La Ribière Sud

Known as France’s Lake District, the Limousin is celebrated for its wonderful rolling hills, fox-red cattle, and hordes of Brits trying to escape their compatriots from the Dordogne. It’s also an area integrally tied to the history of the Crusades and Richard the Lionheart, who met his end in the village of Châlus.

Camping de la Ribière Sud is just a few minutes away from there, set in 22 acres of sleepy woodland and meadow on the former site of a tree nursery. It’s a relatively new site run by two British ex-pats from the north of England – Ann and Harry. Harry’s an electrician by trade, so everything works like clockwork; Ann is gaining repute as a mixed media painter and her work appears in the local gallery as well as back home. There are plenty of pitches in the shade of mature trees, all with electricity.

Wild boars sometimes pop in for a sniff around, as do the local deer, beneath the ever- present shadows of buzzards. By night you’ll be sung to sleep by the soporific hoot of owls and coos of wood pigeons. The nice thing about La Ribière is the scale of the grounds – you can wander in wild glades and prairie grass without meeting a soul.