8th – 22nd August
8th – 22nd August
Hertfordshire Centre – Caravan Club
La Blanchie Holiday Rally Charente France
Come and join us in at the La Blanchie site in the beautiful Poitou-Charente Region of France.
Surrounded
by fields and woods, La Blanchie is a small tranquil and peaceful rural site set
in the rolling Charente countryside and is run by the friendly English owners
Tracie and Keith Frampton and family. The site is open-plan with pitches of good
size with approximately 6 amps electric power.
There is a
small rustic toilet/shower/washing block and a small bar on site where meals are
available to order, and the owners advise that an above ground swimming pool is
to be installed for summer 2009.
La Blanchie has an essentially rural ambience – you are far from traffic noise and even street lights with only the sounds of the countryside to "disturb" you. This is really a place to chill out and relax. Free range fresh eggs are available and a bakers van calls most days. Dogs are accepted. More information is available on the site website at www.lablanchie.co.uk.
click any picture to link to the sites website
So what’s there to do then whilst you are here and will I get bored ? Read on !!!
La Blanchie is surrounded by the lakes of the Upper Charente. Within some 10 minutes drive are three swimming beaches (entry free) on huge lakes complete with Lifeguard, restaurant/snack bar, showers/toilets/changing rooms as well as boating and fishing opportunities. It is good walking and cycling country, there is plenty of bird life to spot and there are a number of golf courses around. In the last war during the German Occupation, the demarcation line between Occupied and Vichy France ran close by with much resultant Resistance activity.
The area has a number of sites to see, none more compelling than Oradour-sur-Glane, a village razed by fire by the Nazi S.S. but decreed by De Gaulle to be left as a haunting reminder of the madness of war. The National Resistance Memorial is in nearby Chasseneuil with a small House of Memories opposite the Hotel De Ville, worth a look. There are Gallo Roman Baths at Chassenon, the Chateau at Rochefoucauld looks as though it is a setting from the Three Musketeers (with a Chocolate Shop in the Car park !!!), there is a unique ancient underground Church at Aubeterre, and of course the famous Cognac Houses close by are well worth a visit.
All these are less than half a days' trip and all around are typically French attractive towns and villages, many with colourful markets and not spoilt by overt tourism and ideal for simply "bimbling" around at a gentle pace. If you wish to go a little further , the sizeable towns of Angouleme steeped in history, and Limoges famous for its pottery are easy to reach within an hour and the coastal resorts of Royan and La Rochelle, Futuroscope and even the Dordogne are easily achievable in a day trip. In the Caravan Club August 2008 magazine there is an article about the Charente area and Roumazieres our local town if you want to read more.
Subject to sufficient interest we are hoping to run a coach trip to one of the Cognac Houses (approx cost £15 per head including admission) and also a coach trip to La Rochelle (approx cost £10 per head). Please indicate your interest on the enclosed trips slip. We will contact you again depending on the interest closer to the time.
We do hope you can join us and and if you would like a booking form please contact us luck for good weather we are sure you will have a memorable and above all relaxing holiday.
Penny, Gill and Peter.