Camping Mais non... sorry Camping Manon
15 September 2019 at 12:47:48
We booked this campsite as we were travelling from A (Pyrennees area) to B (the Alps area) and needed a midway stop over. It's in Provence... we thought it would be nice.
The website made the campsite look nice. Very professional.
We had stayed in (by the time we arrived here) 4 different campsites... in Spain and France, all of varying degrees of occupancy and amenities. Some were busy, some were full, some had space. Some had a pool, some didn't. Some had toilet seats, some didn't. Some had toilet paper outside the toilet door where you had to guauge before you went in just how much you needed, some had lots of toilet paper.... I'm just setting the stage so you know I'm not fussy. We even stayed in a campsite later in the trip that was full of white van tradesmen (they were very friendly actually) I liked every place we stayed. Except this place.
We arrived after a lengthy and hot journey. Orange was windy and as we arrived and parked outside reception, wind was blowing clouds of dust up and we realised the campsite was very very empty. The dust added to the sense of emptiness. It was mid August. This was the emptiest campsite we'd stayed on. Prior to arrival I'd called to pay a deposit and they took the full amount of our booking... two nights. I wish they'd just taken the deposit.
The reception walls were adorned with newspaper clippings saying how good the campsite was. We checked in...
We were allotted a slot far away from reception with absolutely no one near us. With a sign on the fence in our slot saying "Beware of The Dog" and saying the fence wasn't a washing line. Yes... welcome to a happy holiday... not!
We asked to be moved... didn't fancy being next to a grumpy neighbour with a dog (I think the campsite is surrounded by houses on 2 or 3 sides.. Some fences are wire and you can see into people's back gardens).
We were given a slot near the caravans. We had neighbours!! Yay. People! We set up. Gingerly.
We went to the toilet. Most had no seats. None had toilet paper. One had a broken door. The pot washing area sink was stained. The water tap by the sink was grubby.
The pool had multiple signs up saying what you could and couldn't do. We used the pool. It was so so cold. Colder than the pool on the boat we came over on. And that was cold. Even my son didn't stay in it. We were getting dry when we saw another family arrive. They got out of their car and their faces looked like ours upon arrival (mouths open). Shortly after they set up, their kids went to the pool. We heard a man shouting (the owner). The boy from the new family had the "nerve" on his holiday to wear Bermuda shorts in the pool and the "nerve" to lark about with his sisters in the pool. The horror. He looked so sad as he went back to his caravan.
We decided to leave after one night and push on to the Alps. Resulting in 900kilometres in 3 days. Exhausting. But better than this campsite.
We attempted to say all of this to the owners on our day of departure as I didn't want to say anything they didn't know on this website. They weren't there. So I emailed and told them.
I really hope they invest in the campsite and make it work. We've stayed in more basic ones than this but one just seemed lacking. Maybe putting up fences to keep the surrounding houses more private, cleaning up the toilets etc.
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