Camping du Letty

Beach holidays have one small problem. After you’ve splashed about in the shallows and lounged on the beach for a few hours, getting sandy, salty, and suntanned, you really don’t feel like performing an accidental striptease changing out of your swimwear and then stepping into a car that’s also been gently roasting in an open-air oven. The solution is to get as close to the sea as possible. Camping du Letty has this covered, enabling you to stroll to the showers before ambling back to your emplacement refreshed and ready for action. Or inaction, of course. You don’t have to be busy here, but as in many of the other larger coastal sites, there’s plenty happening on site – Camping du Letty comes complete with what one camper, who preferred slightly quieter scenarios, described as her bête noire, ‘the whole hurdy-gurdy thing of discos, bars, and entertainment’. To add to this excitement, in 2011 there will be a brand-new swimming pool and aquapark, too, with slides and a retractable roof.
 
And yet, despite what this may suggest, campers can have a lovely, peaceful holiday here, if they so wish. A short distance along the corniche from the shops and restaurants of the summer resort of Bénodet, Camping du Letty is run by two generations of the Le Guyader family. Marc and his parents have their work cut out here as the site is spread over 25 acres (10 hectares) with about 600 pitches, but their enthusiasm and commitment are obvious. More to the point, the site has been established for decades, so the shade-giving trees are mature and the abundant hedges give each camping area a real sense of privacy and seclusion. In fact it’s perfectly easy to forget that you’re really in the midst of a veritable tentopolis.
 
Unlike some other sites there is no supplement to be paid for booking a sought-after beachside pitch, and once you’re established you can stay for as long as you wish. The disco-cum-performance building is far enough away from the sleeping areas for people not to be disturbed – and it’s not open at all on Fridays, because that is party night in Bénodet, and there’s no point competing with that.
 
The campsite abuts Plage du Groasguan, a strip of golden sand along a slinky lagoon at the mouth of the River Odet. Across the placid water the Dunes Dominiales de Mousterlin stretch away, providing a sandy horizon that blocks out the sea’s swell. The result is a choice between a backwater that’s ideal for paddling or launching the kids on to the not-so-high seas (they can learn the ropes at one of the local sailing schools), while their parents lie back on the shore, or the alternative of the real beach and bigger waves, which is just a short hike away from the site. This one is overlooked by a lighthouse that winks flirtatiously at every passing vessel after dark.
 
As you stroll along the shore, past the colourful art-deco changing rooms, and then further along Plage du Trez and around Pointe du Coq, you’ll be getting closer to the old port of Bénodet, where river cruisers can ferry you upstream to Quimper. This is the place to come to for seafood that is so fresh that it may still be flapping about; perfect to fry up in a butter and white wine sauce. Because freshly caught food is surely the other main reason you like being right beside the seaside.