Hi - if you want to guarantee the weather but avoid the long drive, I would recommend booking a budget flight to Nice and hiring a car for a holiday on the south coast. We have done it and it worked out really well.

Gill

To ensure that all the family have a good time then look out for mobile home deals on the St Tropez campsites called 'Kon-Tiki' and Toison D'or [golden fleece].

I worked in St Tropez for 3 seasons and went back there for a holiday last summe - it hadn't lost any of its old charm!

Both these sites actually back on to the 7 kilometres of beach that is Pampelonne plage and are lined with smart boutiques, restaurants and bars as well as supermarkets.

There's a lot to do without ever leaving the sites [they are both owned by same company so you can flit between the two] but you will want to have a drive about and see the sights. I recommend Port Grimaud, Saint Tropez [go there early in the day] and Escalet.

Have fun - bon voyage.

If you want to take some holiday reads then I've recently been to an online bookshop in York called SLR Books - they're doing a 3 for 2 deal on holiday page turners!

Hi there

If you want great weather and lots to do then you can't really avoiid the long drive South unless you fly and hire a car

We drive (with our caravan)uualy between the two of us we do 700-900 mils on the first day by Autoroute
the tolls are worth paying for the fast roads and lack of traffic

Try google for campsites and Eurocamp Matthews holidays Redbreast etc
that way you get a ferry at a discount rate too

Personally I won't gush about St Trop I find it crass and expensive but that's MY opinion

There's a lot of Med coast and it's either sleepy and relaxed or really MAD

Great place for an activities holiday. Sandsailing and kitesurfing school on the beach. great place to body board and surf, windsurf. When see goes out large sandy beach to play football, cricket etc. Nearby surfing hot spots, Plage de Goulien.

Morgat nearby has a school where they speak english and do lessons for sailing, surfing and windsurfing and can hire canoes and surf canoes.

there is a campsite on the beach or you can hire a gite which are very reasonably priced. If you google Pentrez you should be able to find more information and accomodation.

I would recommend Prairies de la Mer, Port Grimaud. It's an hour or so drive from Nice airport, listed as good for teens, right on the beach and also right next to Port Grimaud and not far from the old village of Grimaud. I've been loads of times and the campsite is large, well equipped and a vast mix of ages.

http://www.cantabrica.co.uk/home.php?d=resorts&c=south%20of%20france&r=port%20grimaud

I have linked one company, Club Cantabrica, but there are others such as Siesta, Keycamp I think now go there also, and various options for 'diy'.

Please please please don't stay at any Carisma Holidays Sites, they are like Prison Camps. Spend your money on a french site the quality is far higher, or even an Irish site they are very clean. Have a great holiday france is cool.

Hello Future Bride. For a great French holiday try out the Vendee region it is just the perfect place for an unforgettable holiday! Richard I of England (the Lionhearted) often based himself in Talmont and a bit of history on the area is that The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) turned much of the Vendee into a battleground. Now the coast's of the Vendee are some of the most beautiful in Europe and it stretches to over 160km of mostly sandy beaches. Coupled with an exceptionally mild climate. Some popular resorts include Residence Hôtelière du Bocage and some beaches are "blue flagged" for cleanliness.

From experience, I would choose a British 'run' site if you can. A couple of years ago we went to the Vendee, to a French run site and everything was fine until we came to leave. We had been warned by other British holiday makers that even though their caravans weren't spotless when they arrived, if there was so much as a blade of grass when the final inspection was done they were being charged £45 cleaning fee.

Us and a friend were in 'luxury' tents, which they certainly weren't- my friend even washed her ground sheet and they still weren't satisfied- the best of it was, was that it was end of season and the tents were being taken down!! We did get away without paying the cleaning fee, but ended up paying for the less than perfect glasses that were there when we arrived. It wasn't a great end to what had been a nice holiday.

The Vendee though is lovely, just read HT and try and go by recommendation for the site!!

Pam

im looking to go to Southern Brittany in June.. Anyone have good/bad reports on Keycamp holiday sites.. Any suggestions for particular sites? We have young baby..

mhairis have a look at Les Menhirs in Carnac Plage. There's another thread running about it at the moment. Unlike some sites we've been on it's buggy friendly and the shops, restaurants, beach etc are all within easy walking distance on the flat. My only negative comment would be that the baby pool was disgusting by late afternoon with dirt and suntan cream so I banned our girls (then 2 and 5) from going into it other than earlier in the day (it is obviously cleaned overnight).

It really depends on what you like doing - but here in the Côtes d'Armor area of Brittany is great in the summer months - lots to see and do, lots of street entertainment, music, festivals, during the evenings.
Great beaches, markets, day trips out during the day

have a look at some of the pierre and vacances places. We liked Avoriaz in the alps-often quite cheap in the summer.

Also S W France-La Rochelle-we stayed in one of their places there-we liked La Rochelle very much.

Avoid Maubisson-that was a bit too quiet for us.

We stayed in La Grande Metairie in Carnac, Sth. Brittany last year (July). Would highly recommend it. It's part of the Les Castels chain.

hope you have a great break looks like you have lot's of choice there is a week long enough -

We have been going to French campsites for over 15 years at first hiring as went went now with our own caravan

There are an awful lot of campsites around France and if you stick to 4 or 5 star you can't go wrong whoever runs it ("keepupwith" my experience is you got a bad one they are few and far between)

My advice
Initially use British tour operators to get your feet
Then go DIY a lot of the time the "discounted ferry" prices you can equal or better solo

Most of all enjoy the relaxation
lazy breakfast
lazy lunch over siesta (French style cold meats cheese and salad with Grand FLute and a bottle of something cold eaten over 2 hours)

Dinner around 7pm and take 3 hours to eat it

Roll on July going back again