Annual French summer holiday base for family - French immersion

[livelaughcryatwork]

Hello,

My little family and I (husband and 8 year old son) are looking for an annual August holiday location in France. We are all learning French and would love to have one place that we go back to every year for French immersion and memorable childhood summers for our son. Hubby and I will be working (mostly half days) and we would love our son to make friends that also spend their summers at the same location.

What we are looking for: somewhere where families repeat visit every year, not too touristy (our goal is French immersion), sun but husband is adverse to very hot weather (he doesn’t cope in 30 degrees), enough to do for a month (day trips, local amenities, cafes, restaurants etc), we won’t have a car so walkability/bikeability is a big plus as is public transport, ideally not heaving with people (although we live in London so can handle crowds but would rather not be fighting for a spot on the beach). Ideally we would like our son to attend 1/2 day activities (sailing, kids club or similar activities) and then one of us would spend the other 1/2 day with him.

Places we have considered: Île de Ré (Le Bois), Southern Brittany (Gulf of Morbihan), Angers (for the lake and access to Loire Valley). I’ve only been to Paris so have no first hand experience with any of these areas.

Any tips would be appreciated! I’ve been trying to use ChatGPT to narrow down places but it just agrees with everything I say! I need some real life input!

I would go north Brittany. We stayed near Carantec and it was utterly lovely round there. Like Cornwall but fewer people.

What work would you being doing? Technically you need a visa / work permit, though probably chances are being caught are remote.

I spent about 6 years going to different places in France for holidays. We bought a holiday home in Morlsix, Brittany. We like it's only 40 mins from Roscoff so we travel over on Brittany Ferries overnight so get decent sleep in cabin and a cooked breakfast. Then it's a 40 min drive to Morlaix. Morlaix is a port town so has a very pretty port you can walk around with pub about halfway round. There is also a large aquaduct to climb up over. They have a large tourist information centre where you can hire bikes. 2km outside Morlsix they have a route verte where you can cycle along. Spectacular scenery whilst cycling. The tourist info gives maps of various destinations. There are picnic benches en route. Morlaix has a market twice a week. They have various restaurants including 2 Italians and pavement cafes. About 2 miles away they have a swimming pool complex with a lane swimming pool, a fun family pool with balls and a large shute into the water then a junior pool with lots of DC toys like boats to sail, armbands, safety floats etc. Also an outdoor water play place all for 1 cheap price and you can stay hours. In Morlaix itself there is very nice Italian ice cream shop, post office and boulangerie with best croissants. My foster sons learned to ask for a stamp for UK and his ice cream in French from an early age. We take our car and there are several safe beaches within a 35 mile drive. At some sandy coves we have only had to share beach with one or 2 other families. 1 beach at Carantec has a large diving platform in the sea and a volleyball net on the beach and childrens play areas with things like pedaloes, and table tennis tables at back of park. Again ice cream shop and cafes at top and a big car parking area too. We jokingly call one local beach the pensioners beach because you park and walk about 15 metres on the flat down on the sand and we noticed quite a lot of older people there some with grandkids. There is a caravan park there. They do paddle boarding hire and wind surfing lessons. We often collect pretty shells on this beach. We go to another beach just past Plestin Les Greves with huge granite bolders on the beach and it's never crowded. There are several large hypermarkets nearby to buy food. If we travel about 40 mins from Morlsix they have a huge Go Ape type place with climbing and huge zip wires. They have a mini course too for under 10's. If we travel a bit further we go to Lac au Duc. There is a hydrangea walk around the outside. Kayaking, paddle boarding, patange area and outdoor trampoline place around the back again very reasonably charged for entry and you can stay as long as you like. We usually do a maze as the foster children like those. In France mazes have activities as you go around eg bouncy castle or giant connect 4 game. There loads of other things too but the above are our favourites. My foster DC spend hours swimming and body boarding in the sea with DH. We always take a cricket set and a football and foster kids have lots of French kids joining in. I try to make sure foster kids come home with more French each year. We ar going for 2 weeks this July but some years we have gone for 5 weeks. I find there is less bickering and complaints of boredom when they are on holiday and I have found some time to even read my book on the beach. DH is known for making spectacular picnics. We leave a lot of things there like sand toys, kites, body boards, wet suits and swim stuff so we can travel lighter. Also help we have a washing machine and dryer so no need to take too much clothes. This year we are taking 3 foster teens and eldest ones gf too. Property is very cheap in France so we have 7 bedrooms in our house and often have visitors for a few days whilst we are there.

See my post on Morlaix about 20 mins from Carantec.

I've spent time in Carnac but they have nasty biting flies in the sand. Even with lots of towels down we all got bit.

My family did this (holiday home in the south). My french is still pretty rubbish though!

Have you considered Annecy. A good sized town, very beautiful, perfect for sailing, loads of activities in the nearby Alps, lots to visit.

Thank you for the North Brittany suggestions. This area looks absolutely beautiful and it would have made my list but it looks very tidal and some rough waters. The dream is to be able to go swimming whenever we please. Correct me if I’m wrong though!

@TheDogsMother Annecy was the first place we looked at but the hot temps and crowds in August put us off.

@MissAmbrosia we will just be working at our UK jobs remotely. Very lucky our workplaces are both flexible!

For "on site repeat" French friends I recommend the campsite model - not a big Eurocamp type place, there you risk having too many Brits and not enough repeat French families. You also then have the possibility to let your DS run free and make friends (often repeat campers, year on year) - transport may be an issue so choose location wisely - maybe an annual mobile-home rental?

To speak French well you have to make an effort to speak to French people on a regular basis. Can be harder if they have dialects which are hard to understand/different from French.

Good that they are flexible - are they aware of the tax and insurance implications? They are inline for a potential massive fine if it's not all done properly and you get found out. Plus risk of you getting chucked out of Schengen. Sorry to sound a misery, but really since Brexit what you are proposing is not allowed.

We are literally talking about one month per year here! But just to be sure, I checked the requirements and that period of time is allowed.

Whatever you do dont go to dordogne

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain if you wouldn’t mind asking your friend if their holiday home is still available for end of July or beginning of August for a month that would be great. I imagine it will already be booked but if not, we would be interested.

Thank you 😊

@livelaughcryatwork if you’d to swim whenever you like, sail and don’t like it too hot, I really would look at the Alps again. Fly to Geneva, and there’s a train round to Evian (1 hour.) That’s a lovely town with safe beaches, water parks, a sailing school, plenty of opportunities to speak French. And you’ve got Montreax, Lausanne and Geneva nearby. You don’t get anywhere near the volume of tourists they get in Annecey. Or hire a ski apartment in one of the resorts (cheap as chips in the summer) and hop on the bus down to sailing each day and enjoy the cheese and mountain air. The public transport is pretty good about there, if you’d rather not drive. Our kids loved spending weeks with us and grandparents about there, hiking, tennis, doing sailing school, doing stuff in the resorts (summer toboggan is a favourite) and hanging about with friends, English, French and Swiss. Now they are older teens, we have an apartment and still go out each year for skiing and in the summer. Friends with younger kids do the same all summer in Val d’Isere, which is stunning.

If you are working make sure your internet connection will be up for it. DH and I are about to spend three months in a seaside town near La Rochelle and DH has bought a Starlink to bring as he will be working and we know the house we will be in won’t be suitable without it. Our eldest used to go to sailing school for a week every year when he was probably 6-9. He had a ball, we just needed to teach him the basics like “I’m thirsty” and “I need the toilet” which of course he promptly forgot once the week was over - there was usually at least one staff member who could speak a little English anyway. He was a pretty outgoing kid though!

We’re in Brittany at the moment and it’s gorgeous. It meets a lot of your requirements. Summer temps are normally similar to Southern England temps. Last week we had 40° I hate high temperatures but I guess even us Northern Europeans are going to have get used to those. 😔