Camping Le Lizot

Want biking and beaches? Camping Le Lizot ticks both boxes, with the coast just over an hour’s drive away. Cop a load of La Rochelle (an hour and 15 minutes), a seaport city with snap-worthy arcaded walkways and lighthouses – its old port, medieval towers and daily markets may have you hanging up your towel for the day. Or take the causeway from La Rochelle and onto the famed Île de Ré (an hour and a half) for a day experiencing its white sand beaches, watersports, nature-filled dune-scapes and pretty villages. Zoodyssee, 25 minutes away, has over 70 species of animal, including lynx, bison and wolves to meet up with, and the nearby forest of Chizé, filled with over 530 species of butterfly, makes for multi-coloured wildlife wanderings. Futuroscope, an hour and a half away near Poitiers, is a theme park like no other, based upon multimedia, cinematographic futuroscope and audio-visual techniques. There's plenty here to fill your day, from 4D fairytale adventures to time machines. For more down-to-earth travels, Charente-Maritime department has hundreds of miles of cycle paths, signposted circuits and cycle priority routes. Make for Arcais or Damvix, an hour away, in the Marais-Poitevin Regional Natural park to bike or even boat your way through the so-called 'Green Venice' of wetland canals, where farmers still sometimes row their cows to market.