A few days ago I wrote a blog about our recent holiday in France. This is blog 3 in the series.
I'm fortunate to have a holiday when a lot of people have no way of going on holiday at all but you really wouldn't want to be here even for free. This was not an Instagram moment.
The Joy of Boredom
Boredom is a glorious thing. My 9 year old granddaughter made this piece of art completely on her own with no prompting. She is very creative.
Tower of Stuff
The above artwork was one of the few good things about this holiday.
Boredom often leads to creativity so when someone tells me that they are bored my response is often. "Lucky you"
Boredom means that all of your primary needs are met. That is a big deal in itself.
My grandkids never tell me they are bored. 😂👍😎
There was absolutely nothing to do on this campsite as the activities board below shows.
No Activities & No Pool
Now the really bad stuff. Mid July to mid August 2026 we had a series of excessive record breaking heatwaves. 39 degrees Celsius 102.2 Fahrenheit not a drop of wind and humid AF.
We had specifically booked a holiday home with air conditioning and when we moved to this second campsite the chalet was like an oven on full blast. No sheets, towels or a kettle either.
I went to the reception office of Camping Homair ille de Rhin and asked them. "Where is the air conditioning?" As that was my top priority.
They didn't seem to speak much English so I resorted to a translation app.
French
German
The receptionist said yes we have 4 units with air conditioning but yours isn't one of them!
We exchanged a few more comments via the translation app.
It was obvious that she had no authority to do anything and she basically gave up even trying to sort anything out.
My wife is disabled and we didn't think she could cope with the heat. We were right but that's another blog coming soon.
We still had AC at our previous accommodation and had a day still left on our booking so we went back there while we tried to buy an AC unit.
Hunting for AC
We drove over a hundred miles there and back to a Carrefour hyper market because we were assured that they had some in stock. They didn't and the desk clerk told us it was a stock error on the system.
Apparently there were no AC units in the whole region. (Capitalism failure)
No apologies for our wasted fuel and time. Do you ever get the feeling that things just don't seem to work these day's? The more AI moves into retail the worse it's going to get.
Eventually we had to bite the bullet and move into the new accommodation and it was horrendously hot.
My wife had bought these headscarf things way before our holiday and I wondered what they were for?
Staying cool but not looking it 🤣
My wife is a genius and if we hadn't had these headscarves I doubt we would have had any sleep.
Basically you soak them in water and squeeze them out. Instant cooling for about 10 minutes. They actually worked. I slept with mine on.
The grounds were parched and everything was dead or dying in the heat.
The only cooler place was the shower block but only by a few degrees.
The Cooler (shower block)
Looking like an relic of the 1950s at least it gave a little respite from the heat but you can't sit in there all day...that would be weird.
The Bedrooms
Below is the space beside the bed to get in and out of the bed. It's about a 6 inch (150mm) gap. Getting in and out you need to be a limbo dancer or a stick insect.
The 'Shower'
The shower below was so narrow that you couldn't turn around in it without your arse hitting the tap.
Don't drop the soap otherwise you will have to open the door to bend over and pick it up.
This chalet was just the right size for this guy below.
You may be thinking, well you get what you pay for but it might surprise you to know that we could have booked into a 4 star hotel for the same money.
Hindsight is no substitute for research.
I know I checked with local hotels and even made a booking at the Novotel in Colmar but we had to do a medivac with my wife immediately which I'll explain in the next blog.
Key takeaway. Do not buy a holiday from Eurocamp or Homair. They are the same company.
All of these 'holiday home' units are the same. Tiny and very poorly designed.
We've stayed in 4 of them on different campsites in the last two trips and will not be doing it again.
We booked these holidays for the activities that used to be available for the grandkids etc but these campsites are not what they used to be when they were run by independent companies.
