy as you might think !  Probably best for age 10 up but is suitable also as a game for grown ups. And it can last approximately 15 minutes so great as an "after dinner" game :

2 Carcassonne

This is a great game and is set in France around the mediaeval walled city of Carcassonne ! You buy the basic game and you can also then buy expansions if you enjoy it.

3 Settlers of Catan

An award winning game. The board game The Settlers of Catan came out in Germany in 1995 and that same year it was awarded the prestigious title “Spiel des Jahres” (“Game of the Year“). In 1996, the game was published in the US, where it also was awarded the title “Game of the Year.” The Board Game is the classic game for everyone, The Rivals for Catan is an ideal game for two game enthusiasts, the Dice Game is entertaining and fun to play. You can continue your exploration on Catan with Catan Adventures, Seafarers, Histories, Geographies as well as Catan in Space
The Catan Card Game, published in 1996, is an exciting challenge for all those who like playing in pairs. In 1997, the Card Game was among the finalists for the prestigious German “Spiel des Jahres” award. The Dice Game “The Settlers of Catan” was published in 2007. It is ideal for travel.

         

4  Who What Where

This is great fun. A variation on Pictionary. You have to pick out three cards and draw the person, place and thing that you have chosen. It makes for hilarious drawings and gets everyone involved. Again its a simple idea and can be played by all the family. There is a version for aged 12+ and a Junior Version for age 7+. If you have an even younger member of your group then why not just create some cards for them separately so that they can join in ? They could maybe just draw one or two things to keep it a bit simpler for them :

 

5  Othello

An interesting strategy game where the aim is to turn your opponents counters over to your colour and claim the board in your colour.

Here are two travel versions of this classic game :

6 Ticket to Ride

If you have always had a desire to run a railway or you have some train spotters in the family then Ticket to Ride could be the game for you ! It was an International Gamer Award winner in 2005 in the category of General Strategy - Multiplayer. It was also nominated in 2005 Vienna Game Academy selection and was the 2006 Family Game of The Year in Norway. Its for 2-5 Players and takes about 30 to 60 minutes to play.

7 Romans

This game is very good if you have an interest in Romans or are studying them at school as you need to answer some questions about them in order to your empire ! But dont worry, even if you are not a history buff, you can still enjoy this game and most of the questions are of a multiple choice variety so you are still in with a chance of winning ! I see there is an Egyptian version too so I imagine it is much the same but we haven't played that yet :

 

8 Labyrinth

This game is one of our favourites on holiday. We have always borrowed it from the ones available to borrow from the Eurocamp caravan.

9  Last Night on Earth 

A board game which might get the teenagers and online gaming addicts joining in. You can either join the Heroes team or the Zombies team and it even comes with a soundtrack ! People will wonder what on earth is going on in your tent with this one !!

10 Cleudo - World of Harry Potter

I do love the original Cleudo with Miss Scarlet and Professor Plum ! However I can see how the game lends itself really well to being redesigned as Hogwarts Castle for Harry Potter, complete with Floo Powder to let you travel across the board instead of underground tunnels ! So this would be ideal if you have Harry Potter fans in the family !

Well that is our list of top 10. I have thought of many others as I was writing this list and found one called Dominion that I would like to try:

 

Another thing we really enjoyed doing one year was to create our own games. You will get all sorts of creativity going on and it kept the kids busy for ages ! So take some pencils and paper with you - always a good idea ! And now I'm in the mood for board games - I've just bought Taboo Junior from Amazon.fr so we can keep up the task of learning French ! Even if it is at a junior level ! And now I've just remembered another game thats great for young children - Shopping List in French "Les Courses a Faire" - a memory game - see who can fill their shopping trolley first ! And it features French products such as baguettes, fromage and croissants - so its a great way to learn French !
 

And just in case you still want to stick with the old classics then here are some links to them :


Go Back to Best French Campaites

Dont worry about missing this Summer of Sport while Camping in France !

If you are worried about missing the major televised International Sports Event this summer (25th July - 12th August) while you are on your French Camping holiday, then dont worry any more. The following campsites are just some of the ones which Keycamp and Eurocamp go to which will be catering for a summer of sport !

This is a selection of some of the campsites which Eurocamp and Keycamp go to and which will show the Event on Big Screen television :

Le Ranc Davaine (in Auvergne or Ardeche) ,
La Bugue (St Avit Loisirs) in the Dordogne,
Le Vieux Port in Gascony, Domaine de Chalain in the Jura , Club Farret, Domaine de Massereau and Les Sablons in Languedoc
Esterel on the Riviera
La Pointe St Gilles, Les Deux Fontaines and La Grande Métairie in Brittany

In addition, some of the children's clubs will offer a Mini Sports activities and some of the sites are even getting adults involved with the entertainments - so if sport is your thing you should have a fantastic summer !

Keycamp and Eurocamp are offering a two hour Fun Sports session per week as part of their Children's Clubs and these sesssions which will aim offer a combination of traditional events such as Javelin, Hammer, Discus, Shot, Long jump, Relay race and Short individual race as well as fun events as well such as bean bag races and obstacle courses.

For more details of all of this please check the Eurocamp and Keycamp websites :

          

Go Back to Best French Campsites

Win a Family Set of Tickets for the Caravan & Motorhome Show, Chepstow, Wales

We have a family set of 6 tickets to give away to the Caravan & Motorhome Show at Chepstow Racecourse, Wales

The show runs from Friday 20th April to Sunday 22nd April 2012 and is a great chance to have a look round the latest models of caravans and motorhomes. If you are thinking of buying a motorhome or caravan then nothing beats actually sitting in one to get an idea of the space and equipment they contain. Much more sensible than looking at a diagram !

Its also a chance to buy accessories and see all that is new in gadgets and gizmos, so its useful for tent campers too !

In addition there may be a chance to buy second hand motorhomes and caravans.
If you would like to enter then please add a comment to this blogpost. Good luck !

Go Back to Best French Campsites

Fun Tents - VW Camper Vans and Kennels !

Here are some really fun tents to take camping.
First we have the VW campervan tent !

Ideal for you to indulge that inner hippy on the festival circuit or else to attract loads of attention on the campsite !

And much cheaper than buying the real thing !

And if you are taking the family dog on holiday then why not get them their own kennel tent !

This is fun and gives the dog their own retreat but just watch out as tents do heat up in the sun and you don't want to overheat poor Rover/Fido/Buster/Tyson or whatever they are called ! (Why do boy dogs get all the good names ?) 

Last year when we took our dog camping, during the day when she wanted a snooze in the heat of the midday sun, we used a windbreak to give her shade and put the dog cage lying behind it so that our dog had some shade but also a breeze to keep them cool. And that was just in Cornwall ! This year we are trying the North of France so hope she enjoys that !

And to keep kids cool and out of direct sunlight on the beach, a beach tent shelter is a great idea. Here's a fun shark one. How many times will "Jaws" be mentioned if you take this on holiday !

Go Back to Best French Campsites

Books for Teenagers on Holiday in France

How to keep teenagers amused on holiday ? Why not start stocking up now on some great summer reads. It can be difficult to find any books that teenage boys will love and its difficult to find something a bit different for girls to read. Well here are some books to hook them. Code Name Verity - a book for anyone really but if its being read by teenage girls then they can finally have a heroine to look up to. Here is a link to the traditional book and the e-book :

                                         

And here are some favourites which boys will enjoy and I suspect girls will too :
The Gone Series by Michael Grant :

                                       

Hunger Games - the book of the film that is out at the moment :

                                      

The Name of this Book is Secret - first book of a series by "Pseudonymous Bosch" - a humorous series for younger teenagers.

                                      

A book about a 14 year old lawyer Theodore Boone from the Classic storyteller John Grisham.

                                      

And a big favourite certainly with teenage boys is the Cherub series. What a hit this series has become and the author has an interesting story to tell. He decided to write a book for his nephew as there seemed to be no decent books around for boys to enjoy. Well he's certainly managed it with this series. Every teenage boy I know who has read this series has become addicted to it, although I must warn you that you might want to check the content of some of the later ones.
                                     

So now you dont need to worry. Never again on a camping holiday will you hear the refrain : "I'm bored, there's nothing to do !"

Go Back to Best French Campsites