Parc Residentiel Le Refuge

Parc résidentiel Le Refuge is on Rue de Montereau in Grandpuits-Bailly-Carrois, an agricultural village of about 1,000 inhabitants in Seine-et-Marne. Paris is about 70 km away, Provins 27 km, and Nangis, the neighbouring town linked to Paris-Est by train, has shops and facilities. The park is rated 2 stars, is accessible to people with reduced mobility, and accepts bank cards.

It has 90 plots and operates on two distinct models. On one side, ‘Loisirs’ (maximum 140 days a year) and ‘Illimité’ residential contracts are aimed at owners of mobile homes or caravans, with no possibility of registering a home address. On the other, a rental offer for short stays is open to everyone: grass pitches, mobile homes, duplex chalets, studios and a gîte, for holidaymakers and for people working locally.

The decisive point is the opening period. The park advertises being open all year round, with no closure displayed, with reception staffed Monday to Friday and by appointment at weekends. Winter rates, from 1 November to 30 April, are published for the pitches reserved for workers, and accommodation is rented by the week or in four-week periods.

Out of season, the park is therefore aimed mainly at workers on assignment and extended stays, more than at holidaymakers looking for entertainment.

Provins, Vaux-le-Vicomte castle and Fontainebleau 30 to 40 minutes away, cinema and theatre in Nangis.

The park’s comfort is functional. The washrooms are heated, a laundry offers a pay-per-use washing machine and dryer (tokens sold at 5 and 4 euros) and paid wifi is available by the week, month or year. Reception also sells 13 kg or 35 kg gas bottles, and the management offers plot maintenance and plumbing or electrical work on quotation.

The studios and chalets come with stay equipment: television, microwave, coffee maker, crockery for four people, saucepan, frying pan, stewpot, utensils, garden furniture, broom and basic cleaning products. The mobile homes complete the offer, along with a gîte rented by the bed. Electricity and water are charged beyond a weekly allowance of 80 kWh and 1 m³.

For eating out, a bar-tabac with food and lotto and a bread outlet are 500 m away. A municipal swimming pool is 800 m from the park; there is no pool on site.

On rates, a grass pitch for holidaymakers costs 17 euros a day for two people with water and waste, plus 10 euros for electricity. A mobile home is rented from 300 euros a week and a chalet for 450 euros. A deposit of 35 euros is required for the barrier access card.

The park does not organise entertainment: it offers instead a quiet, wooded setting, with paths and green spaces suited to relaxing and walking. The atmosphere is described as family-friendly and sociable, among residents, holidaymakers and workers.

The village of Grandpuits-Bailly-Carrois preserves a rural heritage: the 16th-century La Salle farm, with its four corner towers in the Brie style, the churches of Saint-Denis and Saint-Éloi in Bailly-Carrois, and three fleur-de-lis boundary markers from the 19th century listed as historic monuments. Nangis-Les Loges aerodrome, part of which lies within the village boundaries, hosts private planes and microlights.

For outings, several sites can be reached by car: the big cats of the wildlife park (25 minutes), Vaux-le-Vicomte and the medieval town of Provins (30 minutes), Fontainebleau castle (40 minutes), then Disneyland Paris (50 minutes). Provins is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its ramparts of more than a kilometre and its César Tower.

Nearby Nangis has a stadium, tennis courts, a sports hall, an archery range, a media library, a theatre and a cinema, all options for evenings and rainy days out of season.