Magnifique!

For years that was the norm for holidays in France. No longer, or at least not for a few more years. With two young children -- one just four, the other seven -- the prospect of two days of "are we there yet" at each end of our holiday was too much to even contemplate.

But we still fancied France and our favourite holiday -- a mobile home on a medium-sized holiday park. The clincher was the kids' growing clamour for a trip to Disneyland.

So, all we had to do was find a suitable park within striking distance of Disneyland Paris and problem solved -- easy. And, amazingly, so it was.

A quick flick through brochures found a park used by holiday company Keycamps at Berny Riviere, north-east of Paris, between Compiegne and Soissons, which appeared to fit the bill.

Camping La Croix du Vieux Pont is easy to reach from Calais. We were there within four hours of disembarking.

The park's a little under 70 miles from the Disneyland Paris Resort and only about 65 miles from Paris city centre, which raised interesting possibilities.

What' s more, another attraction, Parc Asterix, based on the heroic comic book Gaul, who's an accomplished Roman-basher, is only 40 miles from the site.

We kept that one up our sleeves as a reserve diversion should we run out of things to do in an unfamiliar area with no seaside or beaches for sandcastle building, dad-burying and allied children's trades. Run out of things to do? Fat chance. In fact we didn't do half the things we'd planned.

This was the holiday where we finally understood that we worried far too much about children needing constant entertainment, usually involving opening your wallet. The thing that makes parks and holidays like this such a winner with families who have youngsters is there are lots of other, similar families around -- but you have your private space, too. Within a couple of hours of unpacking in our large and comfortable mobile home, we were in the huge pool complex. Son Daniel was up and down the selection of water slides like a thing possessed. Soon he came over to us. "Can I go over to the other slide with my mates?" he asked. Instant mates, priceless on a family holiday. The pool complex here has a retractable roof and is partly enclosed, which is sensible given that fine weather is not so reliable as areas further south. As it turned out our August break was punctuated with thundery storms and downpours, as was most of Europe, it transpired.

When the sun shone though, you knew about it and we had plenty of opportunity for sunbathing by the pools or beside the mobile home, where patio furniture and a large umbrella meant we ate al fresco most evenings.

We soon abandoned thoughts of a trip to Paris. Most families were, like us, there to take in Paris and Disneyland but our kids were having such a great time on site there seemed little point in dragging them away because we fancied strolling down the Champs Elyses. For the record, we had intended leaving the car at nearby Soissons and taking the train to Paris which we thought would be the most pain-free way to do it. Keycamps make a lot of effort with children. On this site we made full use of the two Fun Station children's clubs, one for over-fours and the other for over-sevens, which fitted our family perfectly. The clubs run two sessions a day, totalling five hours of activity, six days a week. The specially-recruited children's couriers were excellent and, of course, it meant our two met new friends as families came and went.

It also allowed time for us adults to do our own things.

As a family, we also visited the magnificent chateau at nearby Pierrefonds.

l The campsite organises coach excursions to Disneyland, Parc Asterix, Paris and elsewhere. They're well worth considering, particularly if you'd prefer to avoid late-night returns by car.

Factfile Paul Traynor and family holidayed with Keycamps Holidays, Hartford Manor, Greenbank Lane, Northwich, Cheshire, CW8 1HW. Tel: 0870 7000 789. Visit www.keycamps.co.uk