First time camping abroad, going to Vendee this August for 2 weeks with our 2 young kids. (Castels Garangeoire and Guyonniere). Does anyone recommend investing in some sort or shelter/tarp to protect us from the sun or rain (who knows which we’ll get!) when wanting to hang out on the pitch? Also will we need extra strong pegs for tent? Thanks
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i go to the Vendee with my caravan in august each year.
i havent been to either of those sites but have been to:
-Les Brunelles (longville sur mer)the best your kids would love it for the trampolines and waterpark. this is more geared up for tents and campers than big caravans like mine but we manage to shoe horn it on the pitches. we will be there again this august. its within walking distance of sandy beaches.
- Yelloh! village la litoral (les sables d'orlone) another fantastic site with water slides and a beach a the back gate. Yelloh! are fantastic sites but i beleive this one is now owned by anoter franchise.
- l'oceano D'or (jard sur mer) cheapest of the 3 but still a nice site in the town so its possible to walk to reastuarants and harbour. the water slides are not as good as those 2 above.
back to your question. i take my tent camping on my motorbike around europe and i do have a Vango adventure Tarp with extra poles so it can be free standing. the only times i have actually bothered to put the tarp up were to give shade. it really wasnt expensive and it takes up the room of an umbrella when packed in its bag. i always take it even if i dont use it. the one time i was cooking in the rain i used the door of my dome tent to make a canopy to sit under. if you have a table and chairs though it would be worth the tarp to sit under.
all of the sites i have stayed at have had trees for shade. its always been dry and sunny when i have been to the vendee, maybe i have been lucky. my neighbors go there for 3 weeks in the summer and one year their awning was wrecked by a blown down tree and they had 2 weeks out of 3 with rain.
i would recommend hard ground pegs because, well the sun baked ground can be hard. i have some for my awning that screw in with a drill. they were £7 per box of 20 (i think)'Adventuridge' from Aldi and are still good although driving the car over them bends them and they are difficult to use then. (dont drive over them)
hope this is helpful, have a fantastic time!! the weather in the vendee makes all the difference.
------------- First van bailey ranger 550/6
Now the proud owner of a coachman amara
Lidl have their shade sails in at the moment. Under twenty quid. You may want an extra pole or two. There are some pics of ours in action in this thread.
------------- Sean
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The blue one above is a lidl one. We have another one that is triangular. The green one is a DD tarp.
The lidl ones are good and the Poles are too. As Seán says, another couple of poles and guys and you would be good to go.
We've stayed at La Garangeoire the last 3 years in late August its a great site particularly with younger kids. Its been pretty hot every time. We used a Decathlon tarp and found that was great to hide from the sun under:
One year the ground was so hard we could barely get the pegs in so came back the next year with hard ground pegs all ready and never used them, I guess it just depends on if the weather has baked the ground hard.
We have stayed at La Garangeoire a few times. Some pitches have great shade from surrounding trees and others have hardly any shade at all. Last year our pitch was great for shade but the family opposite us had to go out and buy an event shelter as they had no shade on their pitch at all and it was scorching!
------------- Pixie
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It will be our 9th year at La Guyonierre this year. You can need hard ground pegs one year, and soft the next. All down to what the weather's been doing. Last year we needed shade, previous years we've needed shelter 🙈 we have a gazebo style event shelter and that works for us. Friends have a tarp that can be used in various ways. It's what works for you. But bring a variety of pegs!
------------- Fab time in France again.... Roll on next year!
We got one of these from Decathlon last year …. brilliant … and adaptable to all sorts of uses … we used as a tent sunshade on a very hot pitch … a 'garage' for the kayak … an extension to the caravan awning to dine under ...
Decathlon tarp is very versatile. We attach it to our folding csmper with bungees & have another one which I’ve had a kador strip sewn on to which slots into the awning rail on our campervan
I like the ones you see a lot of Dutch people using - a sort of camouflage mesh which gives shade but allows the heat (or the wind) through. They're usually strung from tree to tree, but I have seen them used with poles too. I googles 'camouflage mesh camping shade' and several came up - not exactly like I've seen but very similar.
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Hi,
You can put in a request at the campsites for a shaded or partial shaded pitch, that they may help you with.
We camp in Vendee on the way down south and we have tried various tarps, shelters and awnings over the year.
We now travel with the decathlon tarps and gazebos as they are simple to put up and light in weight.
The Decathlon arpanza tarps are good as you can string together, but personally, we have settled with https://www.decathlon.co.uk/camping-shelter-with-doors-3mx3m-fresh-id_8353348.html, as it can be used for lots of things, sunshade, changing room, bedroom etc. It is also meshed, which we found good when we have stayed at sites by rivers and there are lots of flies and bitey things. But essentially it gives you shade from the sun.
Thanks for all of your advice! I’ve gone for a Bobby basic eurohike tarp and few extra poles but will also put in request for pitches with shade to be on the safe side. Picked up some hard ground pegs too so hopefully we are a bit more prepared now! Thanks
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Topic: France camping shelter?
via mobile 21/5/2019 at 12:06pm
