After 20 years here we are still discovering new places.
Just 30 minutes drive away from our La Grange du Moulin and Les Vallaies family holiday cottages, Les Gours plan d'eau is in the middle of no where and you can't even see the lake from the road so you'd never come across it by accident; there is a small sign but if you blinked you'd miss it, so you definitely need directions to get there. Consequently it's not busy - just those 'in the know' have reserved tables in the restaurant.
We arrived at lunchtime so were pleased to find the restaurant serving steak frites for just 9€50 including an ice cream for dessert. They also offer a full menu of tomatoe salad, paté or melon followed by steak frite (a very nice piece of faut filet and a huge platter of homemade chips), cheese, ice cream cone, caraf of wine, water and bread - all for 13€50; no wonder most tables were reserved. Apparently this menu is only offered on a Sunday but the bar is open throughout the week in peak season offering drinks and snacks such as waffles. It's very simply done so keeps the costs low - very French actually - paper table cloth, thin plastic plates and cups and the food served on platters for you to help yourselves.
After lunch we headed across the lane to the lake. It's a beautiful situation - surrounded by mature trees giving lots of shade. Lots of benches and lots of space. There's a good sized man made beach with lovely soft sand which leads down to the paddling and swimming areas. The paddling area is a maximum 80cm depth and has a rope to define the area, as does the swimming area which goes from 80cm to 3m50. The swimming area is surveyed by a life guard from 2pm until 6pm most days during the summer holidays. The rest of the lake is reserved for fishing.
A nice play area is provided too with swings, slide and a see saw.
We had a lovely few hours, the children didn't come out of the lake until it was time to leave, they had so much fun. We highly recommend it as an alternative to going to the beach for the day - it's much closer and there's no low tide !
