USP An adults-only spa in the middle of a bustling 1,000-berths French campsite is a unique concept.

AMBIENCE Picture yourself in modern-day Roman baths with a whiff of Ambre Solaire. The spa-fitness centre, a walled neo-classical area in the centre of the camp, included a cold water swimming pool, a large circular hydromassage pool and an underwater massage path, all impressively fashioned in golden sandstone. It was not half as tranquil as the publicity had promised.

EXPERIENCE Top-notch, as far as water jets and pools go. This is a spa of the French squirt-hard-water-jets-at-you type – thalassotherapy sans seawater. It was pleasant but not terribly therapeutic. The various spa features left me largely unmoved. The underwater massage path, for example, was a beautifully constructed channel of waist-high water, with a current resisting your onward progress and jets of water coming at your bottom from the sides.

FOOD We had great fun shopping for picnics of local French produce at the campsite shops.

IN CROWD Packed with honey-brown and bare breasted Europeans, sitting in rows chatting away as their wobbly bits were pummelled by pressurised water.

WALLET WATCH A week in a mobile home at Le Serignan Plage resort for two adults and two children this summer will cost about £704 (£320 before May 28).

NEED TO KNOW For more information about Thomson Al Fresco packages visit www.thomsonalfresco.co.uk)

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