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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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Original poster

French villa companies

50 replies

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 10:42

Can anyone recommend a really good company? Am looking to avoid last year's last minute horror of trying to find anything at all possible on various dubious internet sites.

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Marina · 10/03/2006 10:43

I am guessing you want more upmarket than the reliable but rather bargain-basement Gites de France then krabbiepatty?

JanH · 10/03/2006 10:45

Tinker has recommended \link{http://www.frenchconnections.co.uk/\French Connections} before. Someone else recommended \link{http://www.holidayfrance.com/\Holiday France} and I have used \link{http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/France/s/31/fa/find.squery\Holiday Rentals} though in Spain, not France.

Original poster

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 10:46

Ooh, I don't know, Marina, have absurd list of demands to cater for due to mad notion of sisters and their kids and mum all coming (ie in a village but with countryside, garden and preferably a pool and preferably by the seaside etc etc...) Will have a look at the gites, thanks...

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Waswondering · 10/03/2006 10:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Marina · 10/03/2006 10:47

I've just booked an early summer break with my bestest friends SpeedFerries as recommended by you JanH :)
Now trying to find a gite that will not further encourage dd's kamikaze tendencies with staircases, swimming pools, picturesque canals, small unfenced ponds, etc

Original poster

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 10:48

Thanks Janh will look at those as well. We had a very bad experience with Welcome Cottages on last year's late booking high season holiday debacle.

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Original poster

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 10:50

I'm wondering whether there is any property in the world which is really going to suit children from 0 - 10 plus my mother and her idiosyncratic tastes but will look at all of these...

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JanH · 10/03/2006 10:50

Oh dear, did you? I work for them now (on UK side) - what happened? Did you get a yes and then a no?

Marina, I still haven't tried them myself! Maybe next summer...

Marina · 10/03/2006 10:52

Most gites don't have pools but they are honest about distances from sea (and distinguish between sea and beach btw, v. important in my bitter experience!), forests, actual location, bla bla. No idea how good your French is but give me a shout if you find something promising but have misgivings about.
Other good thing about gites is you get dishwashers, washing machines and more than one bathroom/loo thrown in for much lower prices than the equivalent properties in the UK. But it is stretching it to call them villas!

JanH · 10/03/2006 10:54

kp, there are lots in Poitou Charentes with a pool - not sure how many would be available near the sea but they tick the pool and countryside boxes - \link{http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/index.cfm/fa/find.squery/reg_refno/366/pool/1/uni_min_bedrooms/3/cur_id/3\holiday rentals}

Marina · 10/03/2006 10:54

They are great Janh. Only downside compared to the Tunnel is that the "facilities" at Boulogne once checked in currently consist of parking under a whiffy underpass and eyeballing a portaloo. No Pret or boutiques hors-taxe! :)
Lovely staff, and our last crossing was crammed with what looked like Mners to me! All very convivial.

Original poster

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 10:55

Thanks Marina that is all useful to know. Location and basic facilities much more important than villa-iness (defintely don't want someone else's posh furniture to worry about...) so gite may well be the thing. I too have made the sea / beach mistake (and indeed the unswimmable beach mistake)...

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JanH · 10/03/2006 10:58

Look at this one!!!

\link{http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/France/holiday-chateau/country-house-Charente/p7723.htm\It's a mansion!!!} (and available all year atm)

Marina · 10/03/2006 10:58

I am going to be controversial and say I think with the exception of Saintes and the zoo at Le Palmyre, and La Rochelle of course, I think Poitou Charentes is a very boring part of France! Miles of sunflowers palls after a while and some of the resorts are too crowded for words.
Who needs baking sunshine and Pineau when you can visit V3 launch sites and the fabulous Plopsaland Parc d'Attractions in the verdant and cheapo Pas de Calais with peu de touristes! (A good way to disappoint every single member of the party kp..."we're going WHERE?")

lapsedrunner · 10/03/2006 10:59

Highly recommend www.gites-de-france.fr

Marina · 10/03/2006 11:00

My best French beach moment was on the fermenting mudflats of the Gironde estuary. Like Weston super Mare but with searingly hot sun and without the charm. Phew-weee!

Marina · 10/03/2006 11:01

Hmm, is "under an hour from the beach" by French or British driving standards I wonder
But what a fab property

Original poster

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 11:02

But Janh, it is not also simultaneously in a vilage and by the sea!
Funnily enough my mother loves Le Touquet and would happily holiday there but I find the beach a bit hardgoing for smalls and some of the other seaside towns seem a bit concrete. Where would you recommend, Marina?

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Original poster

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 11:04

We also had a memorably bad experience at Bagatelle theme park (Bag-a-hell was the politest thing anyone said about it...)

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Marina · 10/03/2006 11:11

Hardelot. I've always felt despite their best efforts Le Touquet is very much a dirty weekend for loved up couples destination (nothing wrong with that).
Friends with insanely energetic boys love Wimereux but we have never beached there.
Actually, the beach at Boulogne is spotless and well-maintained and even has usable WC publiques. It's by Nausicaa and just not easily seen from centre ville.
Might cross Bag-o-Hell off my list then
That bad, is it? Mind you, we are the family who managed to have a memorably fun day skulking in a V2 tunnel near Marquise

Marina · 10/03/2006 11:13

Krabbie, is Brittany a possibility? Have good memories of the Presqu'ile de Quiberon as a teen and most of Morbihan is very much small-resort rather than slabbo Royan/La Tranche type stuff.

Original poster

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 11:15

Have heard of Hardelot and passed through Wimereux which did look promising. At Bag-a-hell it rained a lot (not their fault) and there were sort of wild west theme rides but it was the poor shabby tiger in a tiny cage which finished us off...My mother likes the shops and caffs in Le Touquet and the market.

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JanH · 10/03/2006 11:15

We have been to Houlgate (near Deauville) 3 times with small-ish children and liked that a lot - once in a gite (d/w not working and I used to get belts off the washing machine - it wasn't from gites de France though ) and twice with Eurocamp.

The beach is a bit busy during the day in the summer though.

Original poster

krabbiepatty · 10/03/2006 11:17

Went to Brittany a few years ago during that heat wave summer and only abiding memory is of looking for air conditioned places to hang out in. Am attracted ti fact the Pas d C is less crowded...

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Marina · 10/03/2006 11:18

St Valery sur Somme further south is a rather charming resort by all accounts, but I think there is a certain muddiness due to the river estuary. It is the only resort along that coast definitely out of our cheapskate price bracket which makes me assume it must be a bit special.
Also what with la grippe des oiseaux its large number of bird reserves might mean it's not the place to be this year.
The French are very odd about animal cruelty, it's a shame. These relics of menageries do them no credit at all :(

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