A comfortable holiday home, activities for children and plenty of time by the pool: Finding lively and family-oriented camping in the South of France

• Chris Greenwood travelled with his family to Argeles-sur-Mer, France 
• It offers water slides and a heated pool with a retractable roof
• Port of Collioure, located nearby, has a beach perfect for swimming

By Chris Greenwood for MailOnline

Published: 03:02 EST, 19 April 2015 | Updated: 03:02 EST, 19 April 2015

Standing in a public shower cubicle with my screaming 15-month-old son, I was starting to wonder whether I truly was a Keycamp type of person.

My hazy memories of similar family holidays as a child were of slow days spent on pine-scented campsites, punctuated by trips to sun-soaked beaches.

But here I was, a fully-fledged father, some quarter of a century later wondering what had gone wrong.

Our journey to Argeles-sur-Mer on France’s Mediterranean coast went without a hitch, despite being in the minority of travellers flying, then hiring a car, rather than driving all the way.

But the fatal decision was to try and wash the children, toddler Joe and five-year-old Anna, after arriving in a tired and tetchy state at Camping La Chapelle.

Chris Greenwood stayed at Camping La Chappelle with his wife, Catherine, and children, Joe and Anna

Families congregated around the pools every afternoon for relief from the August heat

It was at this point I discovered that we didn’t have any hot water and the baby bath had a big hole in the bottom and no plug.

With stubborn determination I slung the youngest over my shoulder, grabbed some towels and trudged off to the shower block.

Minutes later he had showed me the error of my ways in the way that only toddlers can.

And this was something I was left to chew over, as we quickly realised neither stubbornness nor determination have a place in this land of dappled sunlight, flip-flops and fresh baguettes.

The children spent plenty of time in the pool, playing with the many new friends they made

Joe wears oversized sunglasses while relaxing by the pool at Camping La Chappelle in Argeles-sur-Mer

Instead over the next 10 days we threw ourselves at the mercy of campsite life, simply taking the path of least resistance.

With hindsight, we should, of course, on that first night have just thrown the children into bed – dirt and all – and gone swimming first thing.

Eurocamp (which has since absorbed Keycamp under its banner), and its stable of mobile home accommodation, provide everything you need to make a great success of simple pleasures like these.

Things have come on a long way since I was a foot shorter and my family holidayed every year in tents across the south-west of France.

The Greenwood family made several trips to the pleasant Argeles beach with its mountain backdrop

Multiple swimming pools, a kids club, swings and a bakery kept the Greenwoods busy during their stay

Lugging jerry cans of water back to our tent with its zip-up compartments and constant procession of ants had its charm, but so does double-glazing, a fully-fitted kitchen and air conditioning.

We stayed in a Vista three-bedroom mobile home. It’s not huge, the bedrooms have the feel of a ship cabin, but it’s all there.

The shower is decent with plenty of hot water – once the boiler has been sparked into life by a handy courier – and you’ve got your own loo and a decent size fridge.

Two sets of doors lead out on to a deck, equipped with a gas-fired barbecue and, in our case, a permanent al fresco bath for Joe.

Camping La Chapelle's biggest selling point is a fantastic swimming pool complex, including two water slides

Eurocamp offer sites for all types and tastes, and Camping La Chapelle is probably quite typical of a modern French campsite. This is certainly not your isolated enclave where you spend the evening listening only to the cicadas and warm wind rustling through the trees.

Instead, you are likely to be able to hear the distant sounds of a German murdering a 1980s pop classic at karaoke night at the bar. But it’s a trade-off if you want somewhere lively and family orientated, which this campsite certainly is.

In La Chapelle’s case, the biggest selling point is the fantastic swimming pool complex, including two water slides. There is even a heated pool with a retractable roof, under which we spent a memorable afternoon sheltering from a thunderstorm that rolled in from the Pyrenees.

Joe and Anne, pictured with dad Chris, enjoyed the kids club, run by a team of dedicated workers

Families congregated around the pools every afternoon for relief from the August heat and Anna became an almost permanent fixture in the water, playing with the many new friends she’d made on the site.

So the pool became a mainstay of our pleasant daily routine, which began with picking up freshly baked bread from the campsite bakery and ended with drinks and snacks on the deck.

We quickly made use of the kids club, run by a small team of dedicated and enthusiastic couriers.

Four hours of varied entertainment is on offer for children aged five to 12, six days of the week, and during our stay those in charge worked hard to build a rapport with their young charges from Britain, Ireland, Germany and Holland.

Chris and Catherine get into the spirit at Camping La Chappelle's campsite 'Olympics' for children

Anna enjoyed games, crafts and an X-Factor-style talent show as the club proved a hub for families staying with Keycamp and its sister company Eurocamp.

The two tribes were ultimately set against each other with an evening campsite ‘Olympics’, at which I am sad to report Eurocamp cleaned up. But not before our children had soaked their couriers to the skin in a bizarre game involving body paint, shouting and many, many bottles of water.

As the days went on we settled into a pleasant routine, padding about the site between the bakery, kids club, swings and swimming pools.

We did venture off site most mornings, making the 10-minute walk to the pleasant Argeles beach with its mountain backdrop and host of accessible cafes, bars and a mini-supermarket.

When the Greenwoods weren't in the pool they spent time on the beach in the stunning port of Collioure

A little further afield was the stunning port of Collioure, once a magnet for artists including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.

It really is a picture postcard place, with a little bay and beach perfect for swimming, surrounded by traditional French cafes, restaurants and arts and crafts boutiques. We went back twice to make sure we hadn’t missed anything in its winding maze of pretty streets.

Once my wife and I found a new rhythm we pretty much all agreed that we could be Keycamp kind of people.

We vowed never to force Joe to take a shower ever again though – at least not until he is big enough to take himself. 

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