Who likes looking at maps?

[Sits]

[Sits]

[Sits]

I just noticed that on the double page featuring Paris, Mrs. S has noted that a couple of RNs have been upgraded to Autoroute status since printing.

And I think this was 1984 when we stopped overnight in Mâcon then stayed in Fréjus.

[Balderdasha]

What was EuroCamp?

They were "resorts" you could go to where you were camping, but the tents were quite large and preset up so you only had to bring sleeping bags, etc. There would usually be a pool and shower block and kids club on-site. We used to go to the ones in France quite a lot when I was a kid.

[ursus arctos]

Ta.

They look to have been Engkish speaking. Was the clientele primarily from the UK?

I wonder if Fussbudget has the same issue I do with any non-Michelin road map of France

They just look off.

[Ginger Yellow]

Statista has wildly different numbers for 2022 (supposedly sourced from the FDA), so maybe take that cheese map with a grain of salt.

[Etienne]

Eurocamp is still going strong, we've been 3 times with our kids.

The site we go near Perpignan is a large site which has sections for different tour operators, so there is a Eurocamp section (primarily English) and other sections which are primarily Dutch, German, French and Irish.

They are now mostly caravans, with some tents as well.

The site also has a pool, sports area, play parks, bar, cafe etc.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Ha, we had a week with Eurocamp (I think) at a campsite near Perpignan back in 2015. I expect it was the same site. The nearby beach was pretty rubbish, the beaches are much better further round near Narbonne Plage.

In my childhood (1970s) my parents took us on a few French camping holidays with a similar outfit (i.e where you turned up to move into furnished and equipped ready-pitched multi-compartment tents) called Canvas Holidays. Fond memories of playing cards en famille round a gas lamp of an evening. I can close my eyes and hear the crickets*.

These days (well, 2015 and 2016 I suppose, nothing since), our Eurocamp stays are in mobile home units on the campsite rather than tents.

* Edit: and indeed the noise of the gas lantern

[Felicity, I guess so]

My students (of French) used to try to get work with them ahead of and after their year abroad

[Etienne]

Ha, we had a week with Eurocamp (I think) at a campsite near Perpignan back in 2015. I expect it was the same site. The nearby beach was pretty rubbish, the beaches are much better further round near Narbonne Plage.

Possibly, though there are/were 4 Eurocamp sites in Argeles-sur-mer alone.

[Logan Mountstuart]

I worked for Eurocamp from 1987 to 1992. Started as a campsite courier. Ended up as a regional manager. Best, but most intense years of my life. At the time is was about 60% British, 30% Dutch and 10% German.

Apparently, since Brexit they can't employ British kids to work or them. I met my Dutch ex wife and mother of my children working for them, and most of my French and Dutch friends. Another opportunity Brexit has denied young British people.

[Logan Mountstuart]

I can still recommend sites to people for their proximity to natural beauty, although most of them are probably over managed, waterslide monstrosities theses days.

[Sam]

That brought back memories. We took a couple of EuroCamp summer holidays when I was a young kid (young enough that I'd be surprised if my brother, two and a half years my junior, has any clear memories of them at all). Both times were to somewhere in Brittany, and my parents mostly just wanted to go to the beach and have a potter around a nearby small town. I found it incredibly dull, and made such a fuss (in hindsight my brother's severe travel sickness, which obviously was even worse on the ferry than when we went places by road, also probably came into it) that we subsequently went to Scotland for every summer holiday I took between (and including) the ages of 8 and 15. My clearest memory was of being sent, aged 7, to buy some chips to go with whatever we had for dinner, and of getting my numbers in French confused. I'd been asked to get two large portions. I held up two fingers and said 'trois', and the bloke doing the portioning out held up two fingers back to me and said 'trois?' And I went, 'Oui, uh ... trois.' again holding up two fingers. Now I know I was saying 'three', but I was also very visibly a seven-year-old kid (actually, probably 'visibly' younger than that, because I was tiny for my age) who didn't speak any French, and was holding up two fingers. The fucking twat sold me three portions, and cemented my loathing of holidays in tents forever.

I'd revisit that now, though, if we lived in Europe. I'd go somewhere with better access to somewhere interesting, mind.

[Etienne]

I guess he couldn't know for sure whether you were saying two or three and thought it better to give you more than you needed rather than for your family to be hungry.

[Sam]

I guess he was a dick. Partly because I got told off by my dad for it.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I guess your dad was being at least as much of a dick then.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Apparently, since Brexit they can't employ British kids to work or them. I met my Dutch ex wife and mother of my children working for them, and most of my French and Dutch friends. Another opportunity Brexit has denied young British people.

Yes indeed. I haven't the words to express the intensity of my hatred for Brexit and the ***** who promoted it.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Possibly, though there are/were 4 Eurocamp sites in Argeles-sur-mer alone.

Argeles-sur-mer! That is a name to really trigger childhood nostalgia properly for me. My parents took us there twice with Canvas Holidays, in 1970 and in 1974, possibly to different campsites. Loved it (well, in so far as I can remember, i was only 6 first time round). The nearby fishing village of Collioure, which I revisited in 2015, is stunning (though absolutely rammed with tourists in season nowadays).

But the campsite we stayed in in 2015 wasn't in Argeles, sadly, it was in a less attractive location, if I recall, due more or less exactly east of Perpignan.

[Etienne]

Yes, Collioure is amazing, no surprise that it was a favourite haunt for artists.

[Sporting]

I don't think I could stick these modern 5-star so-called campsites. Give me a traditional tent and wild camping every time. Campsite couriers? Blimey!

[ursus arctos]

Have we ever done the English penchant for package holidays?

I always found it peculiar.

[Sporting]

Me too. Though I do like a good buffet breakfast.

[Etienne]

I don't think I could stick these modern 5-star so-called campsites. Give me a traditional tent and wild camping every time. Campsite couriers? Blimey!

I mean, they aren't aimed at you. They are aimed at families with young children with the idea that there are enough things to keep the children entertained so the parents can relax a bit. I think they are very well designed - though I wouldn't want to go to one that wasn't very close to a town as you don't want to be stuck eating the food available in them.

Strictly speaking, it's not a package holiday as most people going will organise their own transport, and it's not all inclusive.

[ursus arctos]

Ah, I hadn't realized that.

More like a chain of hotels that are campsites then.

I don't understand what package holidays have to do with breakfast buffets.

[Balderdasha]

Ah, I hadn't realized that.

More like a chain of hotels that are campsites then.

I don't understand what package holidays have to do with breakfast buffets.

Package holiday usually means that accommodation, transport and food is all included in one package. You don't have to do that at these campsites. You can just pay for the tent/caravan and the facilities, then make your own way there and cook your own food or go out to local towns, etc. That's what we always used to do when I was a kid.