Multi-activity camp at the Domaine des Bois Francs, Les Barils

A multi-activity stay in Normandy for children aged 8 to 13, run by the Aroéven of Rouen. Closeness, conviviality and group living are the words the operator uses for it: the children share a cottage, take their turn at the daily tasks and spend their days between the water centre, sport and the forest. A large game is set up in the park by the animation team, built around observation, orientation and group cohesion, and evening events close each day.

The price quoted per child covers the stay in the cottages and the activity programme, including the daily access to the water centre of the domain. Travel insurance is charged separately and is not part of the quoted figure. Travel is by minibus or coach from Rouen, and families may also bring their child directly to the domain; the option chosen changes the price. A health record is the compulsory paperwork for this stay.

The group stays in independent cottages in the Domaine des Bois Francs, set in greenery inside the forest estate. Eight children share a cottage, sleeping in rooms of two. Every cottage has a private bathroom, a kitchen corner, a sitting area with a television, and its own terrace or balcony. In each cottage the children take an active part in the collective tasks of daily life — cooking, washing up, cleaning — in small groups of two or three with the help of the animators.

Meals are cooked and eaten in the cottages. The children take their turn at cooking and washing up in small groups alongside the animators, as part of the shared daily life of the stay. The operator publishes no separate board arrangement.

Daily free access to the Aqua Mundo water centre in the middle of the domain, with its heated wave pool, wild river and several slides. Around it the operator lists activities it may run depending on the group: mini-golf, racket sports, rosalie, pedal boats, archery or paintball. A large game is organised in the park by the animation team, and the evenings bring a bowling night, a dance night, board games or night swimming.

The Domaine des Bois Francs stands in the heart of 310 hectares of forest on the commune of Les Barils, an hour from Rouen and close to Verneuil-sur-Avre. The group has free access to the Aqua Mundo aquatic centre with its heated pool and slides. Accommodation is in independent cottages, each with a private bathroom, kitchen corner, sitting area with television and a terrace or balcony.

This is the gentler kind of camp: a forest estate, a water park at the end of the path, a cottage of eight to run together. The children who come back from it talk about the wave pool and the night swim, and about having cooked for their own cottage. For a child of eight or nine it is a manageable first stay away — small group, familiar comforts, and a lot of water.