If you’ve come to South East France to
explore the mountain scenery then Huttopia Dieulefit should come with a
warning. Don’t be alarmed if you never actually end up leaving the campsite.
There are endless activities and facilities here to pre-occupy you and they
duly do. Children scatter from the car the second the doors are opened and
you’ll only find them again later, among a rabble of new foreign friends with a
volleyball under one arm.
The camping area itself is spread among a
speckling of oak and pine trees, with most pitches out in sunny spaces but a
few, at the far end of the site, edging into thicker trees. The whole place
occupies a sort of no-mans-land terrain – not quite woodland but not quite open
either – and, with enough exploring when you first arrive, you can select
precisely the right amount of light, shade and space for you.
Along with the regular camping there are a
number of glamping options. Two person ‘Bonaventure’ tents feature double beds,
storage and bed-side lamps and are the cheapest of the lot. Then there are a
number of other units gradually growing in size and facilities right up to
their largest cabanes, sleeping six,
with en suite bathrooms, a living room and a fully fitted kitchen that even has
a dishwasher. The spectrum of options is quite staggering.
At one end of the campsite there is a lake,
almost constantly pimpled with swimming children. It has a long wooden pontoon
from which you can dangle your feet before slipping in and inflatable boats and
kayaks are allowed. Quite why, then, they have also built a heated swimming
pool is beyond us, but it accompanies a children’s playground, outdoor
table tennis tables and the volleyball courts. Add in the communal central
lodge with books and games to keep you busy on rainy (rainy?) days and you can
see how mountain-time is quickly ebbed away.
