Any advice for our summer holiday with a 1 yr old in southern France / Italy

[jellycat123]

We're planning our first summer hols as a family with our 1 yr old - really fancy somewhere like Provence or similar with beautiful scenery , plenty to explore , not too far from the coast pref a villa with a pool- clean and comfortable and baby friendly. Has anyone stayed anywhere they were really impressed with - would be very grateful for any reccommendations. Thanks

We stayed here when DD was 8 months

www.villadesmaures.com/

Pros - beautiful scenery,

• great area, lots of lovely villages to visit,
• the vllage has a lovely market couple of times a week, bakery, restaurants etc all within a couple of minutes walk
• villa had baby equipment so saves hassle
• not too far to the coast

Cons - pool was really cold, we were told it was unusual as there had been a storm the week before and apparently the rain cooled it down

• a bit sparsley furnished, but adequate
• although there are lots of places to see and it is not too far from the coast, they are very bendy country roads

Overall I would recommend it, esp with small children but I wanted to let you know the drawbacks

We have an ultra child friendly villa to rent in the south of France, see our small ad here] on mumsnet

Thanks guys very helpful we're going to have a good look this weekend!