France town

[bamummy2]

We are looking for next years summer holiday, we want to go to France because it’s a lot cheaper for us to drive and have a car then fly/pay for car hire. But we’ve been to rural France before and found it to be a lot of ghost towns and not a lot of restaurants.

Can anyone recommend an area that has a nice town with restaurants, just a place for dinner and a walk in the evening?

Are you wanting to stay in a town, or stay rurally but have easy access to towns with restaurants?

La Rochelle is lovely and great restaurants but it’s a bit painful to drive in and out of so would recommend as a place to stay rather than for daily visits

If you want to stay rurally but visit towns with restaurants then somewhere like the Dordogne or Loire or Canal du Midi areas might work as they are well touristed so will have lots of restaurants in the towns.

Dinan and Pont-Aven are lovely and relatively unspoilt, yet have enough restaurant and cafes in to last you at least week! They’re in Brittany so not too much driving.

The Drome region in France has some lovely towns, like Nyons, or further south, Buis-Les-Baronnies. The region sits above Provence, it's not as busy, but it has the rivers and lavender fields and markets. It's a wonderful part of France. It's be a long drive though, although you could fly to Lyons and pick up a car there.

Annecy is lovely and has everything - a lake with beaches, parks, mountains, a beautiful old town and Canals.
It's quite expensive however.

Montélimar is south of Lyon and pretty much the start of the Provence région. The centre is small but has restauarants is surrounded by lavender fields and picturesque villages. Prices are much cheaper than Annecy and the weather generally a few degrees warmer. There are a few cosy, family-run hotels to choose from.

Nyons in the drome.

If you want to go down to the south of France then Aigues Mortes is wonderful. Not far from the coast and near Montpellier.

Beziers! or Ceret, a bit further down the SE coast, practically on the border with Spain.

We are currently in the Dordogne between Montignac/Lascaux and Sarlat and there are night markets and indoor/outdoor concerts, art exhibitions restaurants and loads of markets etc. We are staying quite rurally but there is loads if you look!

How far do you want to drive? Lovely towns - Strasbourg, Colmar, Troyes, Dinard, St Malo, Dinan, Honfleur, Sarlat, Montignac, Les Eyzies, Beaune, Aigues Mortes, Beziers, St Emilion.....

Great suggestions so far, will check them all out. We are happy to drive south to get the best weather.

Really we want to stay rurally to have a bit of space around us but be within a 20 min drive of a town, not too big just enough to eat out maybe 4/5 nights. Or to be able to go and get a coffee/ice cream.

We stayed in Charente before but everything was closed most of the week, there was a choice of 2 restaurants for dinner and they were always fully booked! So just need something a bit more lively!

Aneccy as one poster has said!

South West, Ceret (it has the most amazing MOMA, Miro's, Picasso's, Rodin's!), Canet-en-Roussillon, Colliouré, Argelès, Banyuls, Perpignan.

South East, Fréjus, St Raphael, Grimaud, Antibes, anywhere in Var really, except St Tropez or Cannes.

Dordogne - Sarlat

Loire Valley - Saumur

Have stayed in gites/campsites outside both of these and they are busy in summer.

How about Sete? It is surrounded by countryside and beaches but is reasonably enough sized for restaurants and bars to be open most days - Sunday can be very quiet though. you can stay in an apratment or hotel in the town or a aprarments/camp sites further along the coast and get the bus or cycle in.

Quick warning - if you or your party do not eat fish the choice of restaursts reduces drastically.

Bordeaux is fabulous

Sarlat is hell in the height of summer.

Saumur- lovely town, great country side, chateaus, troglodyte villages, decent supermarkets, nice restaurants.
La Rochelle or even Les Sables for some beaches as well.

We were in Perpignan last month and really enjoyed it. A smallish city - it is very walkable, plenty in interesting history and places to eat and drink, very distinctive Catalan and French culture, warm weather, an easy bus or train ride to beaches and countryside.

Roccamador, medieval hill town in the Dordogne, beautiful, small, cute hotels and camp sites on the waters edge. I lived in France for many years so have seen lots of it. This town stands out.

Try Vannes.
on the coast and easy access from the channel ports.

Montpellier is lovely. Loads of restaurants

We stayed in Larressingle it is lovely, known as the most beautiful village in France. It has two restaurants in the village by the castle and the town of Condom is 10 minutes away and we also ate in restaurants there.

Arles in the south - my parents used to take us most years (I was also conceived there haha). Have since visited as an adult once and still loved it. Would love to go again one day.

I'd second loads of these suggestions though just thought of another, Jarnac. Lovely little town on the river and within easy reach of loads of good places to visit. It's a little north east of Bordeaux.