FAMILY holiday in FRANCE...where?

[SlightlyMadStuffing]

Looking at camping life or French life cottages.

Lots of sites on the west coast and the cote d'azur. Will be ferry + car. Not sure I can face the drive to cote d'azure. Anyone recommend any specific areas in Brittany or Vendee?

I presume coast is going to give a better all round family holiday than Paris area (Disney)?

Vendee around Sables d'ollonne is great.
There is Puy du fou quite close which is a great theme park, a zoo at Sables, nice beaches.

TY

We went to the lakes in the Auvergne, was marvellous. But better to have at least a grasp of French, as you get very few English tourists there.

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, go to the Cotentin Peninsula. You can get Brittany Ferries from Poole to Cherbourg and can be in brilliant places in less than an hour. Our favourite place is Barneville-Carteret. Gorgeous safe beach for the kids, lots of other stuff to do round about. Have raved about it on here before, so if you do a search for my name and Carteret or Normandy you'll probably find something. Have persuaded at least one other MN-er to go there next summer!

Obviously the one downside is that it's in the north, so the weather is pretty much like what we get in the UK. Suits us as we don't like it baking hot, but clearly it's closer to Brighton than to Biarritz in terms of temperature.

TY - this will be first time abroad and we know a lot less about attractions/areas of France than we do UK!!!

Southern Brittany, around Benodet is lovely - it's still a fair drive from St Malo though.

This is good for first time abroad, I'd say. People tend to speak English and everything is quite user-friendly and easy. Depends if you want it to be really hot or not, though. Brittany Ferries may have places to stay around the area (and they then do you a discount on the ferry too), or if you CAT me I can send you details of places we've stayed. We've stayed in houses/gites, but there are lots of campsites around too.

We will be doing Tesco clubcard vouchers with French life/ Camping life.

Will have a look at the brochure and may come back with some options.

We are going with SIL so have to take her opinons into account too.

Have also camped (pre-kids) in Chatelaillon Plage, near La Rochelle. Very nice round there too, but I prefer the beaches on the Cotentin for kiddies, as the waves on the Atlantic coast can be very high/strong.

How old are your kids, SMS and what sort of thing do you like doing?

Oh, I see... think I've seen those.

Have had a look. Second BIWI... Benodet is nice, though have only been to that neck of the woods once, so not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. Royan is also nice, I think. (SIL went there with family for a number of years.)

Third time at attempting to post this...

We had a pretty good holiday in Southern Brittany a few years ago. It wasn't too far a drive from the ferry ports. We stayed in a Haven/Siblu resort called Domaine de Kerlann near Pont Aven.

The really great thing about hte area was that we were able to go to a totally different beach every day, and still spend plenty of time in a great resort (excellent aquatic area, and cheesy entertainment that the children loved).

Children 7, 7, 2, 15, 11, 9

Holiday stuff, beach, few days out to touristy places. Not into 'activity' holidays really.

Siblu is another option but we got the impression Camping life is better.

Ellbell you start you 17:27 post with "this is good for first time abroad...". What is 'this'. Contentin peninsula?

I can answer for Ellbell I think, she does mean the Cotentin.
We're going there next year ourselves...I am the Mn she put on to this part of Western Normandy!
Barneville Carteret and Port-Bail seem to offer a good mix of beach and not-too-crowded countryside, and you can get to major destinations like Mont St Michel, the Cherbourg Aquarium, the Bayeux Tapestry and the Musee de la Paix in Caen, for day trips.

Tbh unless you are experienced happy campers I'd steer clear of North of the Loire estuary, the weather is quite southern English (which also suits us).

Further south though we had a magical week in Marennes near the Ile d'Oleron and the Ile itself looks super for camping. Sandy sheltered beaches, warm sunshine, a lot of traffic on the main road through it though.

Sorry SMS... had to go out and didn't get back on here. Yes, I did mean the Cotentin (sorry it wasn't clear). But having looked quickly at the French Life site, Benodet or Royan (which is not far from the Ile d'Oleron, but on the mainland) would be nice places. However, I'm not a great expert (on account of going back to the Cotentin all the time!), and I'm sure other places will be nice too. Hope you have fun and sorry for just disappearing yesterday.

HI

Thanks for your help. We are going to go to Vendee coast somewhere. It is probably 50/50 between Benodet and another one.

Cat64 - we priced up Motorail last year as went to St Tropez. However, it was cheaper for us 4 (kids aged 11 & 16) to get cheap BA flights from Heathrow (even cheaper if prepared to go Easyjet from Gatwick) & hire a car! Big disadvantage of Motorail is no leeway if you miss it (unlike Dover/Calais ferries) & no roofboxes.

SMS, you can save a fortune if you go with Matthews holidays - not a vast range of sites but VERY cheap!

We love the Vendee, or slighly further down to the Charente Maritime - generally warmer but still only a few hours from Cherbourg. We have also done 10 days in Vendee/Charente & stopped at the Davy Crockett ranch for 3 nights (2 whole days) at Disney on the way home. We didn't tell the kids who thought we WERE going home so they were sooo excited when we pulled over!

Can also back up the Cotentin idea. We were there last year - great beaches and sand dunes - weather ok but at least you don't have to worry about kids burning. Also perfect if you don't want to drive far from the port.

We have Motorailed to Nice - had one child at the time, and expecting the second.

It was expensive - can't remember how much, but probably a lot more than the cost of travel (petrol, 2 hotels, meals). It was highly restricted, eg no roof racks, and you had to drop off your car several hours before boarding the train. Calais station is not well equipped - we have visions of having a leisurely meal, and it didn't happen. We had to share out my pregnancy stash of food with DH and DS.

The train was set up couchette style from the start. We were second class, so had to share with a couple of women who chatted the whole night.

Sounds so negative, but on the plus side, we did arrive in Nice early the next morning which was quite magical. We did the SoF a few years later, but driving, and it was a lot more tedious with two stops and whole days of driving.

Next year, we will either go to visit family in Canada or go to the South of France. If we do the latter, we will take the train(without the car), and use buses or taxis as appropriate.

The problem with the Contentin is the same as in the UK - the weather is iffy. If you are prepared to travel a bit, you will buy yourself a better chance of good weather.

We did Dordogne last year and LOVED it, ys you need an overnight stop off but the srea is great

SMS
We ahve used Tesco vouchers for French Life for 5 years now!!! Here are my comments on the sites we've stayed on - just shout if you want more info. It's great to get free hols courtesy of Mr T!!!! Next year we're going to Italy with them!!

Y1: Camping les Bois Masson, St Jean de MOnts. had great hols but site is Haven/Siblu run and very British. Restauarnt - food OK but smoky inside and outside you sit beside a main road and using broken high chairs!! Pool was fine. Indoor pool small. Surrounding area and beaches, fab!

Y2: Camping Mane Guernehue, Baden, Brittany.
Fantastic site - best pool complexes I've seen in a French campsite (used to go as a child too). Brilliant restaurant and very friendly. Had a l;ittle tikes play thing in corner at restauarnt which was handy and a bouncy castle just down from it. Adult only pool which was nicwe if you got a break! Site was perfect apart from fact that we were down a steep hill which dh hated. I liked peace at bottom of hill!! FL also have vans at top. 3 fishing lkes and 'mini farm' are a- field of doneys and pen of goats plus ducks on lakes. DCs loved it! Can walk into lovely village with PO, restaurant, tourist info, butcher and baker. Have to drive to fab beaches and lovely towns nearby.

Y3: Camping Village Le Plage, Le Guilvenic, Brittany. Site quite basic but some bar activity for older ones. Pool basic and toddler pool bad. BT perfect location, right on sandy beach. Site actually closed down on us during our holiday!!! Lovely site and you would havhe great hol here if slides and good toddler pool not high on priority.

Y4: Camping Acapulco, St jean de Monts - FANTASTIC!!! Will go back. Ecxcellent pitches, pol complex and restaurant. Good play areas. Within waling distance of shops, restuarants, bars and good beach. Excellent facilities nearby such as St Jean beach, St Gilles, Le PUY de Fou (amazing - have to go) and others. Site was great.Would recommend.

Y5: Camping Les Deux Fontaines: pool complex is fab - 100x better than old brochure photos - have to pre book restaurant though and take away dire - not good for new arrivals!!! Excellent restauarant in nearby village - le Dauphin, was fantastic! Loads of space for kids, discos etc, play ares and a skate ramp thingy the teeneages liked to hang round ina na innocent our parents are watching us type of way! Can walk to beach - lodas of good places to visit, Concarneau, Qumper etc. can recommend.

One thing to watch out for, you only get your Dover/Calais ferries inc in your holiday now - used to bea able toupgrade and get overnight ones too! The overnight Portsmouth/St malo is brilliant but extremely expensive. From Calais to Brittany/Vendee you are taking about a 7 - 8 hour drive. Doable but when dd was a baby we stayed at the Novotel Rouen Sud in Rouen to break up the journey a bit and it was fantastic.

These hols are fab!!! let me know what you think!

Just noticed you mentioned Benodet - nice resort and beach. Friend reciommend the site with the sort of fish type slidy thing in pool - and little train Sorry, haven't got brochure to hand! Quite expensive for next year though- some of the prices went up hideously for 2008 brochure, we fancied jard but it was mega expensive - that's why we're doing Italy!