Camping - Boden Style

After a six-hour drive through France, which according to the instructions was supposed to take four, we arrived at our campsite.  Tempers were frayed to say the least.  My map and sign reading had taken us back and forth around "peripheriques", "toute droite", "la gauche" and everywhere else that avoided our final destination.  Now I was beginning to understand why we seemed to spend lesson after lesson at school asking for directions in French.  Their maps are utterly unreadable.  We have also had to stop at least six times for The Toddler's mini bladder.  However, the sun is shining and the smiling holiday rep leans in through the window and cheerily says, "Welcome to France."  We follow her to our pitch under the watchful gaze of other fellow campers, checking out the new arrivals.  This is where I must come clean.  We are in fact staying in a 'Chalet' and not under canvas.  I know most campers will be appalled by this admission and even more appalled when I tell you it was known as a Deluxe, had three bedrooms and two bathrooms with warm running water and even a microwave.  Please take pity on me.  I just needed to be broken in gently to the whole camping lifestyle and live amongst the camping fraternity, gazing at the tented families from my decking.  I was intrigued by our fellow campers, both chalet and canvas ones.  I spent afternoons casually strolling past tents, glancing at mothers dressed in skinny jeans playing Sudoku whilst their husbands brushed extra virgin olive oil on the barbecued king prawn kebabs, secretly glancing at their Blackberrys.  Meanwhile, their Boden-dressed children frolicked happily around them.  The next few days were perfect.  The sun shone and we lay on a couple of deckchairs ploughing our way through books, while the children gleefully cycled around the site.  There was a wonderful atmosphere surrounding us that was totally relaxed.  Families were playing ball games, cycling in the woods and rowing on the lake all in the safety of the grounds of this beautiful French chateau.  My husband and I were convinced we had finally discovered the perfect family summer holiday.  We were on our way to becoming real campers and we were excited.  So much so that we grabbed a copy of the 2009 camping brochure, to book next year's holiday.  We were ready to take on the canvas super tent, wrestle with guy ropes and launch ourselves into the communal showers.  That was until we moved to the next campsite.  Unbeknown to us the real camping experience had only just begun.