Message Forums

Hi - Francais will be on shortly to talk about domain de gil which he rates very highly.  We are thinking of going to L'ardechois again next year as its such a great site.  It is very green plenty of bushes, flowers and lots of trees but due to the climate it is quite dusty lacking in grass around the pitches but we just put a breathable groundsheet outside our unit.  We like L'ardechois because it had facilities you would expect from a large commercial but it couldn't be any further removed from a large commercial site.  Obviously other plusses were the riverside location and a village within walking distance.  If you have children the kids club is second to none plenty of English children for them to make friends with, but not too British iykwim.

I looked at Domaine de gil and thought that its a lovely site but just not enough going on for our young children.

Hi,

We did the same as you and camped at Le Capeyrou a few years back and I honestly thought I'd never find an area and site as good as that one until this year.

We stayed at the Camping Indigo Le Moulin in St.Martin D'Ardeche at the bottom end of the valley. It was an excellent site and a fantastic area to explore. The Ardeche can be a tourist honeypot at times but this area was about just right.

We have two kids 8 and 6 and they loved the site, good swimming pool, fantastic little beach on the river, playground, little bar/restaurant area. The climate is amazing as well.

Hope you find what you want.

Steve

Hi carlb72.

                Like others have mentioned I do have a soft spot for Domaine de Gil, having spent many years doing the Med, both ends!, and especialy the Cote d Azur.

The Ardeche for us, was llike what the Med was like, back in the 80's.

We went to Domaine de Gil for the first time in July 2009, and returned again July 2010, had to give it a miss this year due to family stuff, but we are booked for July 2012 this time for 16 nights, happy days!..

When we were down in the Ardeche last year, we visited a good half dozen other campsites in the area, they were all fine, but none of them ticked all our box's like what Domaine de Gil does, in fairness though the other campsites were all 3 star, and not 4 star like Domaine de Gil.

The number of touring pitch's is quite small at only 40, with the same number of statics,  such a small campsite may not suit everyone, but we like it like that.

We also like the fact, that the walk to Vals Les Bains, is only 1 mile, and from there you can get the bus to Aubenas for 50cents, which makes a nice change, having a day out with not having to use the car.

At the end of the day, 36Euro per night c/w EHU in July, is not exactly bargain basement, but there again some campsites in the area charge more than that.

For us the cost is peanuts, compared to what we used to pay for a static, down at Antibes during July, and that was with booking direct with the owner.

Hi carlb72.

              I have only ever found one token Brit at Domaine de Gil, who was leaving the same day we arrived, which then made us the token Brit's lol.

Anyway, we tend to go either last week of June, or middle weeks of July, the campsite is mostly full of Dutch, with a smattering of French, add to that the odd Beligie and Deuchlander, The Dutch have a superb command of English, and even talk amongst themselves in English!.

We have met up with the same Dutch family, both years we have been, there children 12 and 8 years, were also fluent in English, can't say the same for my Dutch, or French for that matter.

We use Domaine de Gil as a base, for exploring the area, we even went to Orange and Romans last year, which is only about 50 miles from the campsite.

There is just the two of, as our Son now 26 does his own thing, last time he came with us, was when he was 18, which has cut our holiday cost almost in half lol.

As for quiet, well Domaine de Gil is certainley that, even when they do have the odd night of entertainment, you would not know from your pitch.

And we have been there both years when the Dutch have had a major football match on.

Next year we will squeeze in a day down on the Med, less than a 100 miles drive from the campsite, so quite dooable.

Do you need to book, I would say yes, especialy for peak, the "Complete" sign was up at the gates all the time we were there for the middle two of weeks July, with units waiting outside the gates each morning!, also we have noticed many of the same Dutch families, who return each year, often staying for upto 4 weeks or more!.

There are some videos of Domaine de Gil on YouTube, but they are very badly done, and would put most folk of, but hey, that's YouTube for you.

We spent the last 2 weeks of August at Domaine de Gil and I am still trying to compose a constructive review.

 It is a lovely quiet site, my 3 children 4,7 & 9 never got bored with what the site had to offer, mainly the pool and the river. However we thought the pitches quite small compared with Bel Ombrage and a little gloomy with so much shade. Only one other GB car when we were there who we didn't meet but lots of very friendly Dutch and French families, always chatty.

There are alot of chalets which we found a little overwhelming on such a small site but to be honest we soon got used to them.If you could cut down the 4 foot hedge that obscured our view of the river and trim the trees to give evening sun, move the site half an hour down towards the med and......well you can't please everyone and I will finish that review.

Have to ditto grizzlyking's comments.We chose this site because we too like quiet and less pitches but it did lack something for us despite making good friends with our Dutch neighbours.

The weir was very noisy, you did get used to it but it sounded like rain every night.We thought the pizzas were good too but never got a chance to experience the restaurant as it closed at the end of August,or rather the 27th of August along with the rest of the bar snacks and  the animations which the children only tried once.Everything felt a little 'End of season', despite the site being full.Our Dutch friends felt the site shouldn't be 4* because they weren't providing a full service. Of course earlier in the season may well have been brilliant!