A n adequette campsite in a beautiful place (Camping Municipal La Bessière (Blesle, France))

Member Name: mumsymary

Product:	Camping Municipal La Bessière (Blesle, France)
Date:	24/08/09 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: near the A 75

Disadvantages: Attendant could be friendlier.

Camping "LA BESSIERE" BLESLE.

This year we decided to go on a camping holiday in France. Our destination was Nant in the Midi-Pyrénées Aveyron region. Now it is a long journey by car from Calais as Nant is 957km, 8.40,hours driving without stops, (Michelin route guide) so we decided to break our journey and camp at Blessle in the Auvergne region for a couple of nights . Blessle according to Michelin is 776km and 7 hours 8 minutes drive from Calais.

I booked our camping through the tourist office http://www.tourist-office.org/tourisme/france/auve rgne/haute-loire/blesle.htm. This was because I did not trust the website of the campsite to be virus free. I tried to phone the campsite but my French was not good enough to make myself understood. The campsite person only spoke French. However I found the lady that I spoke to at the touristoffice and then her response when I emailed her very helpful .


After arriving in Calais we trundled along the motorway stopping several times .We turned of at junction 22 or 24of the A 75 on the road to Bessle. The campsite was only 5 or 6 minutes from the A 75, just after Le Babory-de-Blesle, We turned right up towards Blessle leave the D8 just after this turn and turn left it is signposted to the campsite La Bessierre a short distance along this road . I found the Michelin roué finder very useful.

Arriving at the campsite we went to the office, a small cabin that also had a few items for sale and information leaflets. . We were met by the same lady I spoke to on the telephone, she spoke no English. My French very poor I did manage to communicate who we were. We found her " welcome" not very friendly she was not helpful at all. However we were only staying 2 nights. She showed ups the place she had allocated for us to camp , it did not look a good spot so hubby said could he look around the site and find somewhere else we were told yes in a disgruntled way.
Due to it being August the ground was sparsly grassed and looking a bit brown. We found a much better position and erected our tent.
The tent pegs went into the soil fairly easily and the ground fairly soft comfortable enough for us on our camping mats and sleeping bags. There was plenty of space for our estate car and our 5 man tent with a porch and an area to sit outside and cook our meal on the camping gaz. Not a huge space but Adequate.
There were few trees around the site so although some shade only a little

We went on a tour of the small campsite there are only 42 pitches for tents or caravans.

Sanitary block
~~~
The toilet/sanitary block was not far from the entrance /office
We inspected the sanitary block a few toilets and showers very basic, clean, hot, functional but not luxurious . We had taken our own toilet paper which was just as well as none was available when we were there. Most were standard European sit down toilets but there were a couple of French squatter type toilets too.
There were some sinks too for washing faces hands and teeth .

Sinks were available for washing up cooking things too . Also for clothes washing there was a washing machine available. I did not use this as it was the beginning of the holiday and we were moving on .

Items for sale.
~~~~~
As I said earlier there were a few , very few food items for sale in the office and you could order bread or croissants for the next day if you wished./ however we went well prepared I had our first nights meal with us easy to cook cous cous and some salad.

Other facilities
~~~~
There was a large stone table with benches around it and a roof /canopy over it. I think there might have been an electric point here as I noted someone using their lap top there.
I did not really investigate this table area as camped next to it we a group of about a dozen handicapped people with their helpers and they were using this for their meals and games so although if I had really wanted to use it I would have done but I did not want to intrude. This group of people had a caravan and a tent opposite up and it looked like this was a site they frequently used. There was a mixture of families and couples on this site not many teenagers so it did not get noisy and rowdy.
A few people had there dogs with them as dogs are allowed on site

We walked slightly up hill and found a flat mown grassy area with one football goal post. There was also a miniature golf pitch. I think there are a few other games available too but we did not investigate and ask due to my French not being adequate and I doubted I would get a friendly helpful response. The campsite is next to the river l'Alagnon so it would be easy to fish as some people were doing when we were there.

There was a filed with longer grass and wild flowers mixed in it alongside this area. We walked on here looking at the insects and flowers. From the football pitch a footpath left for the town of Blessle. This took us between 20 and 30 minutes to walk slowly .The foot path was uphill most of the way, easy to find and follow.

There are a couple of hotels in Bessle and a boulangerie, no other shops as far as I could see. When we were there village was in fete we walked around a little, food was being sols and there were 2 live bands, however we were too tired to really participate.

The village Of Blessle is attractive, one of the most beautiful villages of France . A Benedictine abbey was founded here in the 9C. Only the keep towers and outer wall is still standing. There are other half timbered houses and carved door way's showing the villages medieval history . We walked around and found the buildings very attractive a lovely place we did not go into any buildings although some are open and one is a museum. If we are traveling this way again I would explore the town /village a bit more.
The surrounding countryside is beautiful and we spent the day there walking and just absorbing the rocky hilly mountains. It was a good rest after our long journey.
See http://daily.webshots.com/signup?TI=hxp19764&p o=true for some pictures of Blessle.

Price
~~~~
This camp site only cost E7.50 for 2 of us our tent and car it would be extra for an electric hook up but we did not need this.

If I were going to Camp in this area again I might use this camp site again It was a place to rest my head, not good if you want restaurant , bar , club type campsite but good peaceful and cheap .

Summary: A campsite with basic facilities