Where to go in France

[Caterpillargirl23]

I'm looking for ideas for an area to go in France plus recommendation for the villa company.

Almost guaranteed good weather in June-August, not too hot so not the south.
Near lakes for swimming.
Ideally with a train station nearby but otherwise an airporrt within a reasonable taxi journey, say 30 mins.
Thanks for your help.

We holiday in France. I book my villa’s through HolidayLetting. Bordeaux area is a good place to go, a bit far from Calais but well worth the distance.

Thank you. I'll have a look.

The only place in France, in my experience, with guaranteed sunshine is the South East, which also gets very hot. You are likely to get decent weather in all of the Southern half of France but it's not guaranteed. Last summer I believe was not great weather across most of the country. We don't like it too hot and mainly go to Loire or Brittany. Brittany has a reputation for very unreliable weather but we've always been lucky.

I like the Loire Valley- all the big towns (Blois, Tours, Saumur, Angers) have stations. It's not too far to travel. Burgundy region has lovely lakes. Sounds like you are planning to travel by train. Would you hire a car as I imagine accessing swimming lakes could be hard without one? Annecy has a beautiful lake which you can swim in and probably wouldn't need a car. Summer weather is generally good but can be influenced by the Alps nearby.

In terms of accommodation, we tend to use gites de France. They have a real mix though from very luxurious to very rustic! Check the map for location as they can be quite rural. Also lots of accommodation on Vrbo, which is similar to Air BnB.

I had a lovely holiday as a teenager at Lac Hiourtin near Bordeaux. It was close enough to drive to some fantastic beaches too. I briefly looked into going back there when planning this year's summer holiday and it seemed great value accommodation wise when I looked at booking.com and air b&b.

Thank you for your help. Yes ideally we'd travel by train and manage with public transport once there.

Agree with the suggestions near Bordeaux. Arcachon is good but have only visited as a day trip.

Arcachon is a good shout. I was there for a week last year and it's a lovely town with lots of places to eat out and things to do. It's got a nice beach and regular train service to Bordeaux (45 min). It has pretty architecture typical of that area but not a villa type of place. You would be renting a house or apartment really. Have a look on Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO etc

I would suggest that you choose your destination very carefully if you cannot hire a car. We travel by train to Limoges, but we definitely need a car to get to our destination (my uncle's house, about forty five minutes away - he lives in a town, but there is definitely no reliable way of getting there other than driving) and to get around once we're there. It really is very rural and there are very few buses.

If you can hire a car, there are car hire places in or near most major French stations and you don't need to choose your destination so carefully. I would happily travel around by bus, but there just aren't any where we go!

Annecy

Another vote for Annecy.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Car hire isn't off limits, it just adds extra cost (and stress). We may even drive our own car.
Trying to find the perfect place, quiet, rural, good weather and somewhere to swim.

We went to annecy and it was so beautiful, escpecially thr little towns around the lake. Great to go up into the alps and thr town itself was gorgeous. However because of thr mountains the weather was a bit hit and Miss. we did have some gorgeous weather but we also had rain and overcast days