La Carabasse

La Carabasse is a Haven owned holiday park in the south of France. We went there for a week because a friend of the family owns a mobile home on the site and kindly lets people use it when she's not there. It had been years since my last foray into the world of camping, but I wasn't expecting much thanks to memories of a misspent childhood in flimsy tents in Brittany. I was pleasantly surprised - with the site, with the home, with the resort. In ...
...the lack of sun in la belle France, but this was my mother's only sun holiday of the year, poor dear).

So, La Carabasse. Haven sell it as a ferry/drive, Chunnel/drive or fly/drive holiday, but we did none of those things, choosing instead to fly into Nimes and publically transport ourselves to the site which is situated about 7 miles from Agde in a town which may, or may not, be called Vias Plage (see previous op). The site has a huge ... more

La Carabasse is a Haven owned holiday park in the south of France. We went there for a week because a friend of the family owns a mobile home on the site and kindly lets people use it when she's not there. It had been years since my last foray into the world of camping, but I wasn't expecting much thanks to memories of a misspent childhood in flimsy tents in Brittany. I was pleasantly surprised - with the site, with the home, with the resort. In fact it was only the weather - 4 cloudy days out of a possible 7 - that put a dampener, so to speak, on the trip. (Not that I minded too much since I'm a fortnight off leaving for a 4 month secondment to Oz which will, I'm sure, make up for the lack of sun in la belle France, but this was my mother's only sun holiday of the year, poor dear).

So, La Carabasse. Haven sell it as a ferry/drive, Chunnel/drive or fly/drive holiday, but we did none of those things, choosing instead to fly into Nimes and publically transport ourselves to the site which is situated about 7 miles from Agde in a town which may, or may not, be called Vias Plage (see previous op). The site has a huge sweeping entrance which boasts not one but two receptions, one for guests and one for owners. In fact the whole park operated on a big them and us, guest and owner divide, though the extent of this did not immediately become clear. We were guests of an owner which meant, in their terms, an owner, so we checked in at the correct office and made our way to the pitch.

The home itself was larger than I had anticipated, and beautifully maintained. Outside there was a decking clad terrace, a few tufts of grass, a shed and a parking bay for a car. Inside there were two bedrooms and a large living room cum dining room cum kitchen set up, with a shower room on one side and a toilet on the other. The kitchen was fully equipped with a hob and oven which we didn't use (it was the middle of summer in France for heaven's sake - my diet that week ceased to reach beyond bread and cheese). There was also ample storage space in all the rooms, a huge advantage over apartments which are usually sparse in this area.

We soon settled into our new home for the week, noting the little nuances that made it such a quirky place to stay….like the fact the whole place shook whenever someone walked around, most noticeable if you were on the loo when it felt like a tornado had hit. And the fact that the place got hot quickly but took forever to cool with any combination of fans on / windows open. But we've lived through worse (like summer in Vienna in an un-air conditioned top floor flat) and it all added to the experience. The site was exclusively mobile homes in most areas, with just one small section reserved for tents. However there were a range of homes on offer, in different shapes, sizes and configurations. Ours was in one of two owners' areas which paled in comparison to the dozen or so guest ones. The site was well signposted with 'vous êtes ici' stickered boards at every turn, and easy to navigate as all pavements (and most roads) led to the pool.

At the entrance to the site, along with the two receptions, there were two shops - one for clothing / gift / beach goodies and one for groceries complete with bakery section, patisserie section and fresh butchers. The shops open longer in high season, but even then it's only 8am until 8pm with a short afternoon siesta. We're get up and go people so were usually waiting when it opened at 8 to get our breakfast goodies, and we were not alone in this. This shop also had an excellent selection of reading materials, including that day's British press (tabloid and broadsheet) and English, American, German and Dutch magazines as well as French ones.

If you weren't up for cooking you could eat on site - there was a snack bar (chips and pizza) and a restaurant (chips, pizza and pasta), plus a couple of drinks bars. Nothing too inspiring though, so we mainly ate bread and salad, and had just a couple of nights eating out, off the site.

The main centre of the site was the pools complex, with a large main pool, a children's splash pool and 4 water chutes and slides. The pool was the main place the tier system was noticeable as it opened at 9.30am…but only to owners. For the lower classed guests it was a no go until 10.30am Being neither guests nor owners we weren't sure which time to go, so we checked with the guy at the owners' office when buying our passes - if you holiday there properly, pool use is included. If you're an owner you get an annual pass with a photo. If you're an owner's guest you have to pay for the pool. On checking we were told that we could go in early with our bought passes, so we did this on our 4 chosen pool days. However we were stopped on 3 of these days as we tried to enter and told to come back later. Never being ones to let a foreign language get in the way of an argument we protested en Francais and got in each day, but it took a fight. The life guards on duty never seemed to know what was going on - we got in 'trouble' for having unsigned cards one day, though they had the stamp from the relevant office instead, and there was no line for signatures. The British staff were also not particularly customer focused, and considering they were working in a very mixed camp, spoke pretty awful French.

But, the pool was nice when we eventually got in, and being there first meant we got sunbeds - there weren't enough to go around so guests began queuing at 10am in order to get one when they were let in. Additional sunbeds were available for a fee of a few €uros, but even these ran out pretty quickly. The pool area had no greenery to it, so without a bed you were forced onto the stone slab floor which was best suited to the young or firm (if that's the opposite of infirm?). The pool was well watched by life guards and they had all sorts of interesting rules like no shoes inside, and showers for all on the way in which is especially fun when you're dressed in clothes as apposed to swim wear.

Beyond the pool the site boasted day time and evening 'entertainment'. This was mainly charged for, and included archery, football, kids clubs, tennis lessons and more. We did the owners only aqua aerobics class one morning and it was much better led than any I've done in the UK or Spain. Apart from this we opted out, choosing instead to laze by the pool or on our terrace, or play the occasional game of table tennis. In the evenings there was general noise of some kind from 8.30pm most nights. This invariably started with a kiddie disco and games (and not very inspired ones at that….Mc Jay has nothing to fear from Rory the Tiger). This was followed by either a band or a duo or a singer of some kind or, if you were really lucky, the reps' show. You cannot believe how bad this was. It was so bad it circled round to funny again. I know it's not easy - I holiday repped by way through a summer a few years back - but this was bad, really bad.

The site is on the main road down to the beach, but a track runs behind the site and takes you to their official beach club so they recommend you take that route. In actual fact it wasn't any quicker and was slightly scarier as this was little more than a dirt path, nowhere near wide enough for the cars and pedestrians that tried to share its use. All the 'attractions' of Vias are close by - you can walk to the old town, to the amusement park, to the beach and to the shops and restaurants.

The only big problem with the location of the site was its proximity to another one. The neighbouring site backed onto La Carabasse, but they kindly kept their pitches away from ours and gave us their entertainment stage instead. They were also fans of the 'noise' approach so several evenings sitting outside our home felt like front row seats to their shows and discos, whether we wanted them or not. The racket stopped at midnight but it did ruin a few supposedly quiet evenings laying on the deck challenging each other to Su Doku solving races…

I have nothing really with which to compare this site as my experience of others is from the last millennium. We didn't know what to expect but it was nice enough although some things like the rudeness and general ignorance of the staff could have been helped. The noise is something to consider if you have young kids who might like a pre-midnight bedtime. I know my mother would consider it next time she took her no-longer-that-young 23 year old kid away. However overall the park provided what we wanted - a place to laze around for a week for her, a place to recharge in preparation of Oz for me - and as long as you take into account the few negatives, it is worth considering for a cheap family holiday in the sun.

www.lacarabasse.fr
www.siblu.co.uk/la_carabasse.php 

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