Blogger Trip to Camping la Croix du Vieux Pont

Blogger Trip to Camping la Croix du Vieux Pont.  In the summer of 2014 myself and four other bloggers went to France.  It was a press trip run by Canvas Holidays to Camping la Croix du Vieux Pont a 5 star campsite at the Berny Rivière, about an hour’s drive from Disneyland Paris.

In this post I’m going to tell you what I discovered about the campsite and the facilities and also what fun I had in the three short days I was there, because for the first time in my life, I was on a holiday with friends – no husband, no kids, just myself to think about. My Mum said I was ‘off galavanting’ and galavanting is exactly what I did!

Here are the #CanvasBloggers on arrival!

The group are (Clockwise from left): Amanda from The Ana Mum Diary; Amy from And 1 More Means Five; Me, Nadine from this blog, JuggleMum; Stacey from Siren Communications who looked after us; Kate from Wit Wit Woo; Mark from Sonny and Luca

The campsite is set in a pretty lakeside location, and has a combination of wooden lodges, static caravans, tents and deluxe safari tents, offering accommodation for parties of 2 people up to 10 or 12 people, making it a great choice of holiday for large families or two families who want to share the vacation and the costs. I was given a deluxe lakeside 4 bedroom lodge which I shared with Amy. We flipped a coin- twice and she won both times which meant she got the master suite with the balcony! Here is the front of our little home for 3 days…

I got the back double bedroom which was lovely and cosy on a night! There are loads of photos on the Canvas Holidays website which show the accommodation so I won’t treat you to the sad photo which I took of my room. It had all my stuff strewn out across the bed and isn’t very pretty (I told you I only had myself to think about- my usual tendencies to straighten and tidy as I go disappeared for three days!) so check out their site to get the real deal, and picture where you could be staying!

Here are some shots I am proud to have taken! They are of the grounds of the campsite:

Now let me show you some of the food I ate whilst there! There is a main restaurant on site, then a beach-side bar and restaurant.  I dined in both – prepare to want to lick the screen!

There is also a takeaway pizzeria so you can have a chilled our ‘beer and pizza’ night back at your caravan or lodge, and also a supermarket to buy food for the BBQ or breakfast! We enjoyed breakfast together at Kate and Amanda’s cabin each morning…

The food was great, the accommodation was great, the pretty scenery was great, but that’s not all this site offers. They have plenty of activities to join in with, so you’ll never have to hear the words “I’m bored” from the kids (or the adults) again! We had a welcome meeting with the Activities Team which involved us playing some ice-breaker games including a brain teaser based on the moon and ‘Kippering off’!

I won’t explain ‘Kippering off’ – you’ll have to find out that delight for yourself when you go! Here is an activity I did at the campsite which I’ve never done before… Water Walking! You really can do as much or as little as you choose on this kind of Family Extra holiday.

In the three days of this trip, we managed to pack loads in, including a day out at Disneyland Paris which I’ll cover in another post. There is just so much to tell you about that! So instead, let me tell you about how we got to France.

All the bloggers met in London at st Pancras where we got a SouthEastern Railway train to Dover. Then we boarded a DFDS Seaways ferry to Dunkirk which took about 2 hours.

We boarded the ferry with a vehicle which we’d picked up at Dover so we had transport at the other end! The drive from Dunkirk ferry port to the campsite was just over 2 hours. Here I am enjoying the cool sea breeze on the ferry crossing!

Because the campsite was so beautiful and there was so much to do there, I’d highly recommend it for a family holiday. As far as I can see the only potential downside of this break was the drive time from the French port to the campsite. The two hours on the ferry flew by because we could get lunch and browse the duty free shops but when you are excited to start your break, the two hours car drive seemed longer! However my family and I have travelled much longer distances than that by car, so we’d do this no problem, and at least when you get there you can stay put for a week or so if you choose- everything you need is on site.

Thank you to Canvas Holidays who organised this trip and gave me a short break to remember. As I said many times on the break, “très bon, bien sûr!”

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