Blog ≫ 2016 ≫ We went to Center Parcs!
We went to Center Parcs Les Bois-Francs in France for half term, here are our pictures1.
It rained a lot, freakishly bad weather in the region, but we were mostly inside so it didn't matter. Our lodge was a three bed two storey "VIP" option, and was quite good. Had read a lot of bad reviews before we went about how broken and dated the whole place was, but our lodge was alright. The site was fairly quiet, probably only about one quarter full at a guess. We were probably at the furthest point of the site in lodge number 940, but we don't mind a walk and anyway got a golf buggy to take us around, which was fun. Both boys had a go at steering it and thing one drove it completely by himself once. Often we walked alongside it so as to get our step count up.
We swam a lot, Harry and I went in every day. Took my phone in one day as I was 90% sure it was the "aqua" waterproof model and luckily I was right:
Still quite tricky to take a picture and be ready to catch Harry. Not that he needed any help at all, his swimming is great now, but he wants to do all the daredevil things and I felt I should try and keep up with him. We went on the slides and the rapids a lot. There's lots to the swimming there, lots of parts to the pool. Even though one part was completely closed there was still more than we could fit in in four days. Before we went I had a vision of us being camped out by the pool all day, going back to a poolside table for drinks and things but this didn't quite happen. We tended to do a couple of hours in the pool, then get dried and dressed and move on.
Annoyed that the one huge video I took of Harry and I riding down the rapids did not come out! I have two minutes of blackness, sound only and no picture...
The boys enjoyed this trip very much. Possibly the thing they enjoyed most was laughing at pictures in some ordinary photo booth, but they also liked
- swimming especially the rapids but the swimming area was so big with so many features there was lots of fun to be had
- mini golf we had to go on this on two days and do each hole several times
- trampolining
- bumper cars, actually some strange mini hovercraft things
- a big kids planet style soft play area - this was one of the bits that was included. This and the swimming were free, most of the other things we paid extra for
- Thing one did a pony trek around the site, I think he enjoyed this but we particularly loved the cuteness of it and have lots of photos and video of it
Clare and I did a segway tour which is fun, and we did plenty of walking on our own too. A couple of times the boys and Jim had their tea early and then Clare and I walked out again in the evening for food. Surprisingly we didn't go to the bar on our own even when we had this chance, the pub area there was not to our tastes at all, and we had plenty of better booze back at the lodge, as we'd stocked up on the way there.
Food was good really, we were not expecting much. We ate in the jungle circus buffet on three nights out of four, and the choice was good, plenty of veg and salad for me. Not the best kind of holiday buffet we'd ever had but not bad. Not quite to everyone's taste though.
The drive back felt longer than the way there. We missed a turning near Rouen and had to divert slightly but it's quite a simple route. Bit of a delay on the channel tunnel because of heightened security alerts. We were ahead of time so it all balanced out. Time for shopping in Cite Europe stocked up on some wine and mustard and then home.
- Removed old goo.gl/photos/cdgTryUeqtqYnSnr5 link here.
💬 It's safe to read the Trip Advisor reviews now we're back