There is so much to do on holiday, whether it be a lazy day on the beach – don’t forget sunscreen and hats- or touring grand chateaux, gardens, picturesque villages or a museum. When the children are small you can still get away with a museum trip. We always found that a good balance was best and as an example, over the years we became quite adept at finding childrens’ playgrounds for our children to enjoy. Treats, particularly ice creams/lollies have also been popular, and can be enjoyed by the children while you enjoy a coffee at a pavement café. People watching is very much a part of life in France and it is quite acceptable to spend as long as you like at your café table – or at least as long as your children will let you.

Places to hunt out with small children, apart from the obvious seaside are shallow rivers for paddling and using fishing nets. Our children when much younger spent many hours enjoying just this sort of activity on for example the Dordogne and Gardon rivers.

Eating Out:  Obviously some compromises must be made on holiday. Gone are romantic dinners à deux, but to counter this, eating out at lunchtime en famille is very rewarding, and lighter  on the pocket as most restaurants have special, cheaper lunch-time only menus. Some restaurants will have high chairs, but we found that keeping a portable, travel high chair in the car was invaluable for emergencies. (This also proved excellent for use on picnics). There has been much written (lots of it negative) on the subject of children in restaurants and French attitudes in general to children in restaurants. We must say that having holidayed in France since our eldest (now 14) was a baby we can confidently say that all eating out experiences have been positive. The children have probably lost count of the number of ‘surprises’ they have been given at the end of a meal to take home because they have been so good, and this from the restaurant staff as well as other diners.

Following a routine:  Early on during our holidays when the children were young we realized pretty quickly that any semblance of routine should be allowed to slip. Bearing in mind that much, if not all of France shuts down for 2-3 hours over lunch-time we found that the time available for visiting places was somewhat limited, especially if you had a late morning start. Imagine the scenario – we had one memorable occasion when with 3 children under 3 we had got up (late), breakfasted and headed out, only to reach our destination just as it was closing for lunch. So we decided that as this was a holiday we would not head back to our gite to feed the children tea at 5.00, with bed at 7.00 but allow some flexibility into our day.

In short, a holiday in France is a wonderful experience for the family and one I cannot recommend enough. The French, are a very hospitable people, who are often given a bad press. The secret is to remember that this is a different culture from what we are used to and to meet the locals half way. It helps if you at least try to talk to them in their language. Children are part of this culture and while the stereotype is of exceptionally behaved French children this, as in all things, is not always the case! So go and enjoy the experience as we have.