Mathonière

Don’t you just hate it when you turn up at a campsite and the owner whips out a red marker pen and a site map of numbered pitches and plonks a big fat cross on No.127? It’s usually way down the far end, between the fence and the bins and with a long, desperate walk if nature calls. It’s really not what you want.
 
How much nicer when, instead of that kind of welcome, a campsite owner stands in front of a green field, opens his arms out wide and says ‘Anywhere you like. Just don’t scare the donkeys.’
 
Thankfully that’s more the kind of welcome you’ll find at Mathonière, a complex of buildings and a campsite set amid the forests and lakes in the heartland of the old Dukes of Bourbon. Behind the fine old rustic farmhouse there’s an expanse of green field, broken up here and there with the odd hedge and tree, but essentially an open area, where you can pick a pitch to suit your mood. There’s a large tree in the middle, which usually has some kind of makeshift wooden fort the kids have cobbled together, and there’s a pool, too; one of those freestanding things that looks like the kind of giant cooking pot cannibals use.
 
Elsewhere, closer to the farmhouse, there’s a great little café-cum-bar with a sheltered seating area. Here you can enjoy a café au lait or something stronger, if you prefer, and there’s a menu with a range of meals. The best bit, though, is a covered cooking area with a huge paella pan where the owners throw together communal meals for everyone to enjoy.
 
It’s a tried-and-trusted French formula, this. A few old farm buildings converted into a lovely owners’ home, some gîte accommodation, an open field for the camping, and the cooking of communal meals, if you want. No worries if you’d rather do your own thing, but it’s good to meet the neighbours. There’s also another common feature of these kinds of places; a large pre-erected tent that sleeps six and comes complete with gas and electricity.
 
This may make Mathonière sound a little formulaic, but honestly, it’s not. It’s a simple, wholesome, unpretentious site that’s a great place to bring the kids to, but with enough space to stretch out if you don’t want to be pestered.
 
Round and about, this region is dotted with forests and copses and has loads of interesting old towns and villages to explore. While it is possible to get to places on foot, by bike, or by donkey, the farther-flung destinations are really only accessible by car. If the cooking-pot pool doesn’t tickle your fancy, there’s a sandy beach in the vicinity and loads of forest trails that are great either on foot or by bike. Just don’t get lost. Perhaps it’s best to lay a trail of breadcrumbs behind you and hope that you manage to find your way back before the birds eat them. Because you’ll want to find your way back to Mathonière, and probably more than once. It may be based on a simple formula, but then all the best formulae are simple. Like E=mc2; and it doesn’t come much simpler than that. At least in theory it doesn’t. But then, when you think about it, in practice, making things look as effortless and simple as this is often the hardest trick in the book. And you really don’t need to be Einstein to figure that out.