Camping des Bondons

La Ferté-sous-Jouarre has a healthy helping of bars, eateries and supermarkets, but if you’re a full foodie fan then a trip to Fromagerie Ganot (10 minutes’ drive) is a must. Proud makers of brie since 1895, the folk at Ganot will show you round the farm and the cheese-ageing caves, and dish up samples of their famed product: stock up in their shop, buy some baguettes, then picnic on the banks of the nearby Marne. Also 10 minutes away, ancient Abbaye Notre Dame de Jouarre was founded in around 650 AD by the Benedictines, and the nuns are still there, growing fruit and veg much as their ancestors did 1,300 years ago. The site combines the original building with additions from the 11th and 19th centuries, and has a decorated crypt where the bygone Abbesses rest: go see. For more active stuff in the area, try horse trekking from the equestrian centre five minutes away, or meander over to Meaux (25 minutes) for kayak trips down the Marne. There’s waterskiing and windsurfing at the leisure base of Jablines-Annet (40 minutes), along with miniature golf and lazing on the lake beach. Like Paris, Reims is an hour away, and unlike Paris, it's small enough to do in a day: take a wander round the 13th-century crypts where the Taittinger label stores some three million bottles of fizz, tour the 1,000 year-old basilica, and reflect on times more turbulent at the World War II-related Museum of Surrender. It’s 25 minutes to the rides and attractions of Disneyland Paris and, an hour away in a fantasy world of its own, the museums, parks and monuments of Paris.