Le Napoléon

Domaine Napoléon, known as Le Napoléon campsite, covers four hectares at 76 route de Grenoble in Gap, in the Hautes-Alpes. The town centre is about 3 km away, with a stop for the free city bus 500 metres away. The site faces due south, with open views of the mountains, and is a starting point for the Bayard plateau, the Charance estate, Lake Serre-Ponçon (20 minutes away) and the Écrins national park.

The site is rated 3 stars. It offers Contempo chalets with 2 to 3 bedrooms (50 to 85 m², for 4 to 8 people), Kubo lodges of 20 to 45 m² for 2 to 4 people, and Natura chalets of 35 m², plus pitches for tents, vans, caravans (including twin-axle) and motorhomes, with a 10 amp hook-up. Each accommodation and most pitches have their own parking.

As for opening, the estate states that it welcomes guests 365 days a year: rental accommodation, pitches, restaurant and massages are announced as open all year round. The restaurant does close briefly, however, notably from 23 November to 6 December 2026, a period during which the campsite stays open. Rental stays start at a two-night minimum, and most accommodation has reversible air conditioning, which is also useful for heating in winter.

The target audience is wide: couples, families, sports groups, vanlifers and motorhome travellers, in summer as well as for snow holidays.

Snowshoeing and snow biking on the Bayard plateau, 5 minutes away; skiing depending on the season; massages all year round.

The restaurant, café and ice cream parlour offers wood-fired pizzas, home cooking with seasonal produce, artisan ice creams and a south-facing terrace. It serves lunch from Thursday to Sunday, from 12 to 2pm, and dinner from Wednesday to Sunday as well as Monday, from 7 to 9.30pm. The Napo’Café serves breakfast, hot bread and pastries baked on site, to enjoy on the terrace or take away, and outside visitors are welcome.

As for water, the heated outdoor pool, at about 27 °C, is reserved for guests and is not supervised; swimming trunks are compulsory. It generally opens in early April and stays open as long as the weather allows a water temperature of 25 to 26 °C, sometimes until October, with no guaranteed closing date. An outdoor hot tub is around 30 °C, and some accommodation has a private spa cleaned between stays.

A wellness area with a wood-fired sauna and Norwegian bath for four people must be booked two days ahead; it is, however, unavailable for a few weeks during a refurbishment. Practitioners offer Ayurvedic, Californian or shiatsu massages by appointment all year round, as well as a yoga room and a fitness area with a personal trainer. The estate also provides an app to find stay information, a late self-service arrival by code or barrier, and bed linen hire at the time of booking.

The estate presents itself as a base camp for the outdoors. Hiking, trail running, mountain biking and road cycling start from the paths of the Gapençais and the Champsaur, very close to the Bayard plateau, 5 minutes away, and the Charance estate, 4 km away, whose gardens hold the Jardin remarquable label. The Pic de Charance reaches 1,852 m, and the Écrins national park, created in 1973, can be explored on day routes.

20 minutes away, Lake Serre-Ponçon offers paddleboarding, sailing, wakeboarding, kitesurfing and swimming, while the Durance, the Drac and the Buëch are suited to rafting and canoeing-kayaking. The Gap-Bayard golf course, 4 km away, stretches over 250 hectares at an altitude of 1,250 m. In the town centre, the cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption and the town hall recall the former Gallo-Roman Vapincum.

Off-season, the Bayard plateau offers dozens of kilometres of waymarked trails for snowshoeing and snow biking, five minutes from the campsite. The estate also states that skiing is one of the cold-season activities. The restaurant then serves mountain dishes, and the wellness area, once reopened, extends the day after the outing.