France Holiday

[ClearSky456]

Looking into a family holiday in France this summer. Keen to find somewhere unspoilt, traditional and pretty, and definitely not too busy, that is easily accessible by public transport or short taxi from a major airport. Would prefer to be based in a smaller town or village with access to countryside, than in a city. Is there anywhere you would recommend? Or is this unrealistic without hiring a car?

There's a little town called Montbard in Burgundy which has a fabulous campsite https://www.montbard.com/index.php/tourisme/camping-municipal where you can hire little huts/lodges with cooking equipment, outdoor benches, fire pits, lots of space, walks, bike hire, brilliant indoor pool, river swimming etc. There is a rail station on the rail line from Paris to Grenoble, TGV, Eurostar from London to Paris. Beautiful countryside, friendly, warm.

Oh that looks lovely, I'll have a look. Thank you!

Montbard is indeed a great little town. It has (or used to have) a cricket club, several of whose players were Brits who worked on the canal system.

Would it be fine to spend a week there without a car, do you think?

From Marseille, you can take the train to Sisteron, which isn’t too busy, yet has enough of a tourist infrastructure for you to spend a week there.

I think that might be a bit of a stretch for a family. I would compare it to spending a week in somewhere like Chipping Norton. There is the train to Dijon and a couple of buses a day to Époisses, where they make the smelliest cheese in France (which is fabulous, although perhaps not for everyday nibbling). But if it rains for more than a day you are going to wish you had a car.

That sounds ideal, thank you. Have been to that area before and loved it. Though I guess it will be quite hot in the summer months. Any recommendations for where to stay?

Ah okay! Chipping Norton! 😂 Reluctant to drive having never done it, but I realise it is restricting without a car! Thanks for words of wisdom

With no car, unless you plan to stay in the villa all the time, a town or small city may be better. Rural France can be very rural!

Last year we went to Perpignan, which is a small city right down in the South and it was pretty well connected by bus and train to a lot of small towns and villages along the coast to Spain. So perhaps you could stay in one of those and Perpignan is there if you want more.

Having never driven in France? It's not a huge ask. The main thing is remembering to drive on the right when you start again after a break. We have a little ceremony: Front-seat passenger says "Drive on the..." and driver responds "right". Otherwise you'll find your reflexes for things like overtaking mirror themselves fairly readily. And contrary to scary ideas promoted by sellers of accessories, the Gendarmerie have much better things to do than pull Brits over for not having four hi-vis jackets in the car.

(I mentioned Chipping Norton only because it's a similarly sized pretty town. Montbard doesn't have a twin town in the UK but that would be a good choice.)

I have looked at Perpignan before actually, that's a good shout, thank you. Though I suppose it will be very hot in the summer (we don't like too much heat!) 😂

Yeah. It can get hot. So we went in early July and it was low thirties every day, perfect for us but maybe too much if you are not keen on the heat?

Low thirties would be okay, as long as there is air conditioning!

Has anyone been to Bergerac or Bordeaux? Would either be a good base for a week's stay with children? Are they unspoilt and safe cities, or pretty built up and busy?