MIKE Laycock enjoyed a cool camping holiday under a blazing Mediterranean sun.

THE electronic sign at the entrance was flashing 30C as we arrived from Beziers airport in the early evening sunshine, and temperatures rarely fell much lower during a week of glorious sunshine on the south coast of France.

Normally, that would have been a cause for joy, at the thought of bathing and sunbathing in the site’s pool complex and on the beach, but also a cause for concern about how we would cope as our mobile home slowly turned into an oven.

But this time it was different, because our Keycamp Vista home had something I have never experienced before in many years of camping holidays abroad – air conditioning. When the midday heat became too intense, we could dive into the cool interior, and at night we could sleep easily.

The Vista had everything else we could want as well, including two en-suite bedrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, comfortable living area and a decked patio area for eating outdoors.

We were staying at Les Sablons in Portiragnes Plage, near Beziers, a superb site with plenty of trees and shrubs to separate the pitches, and direct access to a long, white sandy beach.

It also featured a huge pool complex, equipped with chutes and slides, a bar, restaurant, takeaway, supermarket and gift shops, play areas and tennis courts.

There was also an entertainment area, where fitness exercises were staged during the day and bands and discos played at night. Our daughter and her friend, who was accompanying us on our holiday, enjoyed spending their evenings there.

We had visited Les Sablons once before, a dozen or so years ago, when it took three rather gruelling days to drive there. This time, it was a 100-minute flight with Ryanair from Luton to Beziers’ tiny airport, and then a ten-minute drive in our hire car through the countryside to the site.

The Languedoc Rouisillon area, further west along the Mediterranean coast from Provence and the Cote D’azure, is my favourite part of France, a gorgeous area of historic villages and towns, the countryside lined with vineyards and spectacular mountain scenery only a few miles inland from the coast.

Just a mile or so from our site was the Canal Du Midi, built on the orders of Louis X1V to link the Med with the Atlantic. Now it’s a picturesque scene, with the canal lined by rows of plane trees and a paved path reserved for cyclists and walkers. We strolled along the canal path one evening for a drink at an open air bar strung with pretty lights.

Beziers is an interesting old town, attractive at its heart around the historic cathedral, but it was overshadowed by our visit to Carcassonne, an incredible walled city dating back to the 5th century.

If York’s city walls are impressive, Carcassonne’s are stunning. The imposing fortress, which was restored in 1853, has deservedly been named a World Heritage site by UNESCO. It was apparently used as the backdrop for the 1991 Kevin Costner movie, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.

We wisely visited in the evening, after the crowds of tourists had mostly departed. Also worth visiting was Rennes-Les-Bains, with stunning views across the countryside, the mountain town Quillan and Limoux, at the heart of which is a wide square, featuring fine stone arcading and timber framed houses, where a lively wine-soaked festival was underway.

Fact file...

Keycamp offers self-catering holidays at over 90 parcs across eight European countries.

Seven nights from April 1 for a family of two adults and up to four children staying in a two bedroom Villanova mobile home with decking at Keycamp’s Les Sablons parc will cost from £260, including an early booking saving and a return Dover to Calais ferry crossing.

Fly-drive and alternative ferry packages can be arranged though Keycamp at a supplement.

For further information or to make a booking, visit keycamp.co.uk or call 0844 406 0319.