CAMP YOUR WAY AROUND FRANCE

Fresh croissants, cheap wine and happy, free-range kids… you simply can’t beat family camping in France. Alongside holiday resorts, eco-retreats and glamping sites, there are hundreds of municipal campsites dotted across the country, all well equipped, efficiently run and offering excellent value for money. Here are some of our favourite places to camp just across the Channel:

PROVENCE

Book a rustic wood-clad Tiki Hutte at the Kon Tiki camping resort on the Côte d’Azur’s legendary Pampelonne Beach. It features a spa, a diving school, and jet ski and catamaran hire – and it’s a quick shuffle from trendy celeb hang-out, Le Club 55. From €1,194 (£1,065) for two adults and two children for a week; riviera-villages.com/kon-tiki

GRIMAUD

For a super-budget stay, head to Camping La Pinède – a small, relaxed family campsite set among the Var vineyards just a stone’s throw from St Tropez. Located a mile from the beach and the medieval town of Grimaud, it offers a mix of traditional camping pitches and mobile homes, kids’ and teens’ clubs in the summer, as well as a restaurant, a wellness area and a heated pool with waterslides. Pitches from £20 per night; lapinede-camping.fr

PARIS

Set within the grassy folds of the beautiful Bois de Boulogne, City Kamp has a great location on the banks of the Seine, just four miles from the Eiffel Tower. There are spaces for bring-your-own tents, motorhomes and caravans, plus pre-built safari-style tents and cutesy wooden trailers that can sleep up to four people.

From £16.70 (€19) per night; citykamp.com

DORDOGNE

It’s hard to beat a week living in a yurt in the verdant, vineyard-dotted hills of the northern Dordogne. Chez Devalon is a 15-minute drive from the charming town of Riberac. This family-run eco-camp has four hand-built yurts, all cosily furnished and equipped with kitchens, private eco-bathrooms and composting loos. Borrow camp bikes and cycle down to the village bar in Verteillac.

From £75 per night or £575 for a week in August; quirkycamping.com

PAYS BASQUE

Tucked between the mountains and the coast, Le Ruisseau des Pyrénées is a sprawling, well-equipped campsite set in woodland three miles from Biarritz. It’s an easy hop from Bidart’s famous surf beaches and a 30-minute drive from the promenade and pintxos bars of San Sebastián, just over the Spanish border. An independently run campsite, it offers everything from safari tents, timber eco-lodges and mobile homes to standard camping pitches hidden in shady glades. Among the facilities are a brace of outdoor pools, a waterpark with flumes and slides, a splash area for smaller children, a balneotherapy spa zone, cafe-bars, kids’ clubs and nightly entertainment.

Pitches from £20 per night; camping-le-ruisseau.fr

AQUITAINE

Overlooking Lake Biscarrosse, Le Camping du Lac in Sainte-Eulalie en Born is a well-kept municipal site in the bucolic Aquitaine region. It features an outdoor pool, playgrounds and a marina, plus access to a 100-mile cycle path that winds around the south-west coast. Accommodation is in tents, caravans, motorhomes, mobile homes, studios and chalets.

From £7/£11 for a tent/caravan in low season, or £14/£22 in high season; lecampingdulac.com

LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON

Camping Municipal de la Plage in Sainte-Marie la Mer offers a more traditional camping experience. Six miles from Perpignan or a 90-minute drive from Barcelona, the site offers 378 pitches for motorhomes, caravans and tents, a huge outdoor pool shaded by palm trees, a kids’ club and direct access to a beautiful sandy beach.

From £15 per night; campingmunicipal-de-la-plage.com

PICARDY

If you don’t fancy the long schlep south, the north coast is a great alternative. The Domaine de

Drancourt campsite is set in the grounds of a chateau in St Valéry-surSomme, a tiny seaside town with heaps of medieval history and a popular Sunday morning market. Book a ready-built tent through Eurocamp and have full use of indoor and outdoor pools, play areas, mini-golf and a restaurant, with the prerequisite kids’ clubs in the busier months. In the summer, you can ride on the Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme, a vintage steam train that runs around the coast of the Somme Bay to Cayeaux-sur-Mer. Sleeps six.

From £305 per week; eurocamp.co.uk

NORMANDY

Just moments from the home of the Bayeux tapestry, this municipal campsite runs alongside the River Aure and offers spacious pitches for tents and caravans, as well as a clutch of mobile homes. It is a short walk from Bayeux’s cobbled medieval Old Town, its 13th-century cathedral and the tapestry museum. In the summer there are visiting food trucks, and free access to the fancy new swimming complex next door.

Pitches from £14.50 per night; camping-bayeux.fr