“My travels, my life, my children – that’s what built Esterel Caravaning.”
– Aurore
The sarongs in Australia
Fifteen years ago, travelling by motorhome in Australia, I hung my sarongs on the four corners of my pitch to get a bit of privacy. I’ve told you that story before. What I haven’t told you is what happened next. Not just the landscaping that came out of it, but a broader realisation. My private life, my travels, my observations as a mother and a traveller shaped Esterel Caravaning as much as any strategic decision. Maybe even more.
Matisse and the Baby Club
In September 2009, I gave birth to my son, Matisse. A few months later, I found myself with a baby, a season fast approaching, and no daycare spot available – the Agay nursery was fully booked. That’s how I came to create the Baby Club: a village of little colourful cabins (a bit like a Smurf village), designed to welcome the youngest guests and let parents relax and catch their breath. The space was truly designed like a nursery for children from 4 months to 3 years old, supervised by a childcare nurse. There’s even a cabin for naptime!
The Jungle Pool
Right next to the Baby Club, in the Belvédère area, there was an old, disused sanitary block being used for storage. I decided to turn it into a pool for the youngest guests, from a few months old up to age 6. I designed it the way you’d dream up a pool as a baby: twenty-three centimetres deep, little water games, something very, very cute. A jungle animal world.
Aqualand and the water slides
A few years later, Matisse, then 5, was invited to a birthday party at Aqualand in Fréjus. I went along. For hours, I watched him fly down the slides with his friends. There was no prying them away. The father of one of his friends came and sat next to me, and as I marvelled at the concept, he told me: “I’m the one who built it.”
From that moment on, I started measuring everything with my feet: the length, the width, the water flow. I tracked down the supplier through Aqualand’s director. A few months later, Esterel Caravaning had its own water slides. Matisse just wanted to have fun at a birthday party.
Mini-football and the Lego bar
Another example. One winter, I took Matisse to Legoland. Among all the activities on offer, there was an area with a big table covered in bins of giant Legos, free and open to everyone. Every child could build whatever they wanted and take their creation home. I immediately saw how it could work at Esterel Caravaning! That’s where the mini-club’s Lego bar was born.
Mini-football was Matisse’s idea too. A big fan of the ball game, my son used to complain regularly that there was no football pitch at Esterel Caravaning, but I didn’t have the space for it. During Covid, he missed not just the pitch, but also having anyone to play with. So I came up with the idea of installing a football pitch, 1-on-1 style. The mini-football setup we know today.
Between us: Matisse, first official tester
Matisse was born in September 2009. The Baby Club opened the following season. He was its very first customer – just a few months old, with no way of knowing it, but already there. The toddler pool with its twenty-three centimetres of water and jungle games? Designed for him.
A few years later, he was the first to ride the tube slide at its inauguration. And when the Black Hole arrived – that pitch-black slide that’s had guests screaming since day one – he was the one who went down first, eyes wide open, to give his verdict. Approved a thousand percent!
Matisse is sixteen now. He grew up in a campsite that was built around him, often thanks to him, without really realising it. One thing’s for sure: he knows every slide by heart. And exactly what order to ride them in.
– Aurore
