Holidays france

[Gardenfairy678]

Hi all

We just got back from a holiday in Verangville su mer, beautiful countryside, walks, near cliffs with the sea, also visited vueles Les roses lovely place. We got the ferry which I found to be quite pleasant not so much on way back with the motion and fumes. I was thinking about next time maybe doing the train to Calais as we have kids so shorter journey for them but would mean we would have to drive longer on the other side if we wanted to be in the more secluded parts of France? Where is some lovely places you have visited with your younger ones? We would love scenic walks, things to keep kids entertained, supermarket nearby as would be self catering, near the sea, I'm new to visiting France so I'm open to ideas. We would have a car so accessing places isn't a problem just don't want to spend whole holiday driving.

We love camping but wouldn't do that till they are older

I would recommend upper Normandy, we used to go every summer with the kids, Saint Vaast Le Houge, Barneville-Carteret, Barfluer are all lovely seaside towns with lovely restaurants and beaches. Also great WW2 history - approx 4.5 hours from the Eurotunnel. Le Touquet is about an hour from Calais but very expensive!

We had a lovely holiday with DC near Bayeux in Normandy. It is a bit of a drive from Calais - took us about 4 hours.

Otherwise Le Touquet was very nice and a short drive from Calais, or the Baie de Somme a little further along the coast. Northern France is never reliable weather-wise of course.

I have a holiday home in Morlaix, Brittany, and it's really lovely there. It's a tidal port with flowers planted all around the port. They have a huge aqueduct you can climb up and over. The town has many little shops and old preserved medieval houses and buildings including fabulous Italian ice cream and freshly squeezed orange juice.They have a Tourist Information office where you can hire bikes. They have green routes you can cycle on. They have nice restaurants and also Subway and 2 pizzarea. and a lovely market twice a week. There is a swimming pool complex and spa about 4 miles away. Nearest beach, is about 12 minutes away. They have a diving platform on the beach. There is also a cinema and museum. A ferry goes from Portsmouth to Roscoff, which is a 35 minutes drive to Morlaix. There is also a large train station in the middle of Morlaix and the trains go to Paris and many other destinations.

We took the train to Bordeaux last summer, Eurostar to Paris and then TGV down to the south, was really easy, we then hired a car in Bordeaux. It was for a family event and everyone else flew, but had a very similar journey time to us.

We have driven and done LeShuttle a few times, there are some lovely spots in Normandy, I second staying near Bayeux. We have also gone to Lot and stayed overnight at Le Mans or Orleans to break the journey down.

We are off to Dordogne in a couple of weeks. We are travelling on the shuttle, driving to Evreux to overnight then carry on to Dordogne the following day. We avoid Paris if we can.

No DCs this year but we have been doing the drive with DCs since they were tiny. We tend to stay on campsites in mobile homes. Even now the DCs are grown and gone we still like this sort of base.

Great places we have stayed with DCs:

• Carnac in Brittany - old fashioned seaside resort with the added bonus of standing stones. There is (or was) a walk through the woods which allowed you to get right up to some stones. Quite a magical place.
• Sommierres - inland Provence though you could get to the coast. Very beautiful.
• Sete - Languedoc-Roussillon we stumbled into river jousting which DCs loved.

Driving with DCs was never a problem. They had DVD players so would settle down and box set their way through. The worst time was when the DVD player broke and the little sods entertained themselves singing songs and playing games - hell for DH and me😃.

So many suggestions and ideas, thank you! Going to look at some of these places for inspiration so we can plan a trip next year hopefully, thank you everyone for your help

Can I ask if you remember how you booked the train/approx cost? We were looking at doing similar but the journey was coming out as £800+. I see people like Simon Calder talking about how it can be really cheap if you book in 18 convoluted ways so wasn't sure how difficult it is to do it without it costing more than the accommodation!

I don’t remember the cost, we had Eurostar vouchers from a covid cancellation to use. Man in seat 61 is you’re go to for all European train information. https://www.seat61.com/index-mobile.htm

For Eurostar, if you get on the mailing list, you should be alerted to sales. Best advice would be to book as far in advance as possible and be flexible on dates, and then you might be able to get returns from £70 each. (Or be super flexible and last minute so you can respond to special offers but appreciate that’s not always compatible with school holidays!)

But for Normandy/western France, personally, I’d grit my teeth and do the longer ferry to Caen or Le Havre, or Cherbourg.

Thanks @wonderstuff and @CatStoleMyChocolate 🙂

Brittany is lovely. There's an overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo which we've done and the children enjoyed. The return crossing is daytime and I found it a drag but I think there are high speed crossings to/from Cherbourg so might look into that next time we go to Brittany.

Eurostar + TGV is a good option if you're happy to travel light. Depending on the ages of your children it can be tricky with car seats if you're hiring a car at the other end; you have to hire car seats or take them with you. Anyway, if you do get the TGV, there are loads of great options.

This year we're actually going to the northern coast of Belgium as it's a short drive from Calais and there are good family-friendly activities and accommodation options there. Worth considering too.

I haven't really been to Normandy much (apart from a wedding in Caen years ago) so can't comment on that option.