ManicMammy's Blog

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The hols

Posted on | September 9, 2008 | No Comments

So we’re back from the first official proper 2 week family holiday evah. It was fabulous despite the initial mistake we made of presuming the 7 of us would get some decent sleep together in one cabin on Cork-Roscoff ferry. No hope!

Despite this we landed in France all excited at 7am on a Sunday morning and drove to the La Grande Metairie campsite. Thankfully, we arrived there in just under 3 hours. Yep I was driver’s map reader and I blame google maps for our minor diversions. Its located very near the town of Carnac which is on the coast with a lovely beach.

The campsite was brilliant. We had hired a 3 bedroomed mobile home with additional baby cot. It worked out well for us. The decking with seating and table definitely made it more spacious and most nights, depending on the weather, we could sit, read or play cards outside.

The first attraction we encountered was the mini farm. The enclosure held a number of kid goats and goats, a wild pig, some llamas, ducks, geese and swans. Our gang loved the kid goats and feeding them leaves each time we passed.

The swimming pool area was great with a variety of depths to suit us all. The 2 smallies loved splashing around in the very shallow baby area. There was a fountain in this which gave them great amusement. In the indoor pool, the paddling area had a baby slide to keep their interest.
The outdoor pool 2 big slides were loved by Oscar who’s 9 and a good swimmer. He spend most of his time on these or persuading me and Conor to join him on them. Great fun. The middle 2 enjoyed the fun of the water rapids. Anytime we were there, the life guards were visibly keeping an eye on things.

The campsite has a huge number of activities on offer. The middle 3 loved the horse rides. You could hire the horses for 30 minutes and the parent lead the horse and child around the many lanes of the site. We all tried the table tennis, tennis, mini-golf. There was one large playground and one smaller one which had a good range of swings, seesaws, roundabouts etc. I liked the fact that these had sand underfoot. The kid’s disco every evening in the amphitheatre for a half hour was great fun. Each day there were kids’ clubs organised for the 4 year olds and older.

For the adventurous there were zip lines and climbing. Eeek!

The campsite also had the usual practical facilities of a laundry room, onsite mini-market, newsagents/gift shop, bar, cafe and restaurant.

The takeaway was also a welcomed addition for the evenings when neither of us felt like cooking. Pizzas, crepes and more available at reasonable prices. Each evening there was a special. Although hardly authentic French cuisine: lasagne, fish and chips, roast chicken, it tasted good and our gang loved it.

We were impressed with how clean everything was kept. The only minor complaint I would have was that some of the mobile homes were located very close to the campsite internal roads and the individual sites were quite compact. Thankfully we were given one on a quiet cul de sac so didn’t have the immediate worry of the toddler running out into the path of a car.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this campsite as an ideal location for a great family holiday. As its in Brittany, the weather was never too hot or too sunny. Our 5 kids ranging in ages from 9 to 1 year old all loved it.

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