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Interlude to Food

Eurocamp — a beginner’s account — Castel Camping La Garangeoire — France

This blog post may seem somewhat out of context for the foodie page that it is but it’s the perfect ‘interlude to food’ and comes at the end of the past 6 months of delving deep into the world of Street Food.

Over the last 6 months I have undertaken a social media management course to allow me to pursue freelance SMM projects. I chose to run my campaign in the food arena (bien sur) and more specifically chose the world of Street Food. A scene which, for many, emits so many different sights, sounds and feelings if you know this world well.

The Street Food revolution is in full swing. And it’s incredible what is happening both on and off the scene. Street Food has become more than something you simply pick up in a hurry these days — it’s surprise, innovation and creation and I wanted to dig deep and celebrate it in all its entirety from the local producers on the streets right up to the Food Trucks serving the most fabulous food ever these days. (Blog soon to come about all of that deliciousness)

Having co-founded a Savoury+Sweet exquisite Waffle business (Waffle+Co) last year with my wonderful business partner Ana (www.waffleand.co) whilst also having converted a vintage Horsebox together into a modern mobile foodie haven this year, it has certainly been a year of learning — from so many angles.

As the last few months of e-learning has depicted, social media management is so much more than just posting some random filtered pictures with catchy words and hashtags as some might naively think. There’s a whole World of strategy and ever-changing rules and algorithms behind it and it’s been fascinating to learn so much more than I ever could have anticipated in these past few months.

As the months of hashtags and handles drew to a close, our much needed family holiday loomed excitingly ahead at the end of August. I couldn’t wait. My head was frazzled. My body ached for some bikini sun rest and my taste buds were totally ready for some French fromage. Ooh la la.

And it was just the 7 days I needed to fully re-charge my totally flat batteries from what’s been an extraordinarily busy year changing my work direction and my very own vessel from port to starboard!

So. We Mays are not campers. We haven’t ever camped. (Well once when I was in my 20’s and packed up as it was too rainy and cold as we were in an old decrepit Tesco tent. And once with my mother when I was 21, when I was in a wheelchair after a major hip operation of all things and I had won tickets to a concert at the divine Babington House but to a tent not a room to our dismay.)

So back to the camping; we have never properly camped, either as individuals or as a family. We know we are 100% late to this party but for so many reasons we just are going to get to that party late. (Why, I’m getting my outfit ready of course daaahling)

But we’re getting round to it and our first planned trip this Summer was quashed this year seeing as it fell right on the evening of the UK’s mega gusts of gale force winds. Sorry camping, we simply just had to leave you this year and will find you again next and join the gang.

So we decided this year, that we would try the ever talked about Eurocamp. Having chosen the cheapest week (last week of the summer hols and a day in between getting back from holiday and 3 kids getting back to school) we grabbed the last cabin that was available for that week and got our sights set on a different type of holiday. We didn’t realise what amazing value we had chosen this year.

The cabin was as good as we were going to get to camping this year as we all preferred to choose hut-life to tent-life and we were all very excited about a hut in the woods being our accommodation for a week and getting back to nature a little bit. Big trees, crickets and birds, wet grass, long winding forest roads and good old fashioned French air.

Nothing could have prepared us for how wonderful this holiday, in the middle of France, has been this year. Would totally recommend to anyone with similar aged kids and a desire for a holiday you don’t need to agonise for ages over booking on.

As a family of 5 we have tried many a holiday over the last 9 years ranging from air b and b’s to posh hotels to cheap hotels to apartments on hotel sites, to an apartment itself.

Last year, our beautiful apartment-holiday was thrown into smithereens ten minutes upon arrival at the beautiful pink villa in the South of Spain in La Manga. Our three kids had excitedly donned their swimming gear as soon as we got there after the day’s travel and just a mere ten minutes later our middle daughter had come flying off the slide into the pool and smashed her chin clean open on the concrete. Bad enough for me to take one look, hold myself together without fainting and ask the lovely owners of the villa where the nearest hospital was.

A lot of blood, 5 real stitches, butterfly stitches on top and a lot of nurofen later we were back at the villa with instructions of ‘no swimming for her for the rest (entirety) of the 2 week holiday.’ Brilliant.

So that was that. And that family hol was concentrated on keeping one child dry whilst all the other two wanted was to be wet. I’ll fast forward the details of how that went last year. To spare you the pain. And just say that I drank my weight in gin that holiday.

So back to France and as we drove up the beautiful sweeping driveway to the Castel Camping La Garangeoire, with the backdrop of the most stunning old chateau house surrounded by French stone walls and pots of pink flowers everywhere, I was excited to see how this holiday would pan out without hopefully a hospital in sight.

We had left home at 4am that morning. Piling the kids into our ready packed up 7-seater Kia complete with (hired) roof rack. We had a sense of pleasure of not having to endure a £55 taxi ride to the airport, nor handling everything that an early morning flight with 3 kids throws at you at an airport. Including a £72 Pret a Manger bill because you simply need to eat everything it has on offer at 4am.

So we drove silently to Dover reaching the ferry port at dawn where the most beautiful orange sun was rising out of the sea over the port and lit the entire sky up with tones of pinks, purples and orange. The kids couldn’t believe their eyes at this sunrise with how big that sun was and how bright it was shining. We even managed to hop on an earlier ferry as we were a bit early. Thanks P&O.

A short ferry ride of about an hour and 20 mins followed, watching seagulls hitch a ride on the boat to foreign lands, a few alcoholics downing their white wines at 6am (umm yep) and the smell of the French air ahead of us kept us all from falling asleep.

The kids loved this part of the journey and we quite literally sailed on and off the ferry with not a queue in sight. Brilliant beyond belief. No running for the terminal gate. No getting bashed in the head by bags heading into the overhead locker. No plastic Ryan Air seats. No tiny seats or shitty snacks.

We stopped once at Sées, a small town, mid journey, and took in the sights of the French stone buildings, the huge stunning cathedral and the quiet French Sunday streets. All I wanted was a nice cold, ice cold beer and some French cuisine but being Sunday and past lunchtime, we had no choice but to accept the ‘we are full’ replies from the restaurants and get the only thing that Sees had to offer and we ended up with 2 pizzas that came from a hole in a wall. Yes — automatic pizza. Dear oh dear.

Back on the campsite we had gone with Eurocamp as the provider and as we drove up to that 19th century chateau house with pale pink rose-climbing walls at the entrance under the setting dusk sun, we knew this was hopefully going to be a beautiful week.

It felt like driving into some stunning French novel and I could totally envisage how life once could have been at the Manor House pre-camp site action. The shutters, the driveway, the outbuildings, the stone washed coloured walls, the sweeping grounds — simply stunning and not what you think a Eurocamp would adorn. So we felt hugely lucky.

Our cabin-hut was great and a short 5 min walk from the reception and pools and games. 3 bedrooms. 1 for us and two for the kids. A teeny kitchen. A teeny bathroom and a teeny loo. No room to swing a cat but thankfully we left those at home.

A big veranda with a huge table and chairs under a wooden pergola meant we lived mostly outside for the week as it was bigger out than in. We had paid for a welcome pack and for linen and towels for each of us which didn’t cost that much and was much welcome indeed. Not having to take linen and towels and lug them all back dirty, was a small luxe we had afforded ourselves this week.

I had packed us a huge container to bring with us of staples and basics. Wine. Salt. Loo roll. The important stuff. And other such stuff to get us going. It was great having food with us so we didn’t have to go to the supermarket immediately that day. Tins of tomatoes, herbs, spices, veg and pasta were perfect for a first night veggie bolognaise. There was a little shop onsite to get the essentials of pain au chocolat, baguettes and tradicion bread. We even let the kids walk themselves to the shop to do the morning ritual. That’s how safe it felt.

We grabbed our swimmers as soon as we had made the beds up and ran down to the pool. Open till 8pm we had an hour there before the sun went down and the pools closed.

The kids had been so good on the long journey. Of course the girls didn’t sleep a wink all day and the boy slept 20 mins. Our kids have NEVER been car-sleepers since birth and car journeys are normally our enemy but we have have been surprisingly lucky on this trip.

Great pools on site. Very clean. One pool for littlies, one for toddlers with a little slide and fountain, a big pool for the big kids for splash time, another big pool for proper swimming, and a cool pool with 3 water slides for adults and kids. All not too far from each other so even if each of our 3 kids were in a different pool we could still see them from our sun beds.

The kids club was fab. If you were a Eurocamper you could use the manned Fun-Tents and leave the kids for a morning or afternoon for tent-fun. There were four tents for different ages and consisted of sports activities to arts and crafts.

The girls opted for Disneymania the first day whilst eldest did The Tea Bag Challenge around the campsite and traded up a tea bag on an Apprentice type activity to see what he and his new chums could end up with. The kids also loved the kids club of the campsite itself where they went on treasure hunts around the campsite, did trampolining and bouncy castles and all things sports and crafts.

The husband and I also loved these kids clubs as it gave us time to chill with our books in the daytime and under the French sun — something unheard of ordinarily.

The clubs were super safe and the kids had to be signed in and out of each time with a Eurocamp passport. So many things to do which they were ecstatic about. We knew there would be a lot to do but we didn’t know how easily accessible and free or cheap they would all be.

The campsite was so lovely and everything was in about a 5/10 minute walking distance. We hired a wooden pully wagon ofr 5 euros which helped yank around the kids, snorkels, cozzies, towels, sun creams, flip flops, trainers, water bottles etc.

The campsite also had its own equestrian centre and the kids could do pony treks through the woods, horse riding lessons, and sunset horse riding through the forest. Pony treks were only €11 per hour so it was very reasonable. Especially having three who wanted to do it.

Our eldest at 9 tried his hand at a scuba diving lesson. Totally enthralled by it I can already (enviously) see his gap year consisting of Borneo scuba diving — with his blond hair and brown skin he has the looks of a water sports surfy teenager in-the-making. At 25€ per hour it equally was a good priced treat for him which he loved so much. And he got a free underwater photo at the end of it to prove his beginner skills.

We also got to head to the stunning onsite lake where we hired a rowing boat. This was another free activity and you could take a boat or pedalo out.

Being surrounded by huge fir trees and twinkling rippling waters really takes you back to nature and switching off from the digital world a bit has been brilliant. Posting stories as a memento photo album for us all has simply been a fun joy.

Other free stuff included fencing, hockey, dodgeball, pingpong, disco, magician show, bouncy castle, trampolining, snooker, lake games, land zorbing, hover boarding, fishing, tennis and loads more. We also went to a circus and they had a magic show, pool party and pancake party going on some evenings. Watching the 3 year old swim in the huge pool in the dark with flashing disco lights and Queen blaring out was a sight to see!

The Lagoon was one of our favourite afternoons — a 5 minute walk on the site and you ended up down at the most beautiful blue lagoon. (Memoires of the movie!) Surrounded by white sands you could pretend you’d driven the 30 min drive to the nearest beach and ended up on the hot sand with sea waters. It was shallow enough for the kids to splash around in with some huge inflatables that had been left by some people before us. We were surprised that out of a full campsite we were one of only three families at the lagoon.

Time to spread eagle on the towel and sink deeper into my utterly mesmerising book (The Seven Sisters 5 book series) whilst the kids buried themselves in sand and my husband chilled out.

There was loads of evening entertainment going on and a WiFi zone for you to go and play video games and snooker in.

We opted to head back to our cabin hut most nights and get the bbq lit with French meats whilst sipping vin rouge. The bbq came with the cabin and we had a little secret garden with sun beds perfect for an afternoon siesta whilst the little one had her nap. Lunches were of course, fromage and bread with rose wine. And then some more. Simple pleasures.

We ate out one night at the campsite restaurant whilst the kids went to ‘Garderie’ — the free crèche. The food was delicious. Moules Frites for the husband and Sea Bream for me. Nice food but too expensive really to eat out all holiday especially with kids in tow.

The only down side of everything is that we simply didn’t have longer to explore off and out of the site. There’s so much to do in the region and we really wanted to explore the beaches, fishing villages, markets and local restaurants.

But given the site kept us super busy and super relaxed all at the same time we’ll just have to leave the other stuff til the next time we go.

And there will be a next…..!

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