During half term we took off to the Dordogne. We loaded the car with luggage, kids and dogs, and took the Eurotunnel to France. We travelled, as is usual for us, under the cover of darkness in stealth mode! Seriously, we actually find night driving the best option for us as the roads are quieter. We stop when we feel we need to, for a coffee out of a flask, and with the ‘Aires’ laybys every few km if we need a nap we stop for one. When we wake up – we’re half way to our destination!
The Dordogne is a long way from the tunnel: precisely 857.2 km. It’s about 9 hours of driving. We tend to stop for a leg-stretch every 90 minutes – we have a coffee, use the facilities, and switch drivers. The children have pillows and blankets and sleep through much of the night, then around breakfast time we find a good service station to pull over for our picnic breakfast. And I mustn’t forget to mention the dogs. They travel in a large crate in the boot (we have a large MPV): When we stop every 90 minutes, they also have a leg stretch and a chance to sniff around the grass verges and to have a drink of water and a biscuit. They are very good travellers.
The toughest part of the journey, on this occasion, was the last 60 miles. Beautiful scenery, but the roads go from being efficient motorways to single carriageways – and unmarked tracks at some points! That last little bit took us 2 hours! When we pulled up at our Eurocamp site, we were ready to get out the car that’s for sure.
Saint Avit Loisir Campsite
The campsite is located a few short miles north of a quaint Dordogne town called Le Bugue. It is surrounded by rolling hills and countryside – a lovely setting. The first thing you see as you approach the entrance is the INCREDIBLE swimming pool complex. The children couldn’t wait to try it out! The campsite isn’t all Eurocamp, as other holiday companies are also present, but we were quickly checked in at the main office and directed to the Eurocamp team. We were each given a wristband to wear for our entire stay – in our case 7 days.
The Eurocamp team soon got chatting to the children about what activities are on offer, while we were told where to find our accommodation. We then drove through a range of different accommodations – permanent tents, different chalets, touring caravans and motorhomes. Our accommodation for our stay was a 3-bedroom, 1 bathroom ‘Vista’ caravan (the highest rating accommodation that allows pets).
The Accommodation
Our caravan had a large wooden terrace, complete with table and chairs and a parasol. There’s also a medium-sized gas BBQ. Two double patio doors lead into the main living area. There is a galley kitchen that contains everything you’ll need for your stay: sink, oven, hob, kettle, microwave, fridge, freezer. Then in the cupboards you’ll find pots and pans, French press coffee pot, bowls, oven sheets and dishes, cutlery, utensils (including bottle opener, can opener and cheese grater).
There is a main dining/seating area, with an extending dining table. Above is the air conditioning unit. There’s a plug socket here too, with a console table underneath – this is where all the phones and tablets were charged! A thin, tall cupboard housed a mop, bucket, brush and dustpan.
Off the main living area is a small but functional shower room. The bedrooms, it has to be said, were very small. The doors through into them were half as wide as normal doors … we all had to enter them sideways! In one bedroom was a double bed (no space around the outside) with a built-in open wardrobe. Bedroom 2 had two single beds with a thin wardrobe – again very small with no floorspace. Finally, bedroom 3 had a set of bunkbeds; you couldn’t sit on the bottom bunk without your head hitting the bunk above. Fortunately, the bedrooms were only for sleeping in so the size only really became an issue each evening! In truth though, the space would have been better if it only had two bedrooms (with full width doors!)
Welcome Packs
Upon our arrival we found two Welcome Packs awaiting us. The first one, an ‘Essentials Pack’ contained a small bottle of washing up liquid, multipurpose cleaner, soap, scouring pad, washing cloth, tea towel, bin bag, and some matches. All very useful items.
The ‘Welcome Pack’ contained goodies like mini tubs of crisps, 2 x mini bottles of wine, 2 cartons of juice, 2 bottles of water, small pots of jam, small bottle of olive oil, a sachet of ground coffee (enough for 2 plunges of the coffee pot), coffee whitener, sugar, salt, and pepper. The coffee was rather nice as well!
Because we didn’t want to carry duvet covers, pillowcases and bottom sheets all the way from the UK, we also ordered ‘Linen and Towel Packs’ – bedding for 1 double and 2 single beds, along with a bath towel, hand towel and beach towel each.
The Kids Club Activities
We arrived late on a Saturday afternoon. While in Le Bugue we stopped at a supermarket to stock up on enough food essentials to last us a few days. We had no intention of going anywhere on the Sunday! Instead, the children ventured down to the Kids Club team to see what activities were going on. During the lunchtime session they had fun Land Zorbing; later in the afternoon they played Rounders. They enjoyed them – but there were not many children, so it wasn’t as much fun as it could have been.
Other activities on offer over the week for our children (aged 9 and 11) included cricket, Eurocamp Olympics, football, bumper balls and quizzes. For the younger children there’s lots of ‘Mini Fun Station’ activities, including Stay and Play (based in the mini tents where they have games, puzzles, and a sand pit). There’s arts and craft sessions, as well as learning some superhero skills!
The Kids Club has a dedicated large fenced area, where each age group has a separate area and ‘big top tent’; there’s also a go-kart track here.
The Swimming Pool Complex
The reason we chose Saint Avit Loisir was because of the fun-looking swimming complex. Lots of pools and slides – and this is what the children love. And we’d never been to the Dordogne before, so a new area to explore.
Issues …
Before describing the fantastic swimming complex, there’s a couple of negative I’m going to mention. Firstly, for the whole time my children used the pools, there wasn’t a single lifeguard to be seen. The complex is unsupervised; this unnerves me somewhat as it gets very busy at times. Secondly, ‘outsiders’ can buy a daily wristband to use the facilities too – so it isn’t solely for campers on the site. We didn’t have brilliant weather while there (to be honest I’ve never seen so much rain!) On the best-weather day – our last day – we spotted a coach full of daytrippers, making the pool area really congested.
Praise!
So that’s the niggles over with. Now to talk about these pools! Firstly, there’s an indoor pool – quite deep at one end/steps and toddler pool at the other end. Very warm water.
Outside, on the top terrace, there’s two large swimming pools. There’s a slide that leads into one of the pools. There are lots of sun-loungers around the edges.
At the bottom terrace you have two wide crazy river slides that you go down on rubber rings; these feed into a pool at the bottom. This area is very popular with the older children and teenagers – some of which tried to climb up the slides as others were coming down. Here there are also lots of splash areas and water jets for the really young children.
Overall, the swimming complex provides plenty of opportunities for play … our two children spent a good 2-3 hours there every day.
Other Facilities
Saint Avit Loisir also has a small shop on site for essentials – and daily bread. The supermarket down in the town is better value for money. There is a restaurant – Le Chaudron Perigourdin. It looks really pretty but we never visited as we enjoyed leisurely BBQs on our terrace most evenings.
Near the shop is a children’s play area, along with two table tennis tables, a climbing frame and an area with outdoor fitness machines. Behind the pool area is a games court and a crazy golf course.
I spotted a sign near the entrance to the campsite saying that you can rent bicycles and quad bikes too.
Finally, at the bottom of the site there’s a large natural lake. I don’t know if this is used for water activities, but it looked like the perfect lake for angling!
Our Stay Overall
The drive down was a long one; and it felt longer because of the slow progress towards the end of the journey.
However, the Dordogne is a beautiful area, full of rivers, castles, cliffs, and amazing countryside. It is also a very dog-friendly region, as will be explained in a separate blog post. It’s the only place I’ve ever been where the dogs climbed the spiral staircases of a castle with us!
The Saint Avit Loisir campsite is situated in a beautiful location – perfectly positioned for exploring the region. The swimming complex is superb, and with more children participating (like in August) the Kids Clubs provide great activities, while the parents relax.
Our Vista accommodation was ok. We didn’t find the mattresses very comfortable and the bedroom sizes made you feel rather claustrophobic. However, the caravan was clean and perfectly functional – and after all the rain we had, I can confirm it was also waterproof!
The dogs slept out in the living area. They were quite content. We had to make a barrier at the top of the terrace steps so we could confine them, but our home-made effort worked a treat! Dogs must remain on leads throughout the campsite, of course. We never really walked them extensively at the site, as we headed out most days with them.
For more information on the campsite – maybe to book a caravan for yourself – click here.
