Whatever happened to those well loved regular questions on here that marked the beginning of the camping/caravanning season abroad: Is it safe to drink the water abroad? Which are the best pitches at Le Pin Parasol? Can you wear swimming shorts at ... ?
Is it that the younger campers/caravanners already know all the answers or get them from elsewhere, or is it that we seasoned campaigners need different questions answering?
Also, looking through reviews it appears that the Vendee is no longer the destination of choice for many of our members as the majority of reviews date from 2019 or before.
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
2019 was the year before Covid, I think a lot of things changed after that.
Maybe google answers a lot of questions, though not the best pitch ones.
But I observe there are still a lot of campers who need educating. Not Brits, as we don’t see many in France.
Like those who struggle washing up in the laundry tubs and leave them full of food dregs.
Those who can’t identify the correct bins for recycling and rubbish, even with pictures on the outside.
Those who can’t work out which is the ladies/gents sanitaries, despite the signs.
Those who empty their caravan toilets down the toilet despite a notice in 3 languages saying not to.
Those who park their car on an empty pitch nearby their caravan, thus preventing others choosing it.
Those who leave the showers and toilets dirty.
Sadly Franbee, you are so right! I've been camping in one form or another for well over 50 years, and it was a safe assumption in times gone by that the 'camping community' spirit would prevail, and I think some pride was taken by people who strived to be good campers and valued members of that 'community', today, utter crass stupidity and selfishness seems to be the new experience far too often!
OK, hand up, I'm a Dinosaur, brought up on 'do unto others' and 'leave as you would wish to find' attitude, which clashes with modern 'me, me, me' attitudes quite harshly! In some ways, what galls me most is that the selfish acts often seem to take more effort, or inconvenience the perpetrators MORE than a considerate approach would, but it's done 'because I can!'. Think their IQ level must be somewhat less than my dog's!
I've certainly stayed on sites since the 'Covid Campers' inrush, which has impacted my enjoyment thanks to behaviour of others, in ways I never expected to see! Even in more closed groups not open to the general public you can't escape it, I organise a camping w/e rally group for our dog rescue charity, and we've had to expel and ban people from the group a couple of times because of their attitudes and behaviour at the camp site! Now had to publish a set of event rules, on what used to be little more than plain common sense and decency, in an attempt to stop these acts before they happen! 'Civilisation' is in rapid decline!
I think you are probably right longcol, and they are all the poorer for it IMHO!
Two groups I'm involved with use FB rather than a dedicated message board/forum. The first is the dog rescue charity I volunteer for, they have always used FB to 'communicate' with their members, but thanks to FB forever 'tinkering with formats and features' things like organising dog transports, where a relay of people will cover the route and precise rendezvous points and times are critical, has become the stuff of nightmares, where threads become disjointed and still 'live' threads become near impossible to retrieve when they drop from view when the posts count fall off and FB deems them 'dead', but it may take us days if not weeks to bring the right people together, so the thread NEEDS to be easily accessible, but only a few posts to keep it 'alive'!
The other is a Le Mans 24Hr motor race supporters group, when they had their own forum, it was vibrant, very well supported with long established members and a lot of newbies joining, then 2-3 years back they shut the forum and moved it to a FB group, it's all but killed it off, and it's now as dull as ditch water to read!
In both cases, the FB format, and it gets worse rather than better with every 'change' over time, really doesn't suit the need. A dedicated message board/forum is FAR, FAR, better and maintains relevance, historic data etc. in a much more user friendly fashion!
I can see why message boards/forums get ditched, they need hosting (often at some cost), they also need maintaining and supervising by suitably skilled people, whereas social media is 'free', and a lot of the maintenance is done by the hosting company, BUT, are they fit for purpose, do members benefit as much as they could, absolutely NOT IMHO. Long may UKC stay on it's own dedicated forum.
I'm no fan of 'Social Media', I find it very time consuming and horribly inefficient use of time, I'm only inclined to use it when 'forced' to by organisations making it the only option to engage with them, so that's all I use if for, and many a time, I think to myself, I can't be bothered with all this 'cr*p', I'll close my account! If I want to engage with family and friends, then it'll be face to face or by telephone, which I find a far more enjoyable and PRODUCTIVE method!
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
With the development of the EU standards in European countries, standards and expectations of European countries have risen and levelled out. Although we are outside the EU we are accepting EU standards eg the new connected bottle lids that we haven't opted out of.
They speak French in France and German in Germany but in the supermarket we can find baked beans, perhaps even Heinz Baked Beans if we're willing to pay for them.
Instead of things being different in European countries things are much the same only with different labels.
The water is drinkable, the toilets flush, the bureau tabac is a news agents that sells stamps and may have a small bar and bookies attached, and you can't wear the dirty baggy shorts you've been wearing all day in the swimming pool, so wear Speedos or square cuts.
Any competent camper will leave as he finds (or better than he finds) with his pitch and the campsite facilities. It was at exclusive Le Pin Parasol campsite that campers were reminded to care for the facilities... they were almost perfect.
It is really noticeable that there is a huge difference between members attitudes toward each other on this forum, and the rubbish and vitriol that passes for comment on FB camping forums that I see now and then.
Increasingly campsite reviews here in France are on Trip Advisor - most are short - quite a few seen to air petty grievances eg smallish family run site has temerity to put up "back in 10 minutes" notice in reception - none are anything like as thorough as UKCS.
I have been a member on here for many many years and I am also on a couple of Facebook groups for UK and European caravanning, however, I would have to say that I rarely participate in the Facebook groups as they are full of people who try to attack or undermine everything you say and I find the general attitude of people rude and dismissive if you don’t share their view.
This forum, however is full of kind people who may think your questions or comments are stupid but would never come out and say it, but instead, offer you kind advice, even if you are the 367th person to ask that question!
I would say most people are now using Facebook rather than forums like this but I would much prefer to be here.
------------- Pixie
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
I was an early user of forums from late last century. Mostly VW camper & general camping related. I never liked chat rooms though & I never got into social media. I don’t use it at all.
Nowadays with my caravanning I am not really adventurous & just go to the same sites UK & France that I have been using for years so I suppose I know most of what I need to know but I like this forum. I still find out interesting stuff & give advice if it is something I know about.
I never took to social media, early adopters seemed to want to share every last detail of their life with the world which put me off somewhat. I much prefer forums like this, I find you get much better and more considered advice.
If I need to access anything that may be on a FB group I ask the Wonderful Mrs Wez to access it as she has an FB account.
I do get rather vexed when following a website link that takes me to FB, it rather puts me off of finding out any more about the establishment (I find a lot of restaurants use FB as their on-line presence).
As for site reviews, I just forget to add them or I can't be faffed with finding out all the details to submit the review, I really should submit some but it's now almost 3 months since we got back...
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Whatever happened to ...
via mobile 12/9/2024 at 7:42pm
