France and Spain 2025
For the last two years we have holidayed at Guyonnaire in the Vendee region of France (kind of near-ish LaRochelle, but not!). This year we did the same, but expanded upon it by taking in Toulouse, Barcelona, and finally Paris on the way back. 20 days and we kicked off in London for two nights staying at Abbey Wood (a regular site for us, we go most years). Wife and two daughters went to see Abba Voyage, whilst me and my son went to see superman at the nearby cinema. On day three we nipped through the tunnel and stayed at Drancourt site near Valerie sur somme - mainly because my wife wanted to visit Valerie/s/s again which is beautiful! We then had a week at Guyonnaire which is simply fantastic, it's rustic but a lovely family site with loads of facilities. We next drove to Le Lac De Thoux nr toulouse. (Used to be a club site but no more). The site was packed with French guests but the pool and lake was excellent for swimming and pedalo hire. We had two days in Toulouse which was about 40 mins on the train - absolutely gorgeous city but 38deg so too bloody hot!!! Absolutely must visit the Basilique Saint-Sernin de Toulouse - free to visit and amazing. Next was across the Pyrenese to Barcelona - we were going to do the A9 but it was shut due to wildfire. I was a bit nervous about crossing the mountains with our large twin axle van, but it was all good!! We stayed at Villanova park which was excellent - very busy and bustling, mostly French and Spanish guests, but a few English!! Facilities were excellent. We had a day in the city doing Guelle park, and the sagrada familia and finished up with some excellent Tapas. The two other days we spent at a local beach "Platja de les Salines a Cubelles" which was about 15 mins drive. The sea was calm, warm and it was very quiet with a few locals on it. No tourists apart from us!! Excellent food from the snack bar btw. The A9 reopened so we had a long drive up to near Lyon - Camping BEL'EPOQUE DU PILAT. This site was a nightmare to find, there wasn't even a sign outside and the roads were terrible - if you go here DO NOT follow sat nav. We ended up down a narrow lane and had to reverse into a driveway to get back so it was VERY stressful. Anyway, the pool was nice but we were away by 8am the next morning on our way to Paris! Finishing up our trip, we had two nights at Caravan of 4 WINDS which is an absolute GEM of a site. Marles en Brie is 5 mins away and from here you can park and get a train into Paris d'est. (Last year we did Disney which is a short drive.) Make sure you validate your ticket on the platform . . . . . my Wife had tickets to the Dior exhibition with our daughters, so me and my son did a cruise on the river - highly recommended and with English commentary it was well worth it. A final meal in Paris and we were back for our last night! Due to allowing too much time we ended up being three hours early for our tunnel crossing but got straight through so just carried on home. Overall a fab holiday - in hindsite, Lyon was the wrong place for an overnight - originally we had planned to go into the City but we didn't have time so it was a bit of an error on my part.
