Down South: I

Following the wedding trip to Wales, we headed for France - for just a few days.
We took a ferry from Dover...

... and spent the first evening in a damp EuroCamp just outside Calais (Camping la Bien Assise near Gulnes).  It wasn't unpleasant, but it clearly catered for the large number of families (like us) who were on their way elsewhere else and just stopping for the single night.  Even the booking arrangements on the Web site allowed for this (and most EuroCamps don't).

After a long drive the next day (during which just for a change we failed to get lost in the road system around Rouen), we got down to the Loire. Another EuroCamp place, the Camping Parc de Fierbois, just a little south of Tours near Ste-Catherine-de-Fierbois.  The latter is a stop on the Way of St James to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  There, that should place it.
Fierbois is like many other European campsites, or at least those we've been to, with (not-so-)mobile homes, and tent pitches, with swimming pools, entertainments, and a bar.  Holiday campish.  The real attraction of Fierbois is the lake in the forest.

This has fishing, swimming and a zip wire/tree walkway.  The owners have tried to develop it further in recent years with some rather spectacular lakeside cabins...

We spent a fair amount of time around the lake and trees...

(Note the misteltoe in the last picture). 

Although this scene looks kind-of low-key idyllic-y, the beach umbrellas are actually concrete mockups, and rather less pleasant up close.  The sand was real, however.