France, not a city break, and without a car -- any ideas, please?

[CandiedGinger]

I'm looking for somewhere to take my two (young teenage) daughters in the summer, for a week or so. My problem is that I don't want a city break (we live in London so really need a bit of nature), but we also don't have a car. Usually we tend to stay in youth hostels in the UK, and that's been lovely, but I would love to take them a bit further afield this time, so was thinking France, perhaps. Does anybody know of places that are not too hard to get to? A small town, perhaps with a hostel or other not-too-expensive accommodation, with a bit of countryside around it? I know it doesn't sound too difficult, but somehow I don't seem to know where to start -- thank you for any ideas!

There are millions of places and the train network is good, just beware because there are ongoing strikes on trains and they have severely disrupted the whole rail network (not international trains like Eurostar but national ones).

I've recently been to Compiègne (Picardy, in the north), near Béziers (Languedoc, in the south-west), a few places in Burgundy near Le Creusot station - not Le Creusot itself (although it is useful because it is a TGV station, the only stop between Paris and Lyon) but small towns around that area. All those are lovely and fit the bill. But there are many other wonderful places too! The Loire valley is popular (I haven't been there for a few years but it always used to be gorgeous) and not too far from UK.

Hostels are not that common in France. There are various cheap-ish hotels or you could consider camping? Tbh I'm not sure about that side of it as I'm usually staying with friends, hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along soon.

I've stayed in Danish, Dutch & Belgian Youth Hostels with my daughter from ages 2-10 (oops, not French ones, I realise) and they have been pretty good. We nipped around by train a bit in Belgium and the trains were really well priced (even if the restaurants were expensive). Somewhere like Switzerland has some beautiful countryside and railways/buses up into the mountains (not sure about hostel prices, though) - they still have Lidls etc for food.

You might get some good ideas from this website (I've linked to a possible French itinerary) blog.hihostels.com/2015/04/a-summer-route-through-south-france-paca-languedoc-roussillon/

Don't rule out Airbnb's (I can't help thinking that YHA prices have gone up quite a bit).

I’m currently 15 mins walk from Avignon, having arrived on the Eurostar on sat. We didn’t bother to hire a car as have found loads of nice trips. Today we went for a long walk along a canal from villeneuve (ie walked from the house), tomorrow we take a train to Arles wher3 we’ll pick up bikes and a picnic and do a 20 mile off road track.
Youth hostel 4 mins walk from our door (les angles).
Avignon itself is beautiful. We walk across the bridge each day to eat and mosey round.

Oh yes and yesterday we were taken on an amazing wine tour of chateau neuf du pape

Second Avignon, as per Mumble’s recommendation. Lovely town, the weather will be nice (hopefully!), you can do direct Eurostar from London and it’s fairly easy to do lots of day trips without a car.
Youth hostels or Auberge de Jeunesse do exist in France, personally I haven’t stayed in one since my school trip days though!

Not sure what sort of price range would be looking at but you can get a ferry from Portsmouth to st malo in France which is a lovely port town. Brittany ferries do the ferry and holiday. They do apartment holidays with a shared pool or caravan type holidays with pools. Beach close by and there are plenty of places to stay in st malo so you don't need to travel far from the port. They might be a little expensive in summer holidays though. Alternatively you can book a ferry and b&b through Brittany ferries and stay in st malo which will probably be cheaper. www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/holiday-search/France/brittany/St-Malo/hotels/HF2982/st/book?pricedate=2018-05-18

Thank you! I'll definitely have a look at Avignon straight away (thank you mumble and lichen), the hostel blog looks fantastic! (thank you madcats), and thank you (fink) for the other ideas -- this is plenty, and I'm feeling much better equipped for the summer already.

Excellent -- St Malo has just joined my list! thank you!

You could fly to La rochelle, get a bus over to the il de Ré then you can jusr cycle round for the week. Affordable accommodation is mostly in the form of camping/mobile homes.

Ohh yes I’ve been to La Rochelle/Il de Re too and didn’t have a car. That’s definitely worth a look. St Malo I have visited many moons ago as a child; can’t say I remember it well enough to recommend!

I was going to suggest st malo. It has lovely beaches as well.

I recently went to France car free for hiking in the beautiful Luberon area. I flew to Marseille, coach to Aix then coach to Apt. Apt is in the centre of the Luberon which is a National Park area. Unspoilt countryside, lavender fields, olive groves, hills. You could also access the Luberon from Avignon. There are limited coach services between the towns and surrounding villages. It’s true there aren’t many youth hostels in France. There are independent gites d etape which are similar and good places to stay as staging post in a hike. Good luck, it sounds like a great idea!