La Grande Metairie Holiday Park

3 readers found this review helpful

Stayed at the site at the end of August 2010 in our tent. Have never camped for longer than 2 nights before and was frankly dreading the whole experience. Arrived lateish on changeover Saturday, but were still dealt with and at our pitch within 20 mins of arrival. The pitch was plenty big enough for our massive tent - it was a bit stony which isn't ideal, but they'd put down wood shavings to soak up some of the surface water following recent heavy rain which was thoughtful.
The lavatory block was fairly close, but not unpleasantly so - the facilities were always clean, much moreso than I'd anticipated, and there was always hot water. You have to be quick in the showers which are on the shortest timer you'll ever come across, I hope.
The chalets looked nice (even nicer when it was raining and we were stuck in our tent) and seemed to have plenty of space and privacy.
There seemed to be a strong element of self-regulation when it came to noise after 11pm - everyone was very considerate. The only problem we had with noise (apart from acorns dropping onto our tent in the night - makes a surprisingly loud noise) was the girl who cleaned the Eurocamp chalet next to our pitch - she had her stereo on full blast, affording us all an opportunity to bring ourselves up to date with young people's music. On the plus side, she took AGES to clean the chalet so Eurocamp customers can rest easy in their beds.
The pool area was fantastic - our children loved it, although the water was way too cold for my liking. Again, spotlessly clean, no plasters floating round.
The bar and games area was fine - exactly what you'd expect of this sort of place, if not a little better. Again, our children (9 and 7) loved it and we were parted from considerable amounts of our money in the pursuit of air hockey brilliance.
Talking of money, the on-site shop is good, but, hey, those croissants are expensive. The staff were always laughing, presumably at the hordes of English people reeling away from the shop, white-faced at the amount of money they'd just spent on breakfast. The shop ran out of milk a couple of times, but other than that it's good for staples. We'd taken quite a bit of food from home anyway and looking at the costs of stuff like tinned tuna and breakfast cereal, we were glad we had.
The laundry and washing facilities are plentiful and clean and if, like me, you need a little downtime occasionally, you can escape there to read Heat! whilst claiming to be busy.
There are horses to ride and bicycles to hire. The horses looked well-cared for and as happy as a horse can look (cue why the long face joke). We didn't hire bicycles but loads of other people did and they all looked cheery too.
The site seemed to be suitable for disabled guests too - I didn't see anything which might present a problem for a wheelchair user.
The nearest beaches are perfect for small children - lots of rock pools and shallow water and other beaches are ideal for surfing.
Restaurants in local towns and villages are good but fairly expensive, we thought. We went into Auray a couple of times and found good restaurants there - worth a drive.
In summary, we had foul weather for the first five days of our hols and were set to come home, swearing never to go camping again, if the sixth day turned out to be vile too. Fortunately it dawned bright and sunny and stayed like that for the rest of the holiday and I now only have very fond memories of our time in Brittany. I would recommend the site to families with youngish children - there wouldn't be much to do for early teenagers, I think - and I imagine it would be absolutely perfect out of the main holiday season. I would definitely go back.

Stayed June 2009 with my son (4) and hubby.  Enjoyed the park's facilities - agree that the bar area is rather rowdy as the family entertainment tries to cater for adults, teenagers and kiddies alike. Pool complex was great - really clean albeit not too many loungers - small area for sunbathing.Disappointed with the level of cleanliness with the Keycamp caravan albeit pitch was good - age of the mobile wasnt up to the standard in other sites we've stayed in and are regular users across France.I have to agree with another comment made earlier that the staff employed during the summer season 2009 here at the park weren't the most helpful not did they show much in the way of initiative - this team did let Keycamp standards down I'm afraid unlike other parks we've been at.But with that said I've booked to go back in August 2010 and do hope that the standard of accommodation and helpfulness of the keycamp team is much more improved - this is a test as to whether my fifth year booking will be with them again??!So watch I on my way:-)  Please hope for good weather too!

NIce campsite with great facilities for young children . Staff were helpful and informative.

6 readers found this review helpful

We camped here with our 2 children. Not many spaces for tents and were crammed in near the toilet block and restaurant with no other pitch available to us. On the 1st night we were woken at 1.30am by the restaurant staff sitting outside laughing and talking loudly, they disturbed our children so my husband called over the hedge for them to keep the noise down. This ended up in a near physical fight with the staff outside our tent shouting at us in French, the Restaurant Manager lunged at my husband to punch him in front our of children who at this point were hysterical with fear. The next day we went to make a complaint and were told we were lying!!! Our neighbours went to back up our story and we were told to leave and lose our payment or stay and shut up. Everywhere else was full so we stayed but ended up leaving early due to the upset and further verbal abuse we got over the hedge everynight. We have used Castels for over 20 years but I would NEVER use them again. An utter disgrace. If you are a camper avoid like the plague, its like a very poor Pontins abroad, surrounded by mobile homes run by kids who don't give a ****.

great camp site a bit to much shade on some plots pool was great

3 readers found this review helpful

This a great site if you''re not in a keycamp mobile. The site has great facilities, kids clubs, etc. but the Keycamp mobile we stayed in was dirty, with broken fittings and juvenile staff who hadn't a clue.
When I emailed a compliant to the company I didn't even receive a reply!
Go visit this great site, just go with another company!!

1 reader found this review helpful

This is the third time we have gone with Thomson Al Fresco and this is the best site we have stopped at. The children absolutely loved it and did not want to come home. The only downside was that the Thomson mobile home was on its third season and there were some stains on the floor and sofa although it was generally clean apart from that. The mobile home was on a lovely size pitch and we had a field behind us with horses in.
This site was larger than the other two we had stayed in and we would have preferred a smaller site, however we would not have had the facilities available on a smaller site. There was a farm which the children loved visiting and feeding the baby goats. There was a lovely outdoor pool complex as well as an indoor pool. However, as it was high season it wasn't always easy to get a sunbed by the pool. My husband and eldest son went on the zipwire and absolutely loved it. There were plenty more activities to do however we do like to explore the area and did not participate in many of them such as tennis, crazy golf, pony and bike rides.
The area around the site is lovely. There are beautiful beaches at Carnac, along the Quiberon peninsula and less touristy beaches towards Lorient. A visit to Vannes is well worth a visit too.

9 readers found this review helpful

they say there's horses for courses - this is the best way I can sum up our recent week at the Grande Metairie I suppose. If you want a mobile home Butlins style holiday near the beach then I can understand the many positive reviews and Top 10 site awards (FrenchLife) which I read before we booked up. However if camping for you is the peaceful open air ralaxation experience then this may not be the 'course for your horse'... With over 80% of holiday makers in their hard sided cacoons I can see why few are be too concerned at the sound of the bar entertainment until midnight each evening, despite the 'silence after 11pm signs' which helped with my booking decision. Then of course the customers of said bar need to return to their mobile homes for the next hour or so, their liquid consumption for the previous few hours preventing them from noticing the '11pm' signs sadly... At around £50/night pitch fee I would have expected more security to minimise such noise.
We were also attracted by the swimming complex for the sake of the kids. Whilst the weather during our stay was a pleasant 22 degrees or so, it wasn't quite hot enough to stay in the water for longer than five minutes, their definition of 'heated pool' being somewhat different to our own...
So all in all - if you want a hi-di-hi style holiday experience by the beach in France with plenty of fellow Brits around, this is the site for you. If you love the peaceful French family camping holiday, don't be fooled by the Castels et Camping logo (as we were), try one of the lesser advertised three star sites nearby.
Pros: Location, Zip wires, hedged pitches, piped music in clean toilets
Cons: Nightime noise, bar noise, cold water in pool, predominantly mobile homes, very busy large site

2 readers found this review helpful

I wasn't really keen on the idea of spending 10 nights in a mobile home, but with 3 young children, we said we'd give it a go............. It was great, we booked directly with Le Grande Meterie, the staff were terrific, facilities on the camp site excellent. It was very well run, with lots to do............ more so for older children. The pool was really good and with the four slides and twisty chute I think us parents had more fun than the kids! We were blessed with the weather, I don't think I would be ozzing with great comments if the weather was bad! We had a 3 bed mobile home with decking, which was great as this acted as an extra room. The mobile was spotless and comfortable, a mobile is a mobile! We brought our own sheets but would be interested to find out about the sheets supplied by Le Grande Meterie, don't know if I'd like disposable sheets, especially in the heat. The one disappointing aspect was the restaurant. We decided to eat there on the last night as we had cleaned the mobile earlier. I'm sure if we ordered pizza or pasta we would have been fine, but we didn't - escalope of turkey and chicken - both dished covered in sauce and a bit chewy -probably pre prepared and microwaved, judging by the speed that it was served. Pizzas looked great though. Overall, the kids had a ball, we will be going back.

1 reader found this review helpful

This is the second time we have visited this site, the first being in 2001, and it was as good as we remembered. We went with 2 children aged 6 and 10 who loved the experience. The site is very clean and spacious with a fantastic pool complex, the restaurant is good and not over priced and the bar and childrens facilities are excellent. My daughter loved the horses, one had given birth the week before we arrived and was a particular attraction, although we tried the horse riding twice, they actually give you the horses to walk around the site, both times the horses refused to budge and we were charged 9 euros for the privillage!! The surrounding area is lovely, both Carnac (old town) and Carnac plage are lovely, with good shops and restaurants, the beaches are great, and La Trinite sur Mer is very pretty. The staff were not over helpful, apart from the Canvas life reps, an older married couple who were very helpful and friendly. My only complaint was we asked for a quiet spot and were put in row z, the very back of the site which was a bit of a trot to the pool, shop etc, and also our mobile was failry small, so I would go for a bigger one next time. We would definately go again, although I'm not sure I would like to go during school hols as I imagine it would not be as peaceful and relaxing then. We were lucky with the weather, a bit of cloud and rain, but mainly sunny and warm.