Camping la Clé des Champs

[crystal]

Les Mathes-La Palmyre, Poitou-Charentes

We've just returned from this campsite (15 August) and wanted to warn people before they waste their money and holiday.

We went there expecting a "quiet campsite" (as described by Alan Rogers) suitable for family camping.

This place is not quiet.

It's a big campsite, very overcrowded (we suspect a lot of illegal visitors are staying there) and extremely noisy. It's also filthy. The new sanitary block isn't big enough and not cleaned properly, it's quite disgusting. The whole time we were there, rubbish, litter and broken bottles were scattered around the children's play area, and no one even made an attempt to clean it up. After suffering this for a week I complained to the reception office, and even then it was only half cleaned up.

The camping pitches are again dirty and quite small and definitely not flat. We had to camp on very uneven ground. There was no tree shade, we were in full sun all the time.

The children's activities were badly run and low quality, with the children sitting in the bar doing drawings, looking bored silly.

Most evenings at 9:30 the soirees began, and ran on to midnight or after. The soirees are what the campsite seems to be about, and we dreaded them. One night we were there, a concert ran on till 1am. The camping pitches are located very near the entertainments block - far too near in fact and the noise is enormous, as the sound system is on full blast. I think you'd get a better night's sleep at Glastonbury. What this means to a family is your children can't sleep, and the drunken youths stagger back to their tents in the early hours, fighting and shouting, and you lie there in your tent worrying for your children's safety.

The noise is actually constant - because the campsite sits next to Luna Park, a giant funfare that roars on to 2am each morning. It's a nightmare.

The week we were there most families simply gave up and moved on, it's not suitable at all for family camping. Most French people I spoke to said they hd made a mistake going there and would never again.

Why - how - is this one of Alan Roger's selections? Did anyone from Alan Rogers actually stay there? Makes me question the quality of the other recommendations.

One last thing - they do have Wifi - as Alan Rogers site says - but when we asked for it - we were told it's only for the staff to use, and so couldn't use it.