Camping Le Stade Courant

You can go places quickly in this relatively flat part of France, and the one place you'll definitely want to head to is the beach. Châtelaillon-Plage (50 minutes' drive) is a popular choice for families, its long sandy beaches protected by the nearby Île de Ré and its shore dotted with colourful old houses. It's not much further to the wild dunes, salt marshes and chic villages of Île de Ré itself (an hour from the site), and its beaches are popular spots to try windsurfing and kayaking. If you fancy tackling the waters of the Charente river, head an hour's drive inland to Jarnac for cruises and canoe hire. You can also row your way round the Parc Naturel Régional du Marais Poitevin (40 minutes), a marshland wildlife reserve croaking with bullfrogs and laced with creeks and canals. It's a remarkable spot where the sky and the water seem to merge: an unmissable sight is the local farmers taking their cows to market in little boats. Equally memorable, for very different reasons, Vallée des Singes (an hour and a half) is a forest park where a hundred monkeys swing free amongst the visitors: see what your own monkeys make of that.