Disco3club

I think this summer we are going to head over to France and aim South for some sun. The plan is to drive and camp along the way and then either have a villa or just camp when we get there. I've not done much in France before so I am looking for any advice on where to go, where to stay on the way South. We don't want big resorts, just want to chill out. Whatever we do needs to be child friendly.

We'd also be looking for the same info Stu. Not staying on the coast as they'll be too packed and too commercial. Want to be around an hour from a beach in southern France. Campsite with kids recreational area, decent sized pitches for our humongous tent. Want to visit carcassonne so that needs to be drivable too.
Swmbo has researched it to death and it's doin' my head in, so any recommendations would be welcome!!!!

We've been looking at:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie= ... 6&t=h&z=13

It looks stunning and has miles of beach, anyone got any thoughts or advice on it?

France Try Cape d Age ,Vias plage Valras plage not to far from Carcissone,Montpelliere olake salagou if you like watersports Spain.There are a couple of quiet resorts over the border St Marti and L Esccala there s a campsite down at Montgo Bay.

Thanks Chris, will take a look

Where we have always been is about 100k north of that between Soliac & Montalivet. Much the same I would imagine, just miles of beautiful beaches. Also the lakes around Hourtin are great. You will need your on as many are nudist beaches
It's quite nice to go across on the ferry from Royan to Souliac rather than drive down and around Bordeaux. Icecream on the sun deck!
There are a lots of tracks & sandy fire breaks to explore, but we did get very stuck once and spent 2 hours winching out to Kerry's displeasure.. Needs 2 vehicles really.

Following on from this...Looks like we're going to aim to be camping somewhere in France in the last half of July. Any specific recommendations for sites close to the beach with swimming pool (Anita's gotta have a pool or else it doesn't feel like a holiday to her. )

My advice re France after spending many years working for BNP paribas & BMi is goto to Portugal its way nicer

North France to Paris I found boring the further south you go its gets better

Used to live in Portugal, would love to go back...The problem for me is finding family friendly camping (the camp sites around where I would want to go tend to be populated by antipodean surfers and their betties; not very conducive to family life) plus the 2-day+ drive (as I may as well fly given the costs of the ferry to Bilbao/Santander ~£1000 return when I checked last night!). Portugal ends up costing the same no matter how I slice it: too much for this year.

Would definitely head down south for France, either Aquitaine or Cote d'Azur.