Camping in France: Eurocamp La Croix du Vieux Pont

by Rhonda Carrier

At first glance, the major selling point of Camping La Croix du Vieux Pont in the Picardy region of northern France is its wonderful location. Here, Eurocamp offers mobile homes, standard tents and safari tents that boast a beautiful countryside setting while being just over an hour by road from both Paris and Disneyland Paris and about 40 minutes from the Gallic-themed Parc Astérix. Add to this its handiness for the cross-Channel ferries – the campsite is 260km from Calais, to which P&O Ferries provides the most frequent crossings from Dover (23 return sailings every day, costing from £30 each way for a car and up to 9 passengers) – and you have a sure-fire winner.

Many people choose La Croix du Vieux Pont as a good-value base for visiting the abovementioned attractions – and that was our plan, too. We’ve already visited Disneyland but aimed to visit Parc Astérix on one of our 5–6 days at the park (on check-in and -out days, you’re free to arrive early or stay on site and use its facilities). We had also booked a night in Paris for the middle of our stay. But on arrival at La Croix du Vieux Pont, it quickly became apparent that the site itself had more than enough to keep us happy and well entertained.

It helped that the weather was gorgeous – an unexpected bonus for the first week of September. The park was calmer too than in high season – reps told us that in the middle of summer, every mobile home and camping pitch was occupied, and activities were oversubscribed. Such are the dangers of doing what you do so well. But early September was heavenly.

I’d pre-booked my eldest son and husband on an Action Stations Activity Package available to ages 7+ with Eurocamp’s partner PGL. My husband and I both have happy memories of PGL holidays taken when we ourselves were kids, while Ethan, nearly 8, is an activities nut who loves nothing better than a physical challenge. With advance booking on the website, the five-activity Package, at £22pp, offers great value, since each activity (trapeze, zip wire, climbing wall, abseiling and archery) lasts an hour and a half.

Again, it being out of high season meant that each participant got more turns at each activity than they would in the busiest months, and the supervision and safety were, as you’d expect from PGL, impeccable. What let it down was the overall organisation: you couldn’t book time-slots online or at the Eurocamp reception but only in person at the PGL centre at the very far end of the campsite, which meant lots of schlepping about (especially after the Eurocamp couriers gave us the wrong opening times). That you could only do one session per time-slot (up to three a day, but at 10.15am, 2.12pm and 4.15pm – hence, essentially taking up a whole day) made it actually rather difficult to fit all the sessions in over a five-night stay, if, like us, you had other things planned.

But once arranged, the activities themselves went down very well, and there were plenty of other things on site to keep Ethan’s younger brothers, aged six and two-and-a-half, out of mischief, including an indoor/outdoor waterpark, an artificial beach by one of the site’s three lovely lakes, play areas (one paying, with a bouncy castle, trampolines and mini-karts) and cycling (baby seats and trailers are available, as well as bikes for younger kids, some with stabilisers). For older kids and adults activities also include canoeing and fishing, tennis and table tennis, table football and mini-golf.

According to season, there are also kids’ clubs and activities for various age groups. Two on-site restaurants, a takeaway counter, a bar, a mini-supermarket and bakery, a gym and a beauty centre mean you don’t have to go offsite unless you want to, although Vic-sur-Aisne, the nearest town, has a charming centre dominated by an impressive castle that you can visit in summer.

Overall, the campsite seemed more spacious and calmer than others of its kind, and particularly well suited to those with younger kids. Our three-bed superior mobile home was so roomy it seemed more like a small flat than a caravan. Having said which, we’d recommend splashing out on one with a deck – at little extra cost, this gives you more living space and a pleasant place to sit out and watch your saucissons sizzle on the barbie as the sun sets over the lakes.

And Parc Astérix? Heck, Parc Astérix can wait…

Rhonda Carrier is family travel expert for P&O Ferries.

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