Camping Municipal Le Sans Souci

The Sans Souci campsite stretches along the banks of the Sarthe in Fresnay-sur-Sarthe, in the Alpes Mancelles. The town, a small “cité de caractère” and a “ville et métiers d’art”, came second in the 2021 ranking of the French people’s favourite villages. The site, rated 3 stars and holder of the Station verte label, has 84 pitches separated by hedges, eleven of them for rental, with recent washroom facilities in two blocks.

The accommodation is deliberately unusual: wooden chalets of 31 to 39 m² for 4 to 6 people, an 18 m² wooden caravan for three people, a 24 m² cabin, hikers’ cabins and canvas-and-wood lodges of 34 m². The website states that pets are accepted on the campsite, but not in the rental accommodation.

Opening dates depend on the type of stay. The chalets and the wooden caravan are available all year round, including for an off-season fishing weekend, while the lodges and the pitches can be booked from April to October. The website says nothing about heating in the rental accommodation or in the washrooms: you need to ask at reception, whose hours are displayed there.

The website highlights the fishing weekend in rental accommodation beside the river, close to the upper town and its shops.

Walks in the Alpes Mancelles, fishing from the banks, cani-rando with a partner, visits to Le Mans and Fresnay.

Reception provides a book exchange, board games, a table football and electric bikes to hire, as well as children’s bikes. Wifi is free throughout the campsite, including in the rental accommodation. A laundry room works with tokens collected from reception; it has a dryer, a table and an iron. The washrooms, accessible to guests with reduced mobility, include a washing machine, a baby area and a motorhome service point.

A shop sells local produce, gas, basic necessities, ice creams and postcards from 9am to 12pm and from 4pm to 8pm, but only from 1 May to 30 September. Bread and pastries for breakfast can be ordered at reception. A wellness area with sauna and hot tub can be booked for private use for €10.

For swimming, the campsite relies on the heated community pool next door, free for campers: a large swimming pool and a paddling pool for the little ones, supervised by a lifeguard. It is open on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays in June, then every day in July and August, and so closed for the rest of the year. Mini golf costs €1 a round. The chalets, with a fully equipped kitchenette, a television, a shower room, garden furniture with a barbecue and a bike shelter, are in use all year round; wifi and pool access are included in the rates.

On site, you can play mini golf, boules and tennis, and children have a play area. The river offers another pastime: the association Préférences Plein Air hires out canoes below the campsite, an electric boat trip goes up the Sarthe from Fresnay and fishing is possible from the banks.

The local setting is rich: the Alpes Mancelles, a protected site with steep terrain rising above 200 metres, offer walks including the meander loop starting from Saint-Léonard-des-Bois and the Monts et Marches circuit towards Saint-Céneri. La Vélobuissonnière, a 250 km route linking La Loire à vélo with La Véloscénie, and the pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela and Mont-Saint-Michel pass through the region. The Domaine du Gasseau offers climbing, treetop adventure, horse riding, concerts and exhibitions; the Saint-Georges-le-Gaultier viaduct, 15 minutes away, is used as a bungee jumping site, and hot-air balloons take off above the villages.

For a day out, Le Mans, with its Saint-Julien cathedral, its Musée de Tessé and the 24 Hours circuit, makes a good excursion, as do Sainte-Suzanne, Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei or Cabourg, within an hour and a half. Off-season, what remains is walking, fishing, sightseeing and cani-rando, offered with a campsite partner.