Over May half term our family spent a week at Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont, staying in a Eurocamp Azure mobile home.
Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont is situated 1 hour from Disneyland Paris, 1.5 hours from Paris city centre, and an easy 2.5 hour drive from Calais.
The journey from London to La Croix Du Vieux Pont was simple, and around the same length of time as it takes us to drive to Cornwall – making us think, why don’t we come to France more often?
The Folkestone to Calais Eurotunnel crossing provided a welcome break in the middle of our journey, as the children were able to get out of their seats, visit the on board toilets, and just generally wander around for 30 minutes.
La Croix Du Vieux Pont accommodation
I used to stay in Eurocamp mobile homes when I was a child, but it’s been a good few years since then, so I was keen to see if my childhood memories still held up today – would a Eurocamp holiday seem as good as I remember? Would a mobile home feel spacious enough for our family of five?
When we first arrived at our Eurocamp mobile home, I was pleased to find that it actually exceeded my expectations. Gone were the rough and ready mobile homes that I remember from my childhood. Instead we had a super modern, spotlessly clean Eurocamp Azure mobile home.
Check out my video tour of our Eurocamp Azure mobile home:
Eurocamp Azure mobile home review
La Croix Du Vieux Pont has various different accommodation sections, we were staying in the Ancient Gardens. We found this location perfect, as it was a short walk to the swimming pools and main complex (but not too close to be noisy), and the pitches were a great size and set up.
Each mobile home pitch had a spacious lawned area, perfect for lounging in the sun and for the boys to play football. There are big weeping willow trees between each of the mobile homes, creating a lovely, natural sense of privacy between pitches.
Another thing I loved about our Eurocamp Azure mobile home was the generous decking area, which gave plenty of room both to play and eat. There was a gate to stop youngsters from toddling off, and the whole deck was under a canopy, making it usable in rainy weather.
Our Azure mobile home slept six within two twin rooms and one double bedroom. Knowing that a mobile home mattress would be more towards the basic than the luxury end of the scale, I wasn’t expecting amazing things, but our mattresses were a lot softer and comfier than I’d anticipated – I’m not a fan of a hard mattress!
The shower room was a lot roomier than I’d imagined – there was no bath in our particular mobile home, but there are accommodation options available if one is required. There were also sinks and washroom areas suitable for washing a baby just a short walk away from our pitch.
The kitchen in our Azure mobile home was kitted out with everything we could need. And the inside dining table seated six. We mainly chose to eat on the outside table on our decking, but it was good to know that an indoor dining option was available in case of cold weather.
During our week at Eurocamp, a few people asked me via Instagram whether the mobile home felt cramped or OK for our family of five. It’s not a huge space, but the space is well thought out, so I never felt like we were on top of each other.
Sam and I are both pretty easy going with regards to accommodation options when we travel, and we find it easy to adapt to new surroundings without much bother. The huge deck and lawn area outside definitely helped make our holiday home feel more spacious. As there is so much to do on site at Eurocamp, it’s the sort of holiday where you don’t spend a whole lot of time in the accommodation. But the short answer is: No, we didn’t find it cramped, and yes, we would stay in the same type of Eurocamp mobile home accommodation again.
Click to watch our Eurocamp Azure mobile home video tour!
One thing that we really loved about our Eurocamp holiday is that by nature it is a very outdoorsy sort of stay. The children spent 90% of their time outside, soaking up the vitamin D and running around with friends they’d made. It felt like a completely different vibe to our usual family life at home – which is exactly what we like from a holiday.
Things to do at Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont
It’s hard to know where to start with the entertainment options at La Croix Du Vieux Pont, as there is just so much to do! Between the bowling alley, laser quest, soft play, playgrounds, discos and evening entertainment, we thought there was a great selection of activities to suit all age ranges.
There were also loads of outdoor activities at Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont – archery, a climbing wall, pedalos, trampolines, go karts, mini golf, and a bouncy castle. (You do have to pay extra for these, though).
And then you have the day time kids clubs run by Eurocamp. The activities were varied and you could dip in and out whenever you wanted to, no need to pre-book anything. Eurocamp also organise family sports sessions such as football and rounders, which were a highlight for our children, and also a great way to meet other holiday makers.
Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont Swimming Pools
One of the jewel’s in Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont’s crown is the swimming complex. There are four pools: A children’s splash park, children’s swimming pool, main indoor pool, and an outdoor swimming pool. All the pools have fun features like fountains and slides.
There is a big retractable glass roof over the three ‘indoor’ pools, meaning that they stay warm and dry in rainy weather, and on hot days, the roof slides open and it’s like you are swimming outside.
Another fantastic feature of La Croix Du Vieux Pont was the outdoor lake. This man-made swimming area is surrounded by soft sand, and beyond that, large stretches of grass. On a sunny day, it makes a great place to base yourself as it’s perfect for paddling, sandcastle building, and picnics on the lawn.
Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont review
We felt that the Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont parc was a very social and safe space for the kids. At 8, 6, and 3 years old, we didn’t let them out of our line of sight, but even just on the path in front of our mobile home, there was never a shortage of children to play with from the mobile homes in our row of pitches.
La Croix Du Vieux Pont is a very photogenic parc. Walking around the site, there are beautiful plants and flower beds and every turn. The swimming pool complex is visually appealing with its clean lines and greenhouse look. The entire site is spotless and clean ( I don’t think I saw one piece of litter anywhere during our stay), and the wide green spaces give it a wholesome feel. It is clear that great care has been taken to keep Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont in top condition.
Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont restaurant options
There is a good variety of restaurants at La Croix Du Vieux Pont. There is a table service restaurant with a la carte menu, the relaxed beach bar by the swimming lake serving burgers and tapas, and the takeaway restaurants serving pizzas, burgers, chicken nuggets and chips, etc.
Things to do in the area around La Croix Du Vieux Pont
Just over the road from the La Croix Du Vieux Pont parc is a horse riding centre. Horse lovers of the family will love having the stables within walking distance from your accomodation – you can pop by whenever to say hello to the horses or go on a pony ride.
Our children had never ridden horses before, and it was something I used to love about our holidays in France, so I was really keen to try this particular activity with them.
We took two ponies out one afternoon – Sam and I held the ponies, and the children took turns riding as we walked round the nearby roads and woodland areas. It was pretty funny, because as it turns out, handling two strong-willed ponies plus three young children is a bit of a juggle! (Watch our video of our week at Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont to see what I mean).
We took a short drive to the nearby town of Soissons one afternoon, where we walked amongst the ruins of St. Jean des Vignes Abbey. The nearby Espace Pierres Folles contains a museum, geological trail, and botanical garden.
I couldn’t not share these photos of Otto’s birthday. He turned three whilst we were on our Eurocamp La Croix Du Vieux Pont trip. We celebrated with pass the parcel, a treasure hunt, and a caterpillar cake carefully selected by Otto and brought with us in the car to Eurocamp – he had been waiting around a week to have his cake by this point! : )
Day trip from La Croix Du Vieux Pont to Paris
During our week at Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont with Eurocamp, we took a trip to Paris, as Rory had been dying to see the Eiffel Tower in real life. We didn’t fancy driving all the way into the city centre and navigating crazy traffic, so we parked on the outskirts and hopped on a Metro that took us straight to all the sights.
The journey in total took about 1 hour 45 mins each way, but was broken up with the 30 min Metro ride, so didn’t seem like too much of a trek – we are used to London public transport back home, so this journey felt very normal for us.
We spent the morning pottering around the pretty cobbled streets of Montmartre and the artist’s quarter.
Next, we ambled down the Seine, ending up at our final tourist destination of the day: The Eiffel Tower. We rode the elevator right up to the top, which the children thought was extremely cool.
Then we caught the Metro back out to the suburbs of La Courneuve – 8 mai 1945 where we’d parked our car, and were back at La Croix Du Vieux Pont in time for dinner.
If you don’t have your own car, or you simply don’t fancy driving yourself, Eurocamp put on coaches to Paris and Disneyland Paris, leaving at 8am and returning around 9pm.
For more Paris travel guides, check out:
Visiting Paris with Paris Pass
La Croix Du Vieux Pont to Disneyland Paris
Another major plus point to La Croix Du Vieux Pont campsite is it’s proximity to Disneyland Paris. Journey time by car from La Croix Du Vieux Pont to Disneyland Paris is 1 hour 15 minutes – making La Croix Du Vieux Pont a great place to stay if you are planning a day trip to Disneyland Paris.
Any negatives to Eurocamp La Croix Du Vieux Pont?
We were the only mobile home in our section of the parc without sun loungers for the week. We were also missing a barbecue on arrival day, but after a quick conversation with our neighbour, we claimed the spare one that they had found themselves with.
Our sun loungers never did materialise, as our Eurocamp rep told us there simply weren’t enough on site. We appreciated their attempt to sort it, and weren’t particularly bothered about not having them – however, had it been a hot and sunny week, I probably would have felt otherwise! (The photo further back in this post where you can see sun loungers was taken in a neighbouring pitch for the purpose of showing what the outside space normally includes).
I think a lot of combining items (like barbecues!) happens within groups that are staying next door to each other, and inevitably a bit of ‘swapping’ goes on when one party checks in before another party and find they have items missing. It seems to me that a lot of this could be solved by labelling items with the number of the accommodation it belongs to.
This is the only gripe I can think of to mention about our week at La Croix Du Vieux Pont – on the whole we were really impressed with the quality and organisation of the site.
What we loved most about Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont
We loved La Croix Du Vieux Pont for it’s proximity to Calais, and the sheer number of things to do on site.
Top tip: Hop in the car and drive the 1 min to the bakery in Vic Sur Aisne – no queues and we preferred the bread ; )
Wondering which Eurocamp holiday to choose? Check out my post all about how to choose the best Eurocamp parc for your family.
What we loved most about Eurocamp
With no flights or car hire fees, and a ‘per family’ price rather than per person accommodation price, Eurocamp offers a really affordable holiday option for our family of five. We were comfortable and happy in our mobile home, and loved the way a Eurocamp holiday naturally encourages you to spend lots of time outdoors.
The travel and accommodation cost of our May half term Eurocamp holiday came to £1300 (not including food and spending money). We think this is a good price for a fun family week away and we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on future Eurocamp deals.
This was a compensated review trip, but it’s confirmed for us that it’s definitely the type of affordable holiday that we would pay for ourselves in the future. We would absolutely book to stay in a Eurocamp mobile home again, we have loved holidaying in France before, and are already eyeing up a longer trip to the South of France for next time!
Watch the travel vlog of our week with Eurocamp at La Croix Du Vieux Pont below:
For tips on driving in France and doing the long drive to the South of France, check out these posts:
Top Tips for Driving in France
Driving to the South Of France on Holiday
Disclosure: Our stay at Eurocamp La Croix Du Vieux Pont and our Channel Tunnel travel costs were provided in exchange for this blog review, social media promotion, and video content.
2 comments
We spent a week at the same campsite at the beginning of July and we loved it too. Such an amazing site with lots to do for us and the children. We were in a slightly older caravan than yours that needed a bit of TLC but we survived. We will definitely go back. Your pictures are amazing, and i an so glad that your little one had an amazing birthday whilst there too.
Ah thanks, he had a great time on his birthday : ) Glad you had a nice holiday at La Croix!