Armand Labeye stood in his swimsuit, sunburnt and smiling, as he photographed the campsite that has come to symbolise the French summer holiday.

“This is a place of pilgrimage,” he said, “and, as I was on holiday in the area, I just had to come and see it for myself”.

M Labeye, 38, gazed across the D218 road at the blue and white entrance, the tatty-looking camp shop, with its Blackpool-like postcards and the one-metre-long inflatable prawn in the reception.

Les Flots Bleus is the most famous campsite in France, according to its owner, Claude Dagreou, a shrine that represents traditional values in a fast-changing world.

Nestling at the foot of the 113-metre (370ft) high Pilat dune in La Teste-de-Buche on the Atlantic coast near Bordeaux, Les Flots Bleus acquired a cult status after being chosen as the setting for a film, Camping, that has proved to be the hit of the year in France.

Written by the comic Franck Dubosc - who once had a role as a French lover in Coronation Street - and made by the director Fabien Onteniente, the movie features a succession of Gallic camping stereotypes.

There are the pensioners who have been staying on the same pitch every summer for 30 years; the would-be seducer (played by Dubosc himself) with his tight-fitting trunks and flashy blue car; and the middle-aged couple who cannot stop arguing.

Amid beach volleyball, silly dances around the swimming pool, tinned tuna, hot chocolate in the morning and pastis before lunch, the characters are touchingly absurd as they cling to the habits of a lifetime.

But, above all, they are deeply French - which may explain why the film has attracted more than five million viewers since its release in French cinemas in April.

“Holidays are so important in this country - much more than in Britain,” said Gail York, 31, from Manchester, who works at the reception in Les Flots Bleus.

“People save for them all year and then they settle down in the campsite for three weeks in August and make their pitch a sort of second home.

“If the film has had such a huge impact, it is because it reminds everyone of their holidays. Even if they don’t go camping now, they probably did when they were a child.”

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