Goodness linzi_lou you're asking for the moon!

What can I say except France has beaches on its south, west and north borders. With a little one, you really want sandy beaches.

If you don't want to travel very far and want to go by ferry and car, and bring pushchairs, folding cots etc, you might investigate the beaches of Brittany travelling to Ouistreham or St Malo, or fly to Dinard with Ryanair.

You could also look at the west coast such as in the area of the Vendée - La Rochelle and Royan, fly to La Rochelle - or in the Arcachon basin and the southwest ... Les Landes - fly to Bordeaux, or of course the south which will be the warmest of all.

There's a wide choice of accommodation - campsites, holiday homes either as caravans or cottages and hotels. Perhaps you should start by looking at which UK operators go where ...

Or pick an area and look up the Tourist Office for that area on the internet. Accommodation is called HEBERGEMENT.

I think you might find the north coast a bit 'bracing' even in September, and I'd suggest you look at the western coast or the south.

Schools go back on 5 September so prices should start to drop then. It should be warm enough to eat out in the evenings in early September but the weather is in no way as reliable as Spain or Greece so take a woolly and a brolly too!

I only just noted that you are afraid of flying ... these are very short hops - max 2 hours from London ... so you might just psych yourself up for them ... especially as your son would travel free. Other than that there's the TGV train service within France that gets you from place to place very quickly and of course the Eurostar from London St Pancras.

France tends to have resorts that are like those in the UK. ie towns on the coast that were there long before tourists turned up. Unlike other med countires where the resorts were built pretty much to cope with a tourist trade and if there was a fishing village there originally it has pretty much gone now.

If you want good beaches try the vendee. Plenty of camping and static caravans avaibale or there are towns like St Jean de Monts, St Hilare/St Gilles Croix de Vie or Le sable Dor.

Ok thanks, I see there are company such as eurocamp and keycamp are these recomended and would
Or be like staying at haven in the uk bit possibly warmer? Or is it different? We went haven on a 9.50 sun hol in April and ended up coming home early as we were bord after 3 days, but the weather wasn't very good so that does play a big part.

Sorry, can't really help further because I've never taken this type of holiday ... and the weather is anyone's guess! I suggest you pack a few games in case you get stuck in your caravan/tent! You mentioned being bored ... as you don't really explain what sort of things might interest you, it's really hard to think of where might suit you best .... the French DO eat out in the evenings but far less widely than in Spain or Greece, and the schools will be back in session so there may be less going on in the evenings than you might have wished in terms of entertainment and late night opening ...

I notice on another thread you say you've booked a Thomson family hotel ..... does this mean that you are no longer coming to France?

We went to both St Jean de Monts and St Hilare many moons ago when our children were similar ages to your little one.

I have never been on a Haven holiday in a Caravan and would think that whilst there are some similarities, the fact that you are in a different Country with all that entails makes it sufficiently different enough to stop people from getting bored over the course of a week.

Also in the Vendee you have the chance of marignally better weather than you have in the UK, so you are more likely to have the outdoor lifestyle that people like on holiday, BBQ's, picnics on the beach, hours spent round the swimming pool or in play parks.

Many of the French sites have both outdoor and indoor pools to cater for vagaries in the weather.

The Vendee is do-able via Ferry/Euro Tunnel & car, its a bit of drive though especially if you were like us and we didnt have a clue what we were doing - seem to remember Nantes being a nightmare.

I think the second time we may have gone overnight from Portsmouth or Plymouth (cant remember) and then arrived in France in the morning and then drove to where we were going arriving at about 5 pm, so no need to find a hotel in France overnight.

If you want to do this kind of holiday you need to have a thorough read of the brochures offering it as they are very detailed and there are many options for travel and for sites.

Love France don't get there often enough.

Doe

what about taking an overnight ferry? the cabins are nice and you wake up in France

we did this when we went to Le Ranolien in Brittany, this May half term ( Eurocamp static )
this way you can pack up the car with baby stuff / toys / games / bikes / food / drink whatever !

flying would give you the restrictions on luggage weights,also you would then need to a hire a car if you want to go and explore really

Suggest you look @ http://www.pv-holidays.com/gb-en/ also http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/holidays

If you are going to do the Vendee than you really need a car otherwise you are going to restrict yourself to a very small area plus if you are self catering you will have to haul all your shopping about. Also with a car you can stuff it with cheap goodies for the return! There is so much to see both up and down the coast and also inland.

Thankyou, on doing a bit more research I've found that a place called aquitine I think it's called seems to be good weather and closest, apart from
Brittany and vendee but they don't seem to have as good as weather. I've also found that Thompson do holidays to France too called Thompson al fresco, but ou
Book transport separate, the sun hols (9.50) also are doing hols there for £19pp so might look into that. Now I'm just trying to think about the bet way to get there, I think the options are-

1. Drive to Portsmouth-ferry-drive to destination which I think is a long long drive of about 400 miles?! Which would take us forever!

2. ferry-bullet train to bordex whatevr it's called! then about 90 mile drive to destination

3. euro train from London- bullet train- 90 mile drive

it's a long time on the bullet train, 5-6 hrs but prob better and quicker than driving, I think
You can take the car on both trains, is that right?

Any other suggestions

1. Drive to Portsmouth-ferry-drive to destination which I think is a long long drive of about 400 miles?! Which would take us forever!

It's quite some way but you could work out the full details by consulting http://www.viamichelin.co.uk

2. ferry-bullet train to bordex whatevr it's called! then about 90 mile drive to destination

This means you have to get to Paris and then hire a car.

3

. euro train from London- bullet train- 90 mile drive

This would not be possible without you hiring a car at your final French train station .... AVIS do a lot of work with SNCF.

it's a long time on the bullet train, 5-6 hrs but prob better and quicker than driving, I think
You can take the car on both trains, is that right?

NO!! Sorry. You can put your car on the train at Folkestone and travel with it to Calais using EUROTUNNEL but then have to drive to your destination.

What you call 'bullet trains' are probably TGVs Train a Grande Vitesse, and they don't take cars.

http://autotrain.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/autotrain-webapp/homeControl.action can give you details of taking your car on the train from PARIS to different parts of France, but you need to drive to Paris first. And sadly the site is only in French.

BUT Aquitaine is a lovely area for a holiday ... and many airlines fly from the UK to Bordeaux ... easy airport to use and plenty of car hire operators at the airport.

A 400 mile drive is nothing in France. Their motorways are far better than ours, smoother and faster, and their rest areas/services make ours look like a greasy spoon cafe. One tip though is don't stop at lunchtime. All the French do that so the roads go quiet and you can drive even easier.

If you go on a train then you will be on buses or shank's pony the rest of the time plus you have to haul all your luggage with you.

Hi De Hi wrote:

A 400 mile drive is nothing in France. Their motorways are far better than ours, smoother and faster.

But you have to pay to use them.

But you have to pay to use them

except for the A35 in Alsace! But both of you are correct ... and there's much less traffic than in the UK and lorries are banned during the weekends or have to pay fines for using the motorways!

Hi,
How far are you in sorting out your holiday? Looks like you know where you're going and how. How about accommodation? Having children myself, I rent a holiday rental. I agree you have to go food shopping, cook like at home but then it's nice food and mostly I'm free to do what I want like at home.
I've booked with the site mediahols.com, they have lots of ads in France. Have a look...
Have a nice time anyway

Judith wrote:

Hi De Hi wrote:

A 400 mile drive is nothing in France. Their motorways are far better than ours, smoother and faster.

But you have to pay to use them. :D

If our motorways were of the same quality of those in France I would be happy to pay for ours as well. Plus what you pay for in tolls you get back in cheaper fuel prices (I drive a diesel).

Alsacienne wrote:

But you have to pay to use them

except for the A35 in Alsace! But both of you are correct ... and there's much less traffic than in the UK and lorries are banned during the weekends or have to pay fines for using the motorways!

A35, is that the one that suddenly turns into a single lane road then back into a motorway?
A71 is also free (or it was last time I used it) You had to pay to cross the Millau bridge though.

HI Just returned from northen France 2nd year running and the beaches from Calais down to the Somme
are fantastic. its called the opal coast.Really beautiful sand.
We drove via the tunnel and rented a cottage near to Berk sur mer,about an hour from calais.
Le torquette is also a nice resort.

is that the one that suddenly turns into a single lane road then back into a motorway

Yup! Keeps one awake though!!