I drive a Lexus, enjoy Ginsters Cornish pasties from my local BP Garage and run a late night talk sh...
I drive a Lexus, enjoy Ginsters Cornish pasties from my local BP Garage and run a late night talk show on local radio. However, I am NOT Alan Partridge.
Member since:17.08.2003
Reviews:5
"Les Charmettes" is a Haven Europe campsite situated in South WestFrance on the Atlantic Coast. The closest town is the lively La Palmyre, about 2 miles away which is directly on the coast. In terms of its position in France it is near the mouth of the Gironde between La Rochelle and Bordeaux. There aren’t masses of local tourist attractions but much of what you come here for is the beaches and pools. Two places you can visit are the Zoo at La Palmyre – allegedly one of the best in France and “Luna Park” a funfair that opens in the evenings – make sure you get discount ride tickets from Reception. A bit further a field (about 2 hours drive) is Futuroscope – after Euro Disney the 2nd biggest attraction in France.
How to get there From the UK, you can fly to La Rochelle (Ryanair) or Bordeaux (BA and others). But being a camping holiday, travel by road allowing you to take everything bar the
kitchen sink is the most common way of getting there. From Calais it's about 520 miles and costs about 70 euros each way in motorway tolls and a travelling time, allowing for average stops, of about 9-10 hours. Take a longer sea crossing, say to St Malo and you reduce driving down to about 250 miles - this way has fewer toll roads - about 20 euros each way and takes about 5-6 hours.
Location/Accommodation The location is superb - set in a large forest area. The site consists of about 800 pitches - almost exclusively large mobile homes. Now this sounds huge, but the homes are grouped in little cul-de-sac type enclosures of between 6-8 properties all separated by mature hedges/bushes so it feels really private. Also a large proportion are now privately owned and the owners of many take great pride in their gardens with amazing floral areas, verandas and patios.
If you’re renting from Haven you have a selection of caravans or there are a few large log lodges. All come fully equipped with a minimum of a shower, microwave, full size cooker and fridge freezer, electric fans and gas barbecue. You also get large patio table and chairs. I took 2 weeks at the end of July/beginning of August in 2003 and paid just over £2000 for 6 of us in a 3-bed caravan, including Eurostar from Ashford to Calais. With teenagers we find this a much cheaper option than a package to the Med with stacks of reduced occupancy surcharges etc.
I estimate that of the visitors/owners, about 60% are French, 30% English 5% Irish and 5% Others.
Pool Facilities There’s a large central complex that you can only enter if you have a “fun pass” – this is good news as it stops people staying at other local camps (with fewer facilities) from using the pools, bars and entertainment centre.
There are 5 pools. One is about 25 metres long, straight swimming pool that is laned off in the early mornings for people wanting to swim without being overcome by children. There are 2 small kiddies pools, one just for paddling, the other with a platform with steps, slides and fountains. My favourite is the semi-circular beach pool with water cascades at the edge. Finally the most recent addition is an indoor pool which I estimate is about 15 metres long with a couple of spa pools at either end.
There’s also a four lane straight slide and one tube slide that are quite fun.
The pool area is extremely clean and very well marshalled by an army of lifeguards who also run aqua aerobics every day and occasional pool games.
There’s quite a lot of sun beds and whilst competition can be fierce on real sunny days, you can’t reserve them before the pool area opens at 10am and I’ve never had a day when I’ve not got at least 2 of them at some point
Bars and Entertainment There’s an all day bar “Le Pub” which serves the entire day long including coffees which has a small stage which is used for occasional evening entertainment. There are 2 pool tables in here and tucked in one corner a TV which is always showing Sky News – sometimes it will switch to French satellite Sports channel. At the side is a smallish arcade with video games, pinball etc where the teenagers hang out.
There’s a small bar on the large open terrace which only opens in the evenings. The terrace has an outdoor stage which in high season has musical entertainment – often very French oriented.
The piece de resistance is “Equinoxe” the huge indoor entertainment centre which is open in the evenings. It has a large bar, dance floor, stage and loads of seating. There is an in house entertainments team who perform various shows and run karaoke and probably twice a week there is a band/act who visit. In the last year there has been a change in the entertainments team and whilst they are pretty professional, the previous team were absolutely outstanding and I found it quite flat in 2003 – too much Karaoke to fill gaps – there’s only so much you can take of twee kids singing S Club 7 songs for the umpteenth time tonight while mum/dad videos them.
After the show there’s a disco which runs from about 11:30 till 1:00am – lots of teenagers with attitude but the music is again very French oriented.
The prices at the bars are however pretty expensive – in summer 2003, a pint of lager was 4.60 euros, small kids cokes 2 euros and the worst of all, in temperatures that were over 40 degrees they made you pay 10 cents for a glass of tap water!
Eating/Shopping Not a massive choice. There’s an on site supermarket which is pretty well stocked and not bad value for a camp shop – stocks UK newspapers but always a day late. (Less than 10-minute drive away is a “Champion” supermarket at La Tremblade which is pretty cheap with everything you need).
There’s a takeaway place that does burgers, chips, pizza and rotisserie chickens – its OK is about all I can say – but pretty expensive – for example 11 euros for a rotisserie chicken (that’s over £8 at current exchange rates – my local Asda does them for under £3.50!!!).
There’s also a restaurant that does all the usual kind of stuff you get around the area – pizzas etc but also mussels one of the local delicacies. This really is quite pleasant and price-wise on par with similar local restaurants.
Sports Pretty well catered for. 6 tenniscourts, basketball, hard court soccer, petanque pitch, sports field, crazy golf and bike hire are on site. Near the entrance is a quad biking and go karting circuit.
There's daily kids clubs for various age groups but mine aren't into that so I can't comment on whether good, bad or indifferent.
Other stuff There’s a launderette. Reception provide loads of local info and also cash travellers cheques but I’d not recommend the latter. The rates are awful and they charge 6% commission – this gave me the equivalent of 1.21 euros to the pound when the going rate in banks was at least 1.35.
Summary This is a great quality site, probably the best in the area and in a super corner of France. Really safe and fun for the kids with loads to do. It’s a long drive from Calais and the weather can be unpredictable, whilst I managed to get a heat wave in 2003, I’d allow for 3 or 4 poor/rainy days in any 2 weeks in the summer. Prices on site are quite high, but if you hang around your mobile home, locally produced wines are really cheap and excellent quality. If you’ve been to Haven UK and liked it and wonder what their Europe sites are like I’d say you MUST try it, it’s a completely different atmosphere and great fun. Change up your traveller’s cheques at the Banks/Post Office in La Tremblade or Royan though.
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Very informative and detailed op! Well done! Louise. x
broomari 14.09.2003 22:41
good op
maria x
Protagonist 14.09.2003 22:41
I had no idea that there were European Haven holiday parks! I've been impressed by the few I've been to in the UK, so this looks very promising to me. Great op! Very helpful.
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Advantages: Excellent staff, very friendly and helpful. Good entertainment Disadvantages: Can be pricey if you like the amusements. Lots of energy needed for the hills.
Sep 14th, 2003
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