Camping le Gouffre de la Croix

But it’s unfair, of course, to say that the backdrop is everything. There’s a fair degree of management that benefits this site too. The facilities are excellent, there’s a playground and table tennis for the kids, a reception shop where you can order fresh bread and loan a book from the library, and an excellent little bar that offers the perfect spot to while away the evening hours. Yet what they’ve done well is work with the setting to create a site that doesn’t flaunt these man-made additions, instead snuggling itself subtly away beneath the dappled shade of the trees.

The pitches themselves number fifty in total, spread over terraces that stagger their way down to the riverside – ideal for tents and small campervans, with spaces for a few caravans at the top of the site. For glampers there’s also a new safari tent-style ‘lodge’ mounted on a wooden floor and stocking everything you need for your holiday, minus the bedding and towels. Ideal for five people, the wood and canvas tent has two bedrooms and a living space with kitchen.

For days out there are eclectic options too. Walkers can grab their fresh croissants from reception as they head out the door and into the surrounding mountains – the area is renowned for its spectacular gorges; the more high octane side of the river where it’s squeezed through the hard-rock valleys to the east. Families, meanwhile, can enjoy another benefit of the Bourne, the magnificent caves of Choranche, carved underground by tributaries of the river and pooled throughout with green-blue pockets of water. Stalactites droop from the ceiling on their way to meet their centuries old partners poking up from the floor and walkways lead you through the vast grotto. Only two kilometres from the campsite it’s a natural wonder not to be missed.