Where to drive to in France?

[Juniper4004]

We'll be going by Eurotunnel in late June, when our children will be 2y9 and 5 months.

We're looking for somewhere coastal with sandy beaches, warmer than the UK and not too ridiculous a drive.

We could stay overnight to break the trip up, but both children might not settle and then I'll be wrecked for the following day (and I'm the sole driver.)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I feel like we're going round in circles!

I think the Vendee is probably the answer. About 6.5 hours drive from Calais, long sandy beaches, lovely weather. The south Vendee is less crowded than the north (and because of the motorway system is not any longer to drive to). La Rochelle, whilst not in the Vendee, is nearby. If you want to be on the coast then La Tranche sur Mer, if you don't mind being in land a bit the near Fontenay le Comte.

Does it have to be Eurotunnel?
If you took the ferry then most of Brittany is very accessible

We've had fabulous weather in Normandy in May/June. It's pretty handy for the tunnel & there are some amazing beaches.

Granted it's a bit less reliable than further south in France, but a good long way south of the southern coast of the UK.

We stayed in Houlgate 3 times & it was great weather almost the whole time.

You don't mention accommodation but we stayed here with Eurocamp. Less than 1km to the town beach (& there are plenty of other beaches around to drive to) plus lots of on-site facilities.

www.eurocamp.co.uk/campsites/normandy/nr014-la-vallee/ataglance.html

5foot5 I swapped £50 of Tesco vouchers for £150 of Eurotunnel vouchers. It seemed like a really good deal, but I hadn't looked into how long a drive it'd be to anywhere at that point. Possibly a bit short sighted.

we went to the isle de Re which is stunning - near Bordeaux, flat island and easy to cycle around with little kiddie trailers for hire. we combined this week on the coast with a week doing a bit of posh camping in the countryside at lecamp in south west france - www.lecamp.co.uk - this was amazing - lovely natural swimmning pool and they are so kid friendly I was relaxed. seems pricey but it is actually good value given their facilities compared to other places that we have been to.
always a struggle to find the perfect place! good luck....got go pick up the kids, running late...

What about St Malo?

Lac d'orient is drivable from Calais. Big lake with a sandy beach. We had lovely weather there in early September.

We've been to La Vallee at Houlgate too & had a great time. Lovely sandy beach. We had lovely weather. Vendee is warmer but not too hot. It's quite a way from Calais though.

If you book with Eurocamp or similar, there's a campsite outside Calais where you could book an overnight stay or a couple of nights, then drive over to the Vendee to break the journey.