France - help advice needed

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We have heard wonderful stories of holidays in France from Normandy right down to the South of France. We would love to go and have 2 young sons (5 and 3) but we are not campers. Whilst I would love to be brave enough to camp I know that I would hate it and spend my holiday moaning!

We are thinking of Vendee or the Dordoyne but have no idea where to start. Are these good areas to visit for places to see / good weather? Can anyone suggest any good gites for first time visiters to France. We want something with a bit of luxury so that we feel like we're on holiday but nothing that is going to warrant remortgaging to go for 2 weeks. Any help would be wonderful...are we mad to be comtemplating going to France with young kids?

France is great for kids! We usually go with gites de France. They have a website where you can search what's amvailable in the department you want to go to. I last went to the Dordogne as a child, but had a wonderful time.

Thanks Trazzletoes, I will have a look at that website. My husband is less keen so I am driving this decision to go to France. Determined to find somewhere nice so he can say "I told you so"...

For the Vendee with young children you can't beat www.vendee-vacances.co.uk Nice heated pools and all set up for young children and babies.

We find places via www.homelidays.com. Even in high season you can get a villa for around £500 a week, around £1000 a week for villa with own pool. Cheaper if part of a complex etc. All areas are beautiful and with plenty to do.

BTW it's not a typo, it is hoMElidays

Have been driving to France for the last 4 years since DS3 was a baby, DS2 is now 10 - no problems, long journey obviously (especially since we drive from Glasgow and break it up by staying overnight in Folkestone), we have driven to the Alps, the Dordogne, Languedoc and this year the Vendee. All in a day from Calais, in hindsight would probably break it up if I was going as far as the Languedoc again but the Vendee is certainly drivable in a day from Calais.

First couple years we used cottagesforyou but this year I persuaded my DH to let me book it direct and used chez nous and then booked a lovely gite with its own pool for £550 in July. Then booked the eurotunnel direct to.

Also try owners direct, heard lots good things about them if you want to book direct.

The Vendee has a microclimate similar to the South France which is why we picked it, saying that this year there was some rain and cloudy days as apparantly the low lying jet stream has affected France to. The year we were in the Dordogne in July was lovely, high 20s every day. I loved our accommodation in the Vendee more (it was beside a canal and you ate on the decking there) but would like to go back to the Dordogne now the kids are a bit older and see the caves we couldnt see.

Dordogne is brilliant for children, we are just back after our 3rd year there. We rented a 3 bed cottage in high season for £900 - not the best quality wise but had a pool, trampoline, table tennis and two sets of play areas. www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/sarlat/29927 Best thing about it was the location, it was within walking distance of a little restaurant, and close driving to Sarlat, caves,some great gardens, a forest tree tops challenge and lots of castles, oh and canoeing.

We also stayed here www.lepavillondestagnan.com/index.php/en/ which is slightly further north. The accommodation was nicer and the owner couldn't have been more helpful plus his daughters babysat for 3 euros an hour but it was slightly more remote for visiting things.

If you aren't fussed about having a pool then you could get something a lot cheaper, but with children we found that a little bit of sight seeing plus going to the pool was enough for the day.

If you are going for two weeks you might want to split it up into two cottages as the area is quite big and it means you would get a different perspective on the area - or maybe you could do a week in Dordogne and a week in the Vendee.

Another option to consider is a mobile home on a campsite (eurocamp, keycamp, canvas holidays are all excellent operators). If you keep away from the coast there is nothing 'kiss me quick' about the sites. The big advantage you get with campsites is that there will be facilities on site - shop/takeaway/restaurant. You will be able to get your bread every morning and will probably be able to get an English newspaper (a little luxury we enjoy).

We have done villas, gites and mobilehomes and came back to mobilehomes as the holidays were just so good.

BTW your DCs are not too young! We first took DD1 when she was less than a year old. DCs are now teenagers! Campsites are great for all ages.

This year we stayed here in Les Eyzies, Dordogne, and then here in the Loire Valley. Both were lovely and had all mod cons, including UK tv. Very family friendly. We have done holidays in France most years since dd (8) was baby, and always had a great time.

Next year we have booked here near La Rochelle. We have also done a couple of Siblu stays in the Languedoc.

We live in Australia and did a Europe trip and by far the most beautiful country was France. The Dordogne was our favourite, we stayed at a place called Le Banquet www.lebanquet.com and my little girl (6) loved it, she made some great friends there and didn?t want to leave, I had to drag her away from the games room every day to go out, there was so much to do in the area we were there for a week but could easily have filled up 2 weeks.

The cottage we stayed in was absolutely spotless we found it on www.holiday-rentals.com It was a bit more money but it was worth it for the luxury, would definitely go back.

Ooh snap, MumofTiegen.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions. I am going to spend the next couple of days but your suggestions to use in researching our next holiday - we already like the look of Le Banquet. Thank you :)

We ahev been using Chez Nous for years and have always had very good properties with them. This year we found that their web site was especially good to use and helped us search easily by area, type of house etc.

We have also booked direct with gote de france once and got a lovely property. The only thing there is that I think you are more likely to find that the owner is French than through someone like Chez Nous. Which might not be an issue depending on how good your French is or how good their English is!

We have been going with DD since she was tiny and have visited both the areas you mention - both good choices. Vendee would be much more of a beach holiday which might be exactly what you want with young children. These days we prefer the Dordogne but our DD is now a teenager so likes different things.

We've just come back from 2 weeks in a mobile home (like you I could not quite bring myself to camp) at Les Penyrals in the Dordogne. It was fabulous and the site is perfect for all ages with fantastic pools, table tennis and a really good play area but is still quite small and very civilised.

I would go with the mobile home on a campsite, purely because there are very likely to be other dc for your to play with and this they often love.

There are many campsites that do very plush mobile homes and it doesn't really resemble camping one little bit but you get the advantages of having a pool and play area and a shop nearby.