Domaine des Ormes - Brittany

5 Nov, 2019, No comments

Domaine des Ormes

This year during the Easter holidays we decided to head off to France again and this time we visited Domaine des Ormes campsite in Brittany.

I was quite happy to go on the Dover to Calais ferry and do a little driving but MRS decided that she’d rather jump on the Plymouth to Roscoff ferry which is closer to us.

We’ll what a bad decision that was! Although the sea was fairly flat Mrs spent most of the 6 hour journey sat in a seat looking extremely green and occasionally vomiting into one of the free sick bags.

Our arrival at Domaine des Ormes

Anyway the ferry journey was hideous but when we arrived we drove up to Dol de Bretagne which is where Domaine des Ormes campsite is located.

The campsite was fantastic! We stayed in a Vivaldi, 3 bedroom mobile home through Al Fresco Holidays. We’ve stayed in one of these mobile homes before and were happy with the size and style of the home. Ours was located a short walk from the main activities which was brilliant

Campsite Activities

The campsite has a good selection of swimming pools, although due to the time of year only the inside pool was open but it was good enough for our three kids. There’s also a great zip line which our youngest loved, which takes you across one of the lakes, a treetop adventure course with different courses for different ages, a great playground, horse riding, archery and wakeboarding.

One of the reasons we chose Domaine des Ormes is due to it’s the location as it’s roughly halfway between St Malo and Mont Saint Michel and we fancied visiting both while we were in France.

Things close to Domaine des Ormes

We went to St Malo for an afternoon during our stay to visit the aquarium. It’s much better than a lot of aquariums we’ve visited previously as there are loads of fish including a couple of touch pools where the kids were able to touch some Koi and flat fish. There are also some great sharks which all three kids were amazed by.

If you are near St Malo and are looking for something to do then i would highly recommend the Grand Aquarium St Malo.

We also took a day out of our busy schedule to visit Mont Saint Michel. It is really awe inspiring and an amazing sight. The narrow medieval streets run across the island taking you up to the abbey above. We loved it and although the kids were a bit tired when they got to the top, they were amazed by the view.

The last place we visited whilst at Domaine des Ormes was Alligator Bay. It’s a brilliant attraction with hundreds of species of reptile from small lizards and snakes to the massive crocodiles, alligators and turtles.

We had a fantastic time and would highly recommend Domaine des Ormes. We are now looking forward to our summer holiday

Le Clarys Plage - Vendee

4 Nov, 2019, No comments

Le Clarys Plage is a fantastic campsite which is located in St Jean de Monts in the Vendee region of France. We booked our family holiday, earlier during the year and we are so pleased we chose this particular campsite. After looking at all the companies on offer we decided to book our camping with Canvas Holidays.

As our summer holiday got nearer the whole family became started to become very excited. Each week we'd get asked when are we going to France.

We chose the campsite because of its relatively close distance to the local beach and the quality of the swimming pool complex. The beach is called Les Mouettes is just 500m away. It's wonderfully long and very sandy.

I think that you can always tell the quality of a beach by the number of locals that visit it. Les Mouettes beach was certainly busy and packed mostly with French families at all times of the day with many coming along at lunchtime for a spot of sunbathing.

Les Mouettes Beach

Unlike in the UK, the car park is completely free and has direct access to the beach and local cafe.

The beach was just great for children with a gently sloping sandy beach meaning that you had to go a fair distance out before you got out of your depth.

We spent a lot of time on the local beach building sandcastles and boats in which all three children would sit until the tide came in and washed it away. All three also spent a lot of time searching for and collecting a wide variety of shells and stones, which unfortunately ended up coming home with us (three buckets worth) that now seem to have taken pride of place in my garden!!

The campsite itself was, in my opinion one of these best we've visited.

The play park at Le Clarys Plage campsite

There were plenty of things for the children to do, from the wonderful play park to the great water slides and dragon splash park.

Le Clarys Plage pool complex

The dragon splash park

The area of St Jean de Monts is perfect for a family holiday, although I wish we'd taken our bikes with us.

The area has a whole range of cycle tracks which run throughout the region making getting around for children both fun and exciting and although we have taken their scooters, bikes would have been much better.

We all loved our family holiday and are looking forward to planning where to go camping next year which i will no doubt inform you all of soon!!!

Domaine des Ormes - Brittany