Just wanted to share this pin with you all. She (for me) is the epitome of Summer style. I like Cath Kidston BTW (made comment about the difference between her rose prints and this one) so do not mean to sound snippy but I so so so want that hat.
Hi Carrie What a shame about the job. It is so discouraging, especially when you truly feel you'd be great at it. I hope another opportunity comes along soon but in the meantime, enjoy your holiday.
- The secret (as it is anywhere) is layering of natural fabrics. I avoid fussy necklines, waistlines as in the heat they twist and stick. Pairs of both casual and smarter shorts, flippy skirts for still days and some longer light fabric skirts can keep you cooler then the sun beating down on bare legs. And you can always do a 'Flasher style waft' when nobody is looking!
No blacks/dark colours in the heat of the day for me as I overheat so easily.
Sleep Would the French not welcome your young child en restaurante? The places near where my Father lived used to make up child plates of the most sophisticated meals for little kids. They would put cushions on seats for them and invite into kitchens. The dogs have their own 'menu' in many high end places too 
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I've not been to the French Alps. You'll have to pin some of the places you visited. We often visit Brittany whether as a destination or en route to St Malo/Roscoff/Le Havre. I adore the NE and NW Breton coasts, their rugged dark granite, utilitarian life styles and separateness. Paimpol is a favourite fishing village. It is not en route to anywhere though. As for stopping points, Honfleur, Deauville and Le Touquet are very smart and make you want to dress up, walk smartly to a restaurant/bar and eat Moules. In the Loire I like Richelieu, Poitiers (avoid that space park though) and Angers for the lovely shopping, riverside and surrounding countryside, forests, the castles and vineyards. Look out for Breton salt caramels as you drive down-most supermarket stock them! And Carte D'Or Calvados, apple and caramel ice cream......
The medieval town of St Pauls near Vence is somewhere I have heard people praise and Vence seems reminiscent of Alghero in Sardinia with its five medieval gateways and warrens of old buildings full of artists and artisans. D H Lawrence used to be buried here didn't he? If you drive out of town you'll find less tourist-orientated Brocantes and village markets and there will still be linens to be had at good prices. I have a set of six Orangina bar-tabac glasses and they can go for ££ so you might consider snapping them up (and other brands like Pernod) if you are an Ebayer.
If you want to visit a castle then I adore Villandry in the Lower Loire region-exquisite gardens with a low bridge under which swallows fly and swoop in rigid patterns and routes nearly low enough to hit you but always managing to avoid it. The pottager style grand gardens are edged with stepover fruit trees and we gorged (illicitly) on the pears that had fell onto the soil. It is great for children too with sweeping lawns (you can run on some), parapets and walls to climb, forests edging it, lots of twisty and straight paths for running and gory stories of ancestor battles/ghosts....
this Conde Naste article on French islands is good and has photos of Belle-Isle and Isle de Re. I never realised that there are tiny islands off the Southern French coastline, some nature reserves, some banned to visitors but some with hotels and places to stay. These are my next travel ambition.
I have noticed so many interesting braided and twisted hair styles in Corsica amongst locals and tourists. The little girls had beautiful up braids- helps in the heat with those gorgeous little tendrils clinging clammily to the backs of their necks. I so want to develop some braiding skills but think I am a bit too old and not-dewyyoung-of-complexion to pull off anything more than a messy bun.