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FRANCE SEPTEMBER 2001
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Week 2
Domaine du Colombier
Rue des anciens combattants
d'Afrique du Nord
83600 Fréjus
France
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At a mere 150 miles from the last site, today’s drive
to Domaine du Colombier should have been a doddle.
Two sections of Peage, one at 22FF and one at 53FF
together with the simple routine of following signs
to Nice made the going very easy.
The site description supplied by Motours had a couple
of mistakes on it. One of those mistakes was to cost
us nearly two hours and about thirty miles of frustration
trying to find the site once we had exited the motorway.
Not that Motours can be wholly to blame for this error
as the directions supplied were obviously gained from
Microsoft Autoroute and we have had experiences of Autoroute
being wrong before. The other, more minor error was
the mention of the swimming pool only being open during
high season when in fact it is open and heated all the
time the site is open. |
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When we did finally manage to find the
site it was a straightforward procedure of checking
in and leaving the appropriate deposit at reception.
We followed one of the site staff to our caravan, again
eagerly expecting a long-awaited cup of tea. It wasn’t
the lack of kettle or even the silly sizes of cup (we
had our own by now) the problem this time was that we
couldn’t get the cutlery drawer open. What did I do?
Walk up to reception to explain our predicament? Use
the car? (We were the far side of the site) none of
these, I phoned them up, two minutes later the emergency
cutlery team turned up and freed the stuck drawer. |
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The caravan is slightly larger than the previous
one, presumably why this one is called a mobile home
6 'super' rather than the lowlier mobile home 6.
The living/dining area is the main benefactor of
the increased space having a few more cupboards and
a larger double entrance door.
The kitchen has a larger fridge/freezer, four-burner
hob, and a small worktop but no microwave; a small
electric oven/grill takes its place.
The bedrooms (one double and one twin) have
the addition of a reading light operated from the
side of the beds.
The shower room is bigger than the last one and
has two doors, one into the living area and one into
the main bedroom. The shower door itself was difficult
to open on our caravan.
The toilet room appeared to be smaller and, not that
you would want to take a cat in there with you, but
if you did then you wouldn't have much room to swing
it about.
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As it now appeared that we were to have
difficulties with anything that opened, it will come
as no surprise that one of the main windows decided
to choose us as the occupants that would be inconvenienced
by its failure. This was a top hinged window that all
but fell off when we opened it. The cantilever hinge
buckled and fearing that we would be charged for its
repair I decided a closer inspection was required. The
hinge itself showed signs of previous failure and witness
marks from an earlier attempt to repair it. The fast
response window team turned up within a few minutes
of being summoned and proceeded to repair it with
a big hammer. To be honest, or rather they were honest
in telling us that it had indeed been broken before
and they had assumed that a previous Motours family
had been responsible. I explained that the reason for
its failure was due to a missing screw that had been
omitted during construction and caused the hinge
to twist in the wrong plane. The matter will now be
taken up with the manufacturers.
These inconveniences, as far as we are concerned, are
only minor and in no way affected the enjoyment
of our stay. It should be said that on each occasion
the staff offered us an alternative caravan if we were
anything but satisfied. |
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The site itself was generally very tidy,
some sites are unwilling to maintain standards
right up to the end of the season, Domaine du Colombier
is an exception. The 650m2 of heated
swimming pools with their water slides were a hit with
our children and more than made up for the fact that
the beach was a few kilometres away.
There is a choice of supermarkets within a couple of
minutes driving distance of the site.
This site also allows for dogs and although we didn't
see any, their existence was proved by the odd land
mine that had to be avoided as we walked around the
site. |
Conclusion
A very tidy and peaceful site, well situated for the
Côte d'Azur that is run by very friendly and helpful
staff. |
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Domaine du Colombier's website can be found at
www.domaine-du-colombier.com
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| Move back to Week
1 or see our review of Motours,
the company we booked with. |
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