En famille : Sarah and her children in France . Breathless , but with an unmistakeable swagger , our three children burst through the door of our mobile home and regale us with their latest news . 'We 've changed our minds about croissants and have got pain au chocolat instead , ' announces Freddie , eight , swinging a bag full of freshly baked French pastries . Behind him , his twin siblings Bobby and Loulou , six , brandish a newspaper and my change , respectively , which they thrust onto the table like warriors returning from battle . We are halfway through a week-long break at Les Castels holiday park in Domaine De La Paille Basse , near Souillac , in the Lot region , and it is the fourth time our children have completed this morning ritual . It takes them approximately nine minutes to make the round trip to the campsite shop ( they could do it in half the time if they were n't stopping to examine every rock and tree along the way ) and the sojourn has lost none of its thrill . At home in London , such independence is the stuff of their dreams . Les Castels fits our bill completely : pool , play-park , shop , takeaway , English-speaking kids ' club , games room , nightly entertainment . Domaine De La Paille Basse has the added aesthetic attraction of being built round an original medieval village restored by the grandparents of the current owners nearly 40 years ago . Accommodation is a mixture of tents , touring pitches and mobile homes . We opt for a three-bedroom mobile home perched on a small hill surrounded by woodland , with an unbroken view of the valley below . Inside , the sleek lines and cool grey colours have more in common with a boutique hotel . Bobby and LouLou share one twin-bedded room , Freddie ( the earliest riser ) has the other one . A Lot of reasons to be cheerful : Villeneuve-sur-Lot is one of the many pretty towns which dot the region . My husband and I have the double room , which boasts its own en-suite shower room , and we quickly settle into a routine that begins with the croissant run , breakfast on the terrace and two hours of 'mini-club ' for children aged four to 12 . Lunch is another lazy affair on the terrace with more fresh bread from the shop , cheeses , meat and fruits from the stadium-sized Leclerc supermarket at Souillac , before an afternoon of hurtling down pool slides and playing tennis . In the evenings , we light the barbecue provided before decamping en masse to the bar for the evening entertainment . We do manage to drag the children off site a couple of times . My favourite trip is the 40-minute drive to the Christian pilgrimage site of Rocamadour , which , like something from a children 's fairy tale , clings to the cliffs above a gorge . Our children would say the eight-mile journey aboard the steam train at Martel , which handily includes an ice-cream stop and costs a family-friendly £7.50 ) for adults and £4 per child . The lesson from our holiday is that keeping it simple is the best rule because , for our children , the croissant runs arguably were the highlight of the day . Ferries from Portsmouth to Caen can be booked at aferry.co.uk . Fares with Brittany Ferries ( 0871 244 07446 , brittany-ferries.co.uk ) start at £79 each way for a car plus two passengers . A mobile home at Domaine De La Paille Basse ( 0033 2 23 16 45 02 , camping-castels.co.uk ) costs from £4.60 per person per night .
Les ##mont holiday resort is in la De La Paille ##tte , near Souillac . Park has been family - friendly for three generations , and is great for tourism . Accommodation is a mixture of tents , sports pitches and mobile homes .