Having been dissuaded from holidaying with my wife and twins in Scotland, due to it being wet, cold, full of midges and Scottish people, we have decided to consider another plan.

Sail to Scotland, Drive to Cheshire and stay a day or two with my wife's mothers. Drive to Folkstone, then take the tunnel to France.

The cheap way to do this would be camping, but Mrs T has said no. The compromise is to rent a holiday property. I have been looking at these today online and there are some decent places to rent for reasonable cost. Couple of questions?

Does anyone own a property in France that they rent out?

Does anyone travel to France and rent a property?

I'm not really bothered about it having a pool, it does need to have some attractions nearby to visit. While I appreciate architecture and indulging in the cultural aspects of holidaying within a rural community, I will have my 3 year old twin with me, and need to keep them engaged and occupied.

Let me have your views please, on the thread or by PM.

 

Why not rent a longboat and navigate the canals in France rather than renting a gite?
I've always fancied doing that.

 

France is a big place.

Brittany is very nice, but has a similar climate to Cornwall and you have to find your own entertainment. 3 years old will love the beaches that are not particularly busy.

South of France is about a 12 hour drive from Calais.

 

http://www.bargecolibri.com/

My skinny blister / bro in law. ...

 

13,500 euros for less than a week, are they having a fvcking laugh???

 

I can't imagine paying it myself


But there's plenty can/do , theyre well booked up

 

What about going south and renting a mobile home on a campsite? You would get either a river, a lake or the sea, plus usually a pool and the mobile homes have all facilities in them, so no need to use the campsite toilets etc.

Works out MUCH cheaper, plus, unlike most gites, it will have leisure facilities.

Best to hurry now, there won't be much space left......

 

We stayed in friend my parents fixed more mobile home, near Le Muy ?? Not far from glitz of riviera , the site/ mountain had been bought by participating owners for the purpose, had all facilities even swimming pool I think. Cheap too

I didn't go on it much ,mainly cos it was August. ( very busy and hotter than hell) , I remember we won't allowed to open the windows at night for fear of my sister getting mosquito bitten.

 

My parents have a house in Brittany and I love it there. Only 45 mins drive from St Malo and 6 miles inland from some fantastic beaches. We have been in late July/early August every year for ages and completely lucked out with the weather. Don't expect lots of brown signs like you get at home pointing out things to do, you always have to find them! Most holiday homes will have plenty if leaflets to peruse.

I have been to other areas of France and have always had great holidays. Whatever you do, I'm sure it'll be great.

 

We've rented quite a few self catering gites in France. Always fly as the misses isn't interested in driving down through France (though I quite enjoy road trips).

We rented here last year - two gites (plus the ex-pat owner's house). The family in the second gite (lovely folks) had driven down from Fort William via some family in Belgium which is fair old trip.

Another placed we have rented was here - the smallest of the three gites. Again, a lovely place.

 

It's too far IMO. You are looking at about two days each way just to get anywhere half decent
Can't you just get an easyjet flight there and hire a car?
Or a ferry?

 

We have rented a lot of cottages in France over the years. Generally in Normandy for a week (3-4 hours drive from Calais), and further south for a fortnight (up to 12 hours drive from Calais). Normandy beaches are beautiful and there's all the WW2 historical stuff to see. Also food is fantastic - dairy and seafood - and as a Brit there's a warm welcome (re WW2). We have been to the Vendee a couple of times which always promised good weather but disappointed in August, especially for a 6 hour drive. Have been down to Carcasonne (Languedoc-Roussillon) - a long drive but hot and sunny with beautiful views of distant Pyrennees. Have been to the Alps south of lake Geneva - beautiful and great lakes for swimming, boating, etc. Annecy very nice.. Also the Jura (between Besancon and Geneva) - very green and picturesque, so can be rainy but we were lucky. Also Gironde (around Bordeaux) - great for wine and chateaux (Loire, Champagne and Burgundy also good for these!) And of course Le Mans for the 24h, and Magny Cours for the GP. Have camped all over France - would recommend most places except the Riviera/Cote d'Azur as very busy, expensive campsites with fairly poor facilities. We've always booked direct with owners/campsites having found houses on various websites - cottages4you etc... Always found people to be honest and reliable. We've never flown to France as car hire has always seemed punitively expensive for some reason, whereas in Spain it's a bargain.

 

Look up Wissant/ Montreuil sur mer gites/ property on the web and around there - 20 mins from the tunnel - great beaches, seafood, wwII stuff, nice villages etc . We stay in Montreuil a lot and spend the day on beaches like Wissant but there are holdiay cottages all around there