At the start of the Easter holidays we went on a little adventure to a Eurocamp in France. It was our first time driving abroad and our first Eurocamp experience. With many sites across Europe, we chose La Croix du Vieux Pont. It’s about a 90-minute drive to Paris, making it a great base if you want to visit the city or Disneyland Paris, though there’s plenty to do on site.
The park is beautiful, full of greenery and sparkling lakes. There’s a manmade beach that gives a true holiday-by-the-sea feeling. Lodges come in different styles; I particularly liked those with pitched roofs — they looked really magical at night. Eurocamp runs deals throughout the year, and we booked through Best Child Friendly Holidays, which lists lots of great offers.
The site has several activity areas, plus a shop and a bakery. The bakery was fantastic — we enjoyed fresh baguettes every morning. There are also restaurants and a takeaway. The newly refurbished bar opened while we were there; the ground floor has a bar and a bowling alley next door, and upstairs there are pool tables. It was a lovely place to spend the evenings together.
There’s a lot to do on site: three swimming pools and a splash park. One pool is outdoors and two are indoors with a retractable roof — a clever idea for variable weather. The splash park sits under the roof next to the children’s indoor pool. You can fish in the lakes or hire kayaks, and the crazy golf was a hit with the boys. Activities are paid for with tokens at the central café by the lake, where you can also get drinks and ice cream. Buying tokens in bulk is better value — we paid €50 and received €70 worth of activities. Tokens are used for soft play, trampolines, bungee runs, go-karts and the lake boats. It felt safe sitting at the café while the kids ran between activities.
We stayed in a three-bedroom Deckhouse lodge and loved its location. You walk under the main road into a quieter area with a mix of Eurocamp and independently owned lodges, plus parkland and grassy spaces. Our lodge had an open-plan living area with a kitchen and dining space; the fridge even had an ice machine. The TV didn’t work because there was no aerial, but you could bring an HDMI cable and console if you wanted to use it. The lodge sleeps up to nine: a double bedroom, a twin with an extra mattress underneath, and a bunk room with two bunk beds. There were two shower rooms and a separate toilet.
The park lies north of Paris. From Dover it took us just over 2.5 hours, and we live about two hours from Dover, so the whole drive was just over 5.5 hours. Our first ferry crossing was surprisingly stress-free; we arrived three hours early and sailed straight on. The park sits in a pretty village where you can walk up into the hills or visit the local boulangerie. We also used a local chemist when my husband hurt his back; they were helpful and spoke English.
A shop assistant suggested a walk up into the mountains to see the caves, which were breathtaking. They were built during World War I to shelter local women and children during invasions. After we returned home I learned the caves have since been declared unsafe, but there were no warnings when we visited. If you go, be cautious and take a torch — preferably two.
Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at La Croix du Vieux Pont. We visited in the first week of the season, so some things were still warming up: the pool hadn’t reached full temperature, the kids’ club hadn’t started yet, and a few activities weren’t running. The kids’ club began the following week, so we only missed it by arriving early. Even so, there was plenty for the children to do and they had a great time in the pools. The retractable roof is especially useful at the edges of the season.
