Domaine des Poteries

Le Domaine des Poteries is on rue des Poteries in Flines-lès-Mortagne, a village in the Valenciennes district in the heart of the Scarpe-Escaut Regional Nature Park. Saint-Amand-les-Eaux is very close, and Lille, Douai, Valenciennes and Tournai in Belgium are all a short drive away. The Escaut, alongside which the northern Way of St James runs, flows about 2 km away.

Rated 3 stars, the estate has about a hundred pitches spread out in a very airy setting, in the middle of the woods, around two fishing ponds. Visitors come with a tent, a caravan, a motorhome or in one of the 2- or 3-bedroom mobile homes with 4 to 6 places, rented by the weekend, the week or the month.

The campsite announces that it is open all year round, for short or medium-length stays. Outside July and August, the mobile homes can be rented from one night, and touring pitches can be booked by the night, the week or the month. The estate also offers packages for spa guests in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux and invites business travellers to contact it for an adapted rate. Pitches rented by the year for privately owned mobile homes are not part of this touring offer.

On site, a bar, a chip van on Saturday evenings and a play area bring the site to life, and a convenience store is nearby.

Spa treatment in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (spa guest packages offered), museums in Lens, Lewarde and Roubaix, bowling, cinema and walks in the Scarpe-Escaut park.

The estate brings together the basic facilities of a family campsite. The entrance is closed by an automatic barrier, showers are free and the washbasins are in individual cubicles. A washroom block reserved for visitors with reduced mobility has a shower, washbasin and toilets. Dishwashing and laundry sinks with hot water are available, as well as a chemical toilet disposal point.

Wifi covers the pitches and the whole campsite. A washing machine and a tumble dryer work with tokens, and a gas depot saves a trip to the shops. The bar is open on site, and a chip van sets up on Saturday evenings. For shopping, there is a local convenience store and a large supermarket in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, as well as a pharmacy, a doctor, a nurse and a vet.

The mobile homes are equipped with a kitchen with fridge, microwave and crockery, a shower, a separate toilet, blankets, pillows, a television and a terrace with garden furniture, parasol and barbecue. Sheets and towels are not provided but can be hired. The website mentions no swimming pool: for a swim, the water park in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux is the nearest. The website does not say which facilities are heated in winter.

The star activity is fishing: two ponds in the heart of the campsite are home to carp and white fish. For children, a play area, two trampolines, wooden towers, a basketball hoop and a mini football pitch take up the space. Adults have a pétanque court, a boules court, table tennis tables, a table football and a pool table, and a mountain bike trail is listed. Karaoke evenings, dance evenings, bingo nights and tournaments are announced.

The surrounding area offers plenty of choice: the Chabaud-Latour leisure centre in Condé-sur-l’Escaut (canoeing, sailing, starting point for walks), the Parc de la Porte du Hainaut in Raisme, tree-top adventure courses, canoeing down the Scarpe, or an electric boat trip on the river port in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux in summer. On the cultural side, the campsite mentions the Louvre-Lens, the Centre historique minier in Lewarde, La Piscine in Roubaix, Beloeil castle and Bruges in Belgium.

In the off-season, spa guests enjoy the thermal baths of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (treatments, balneotherapy), and on bad weather days, bowling, the cinema and museums take over.