(Largentière, France)

I’m now at Domaine Les Ranchisses, where I’ll be living (and lawn bowling) for 13 days. It is actually a massive campground, with accommodation options ranging from campsites to “bungalows” (cabins) to a small hotel. It is rated as a 5-star campground, due in part to the many amenities on site.

I’m staying in a bungalow with one of the Swiss bowlers. The bungalow has 2 small bedrooms, a living/dining area, a kitchen, and shower/bathroom facilities. So, we are not really roughing it too much. We just need to clean it up after our stay, so that “we leave it as we found it.” There is no daily cleaning, etc., as you would get in a hotel.

The recreational facilities are immense. There is a spiffy rugby/football (soccer) facility and, of course, a world-standard lawn bowling green (see cover picture at very top of this post). There are about 6 large outdoor pools (of various types) near the large indoor/outdoor bar. There is a separate large indoor pool. There is a large spa. There are canoes, paddleball courts, pétanque areas, trails, and probably many more activity areas that I haven’t seen yet.

There is a nice restaurant on site. There are also conference facilities – and it seems to be very popular as a wedding venue. To help with self-catering, there is a small grocery store on-site…with fresh baked products every morning. However, my housemate has a car and we are going to the larger grocery store in Largentière (about 2 km away) for most purchases.

As I brought two (heavy) sets of lawn bowls from Canada, I couldn’t bring too many clothes. But that is not really a problem, because Domaine Les Ranchisses also has a self-service laundromat that is available 24/7.

You can really have a self-contained vacation here. It is also extremely peaceful for a campground – although I suspect it is much busier in the summer high season. But even now, there are guests from various European countries. The majority seem to be from France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Coming up: reports on Largentière and the surrounding area!