Kids Favourites in all France:

To help you decide the places that your children will most enjoy we decided to list here the top 10 things our children liked to do in France.  This is not a scientific process as children tend to only remember the things they have done on recent holidays and obviously it is influenced by the child's age and whether they are a boy and a girl.  The list that follows is averaged over 7 children, 2 boys and 5 girls, ranging in age from 6 to 16.

We would be very happy to hear from you about your children's favourites and we will use your feedback to develop this information so that it represents a larger sample of children with more recent experience of all the regions of France.

Anyway here goes....the list that follows was scored by giving 10 points for each child's favourite, down to 1 point for their 10th favourite.  So with 7 children there were a total of 385 points available.

Number 1 on our list is canoeing - scored 62.  The children couldn't identify their preference for which canoe trip they preferred, although our impression was that the Dordogne (left) was favourite followed by the Cèze.....however it is probably no coincidence that this was the order of our last holidays! 

Number 2 on our list was the Haribo Museum (right) with an un-surprising 59.  Actually we expected this would come out number 1 but it was just pipped to the post by canoeing as that was so universally liked by everyone.

In third place with 38 points was the beach at Le Grau-du-Roi.  Quite honestly the beach may not be the best in France but it is the one we have visited most recently and it is helped by the additional attractions in the area.

Next was le Pont du Gard (left) with 34 points and in our opinion, well deserving of its placing.  The Pont du Gard is a place where you make your own entertainment with swimming, fishing, walking......in beautiful surroundings.

In fifth place was the leTrain à Vapeur des Cévennes (right) which earned 22 points.

The items that follow are only separated by a matter of a few points (or not even separated at all!) so maybe it is unfair to distinguish between them.  However this is the order they came in:

Sixth - pedaloes on the lake at the western end of the Gorge du Verdon - 12 points

Seventh - Le Bournat Open Air Museum in Le Bugue - 10 points

Eighth - the Corn Maze at Creysse in the Dordogne - 10 points

Ninth - Le Musée des Blindes (Tank Museum) in Saumur - 9 points

Tenth - The Aquarium at La Rochelle - 9 points

And to help you choose a region we have added all the points given for every attraction to rank the regions in terms of their attractiveness to children:

1. Provence 167 points
2. Dordogne 97 points
3. Loire 30 points
4. Northern France 11 points
5. Charente/Vendée 9 points

Sorry to labour the point - this is not a scientific survey, it is heavily influence by the places we've been recently and the short term nature of children's memories...after our 2004 holiday in the Lot-et-Garonne we would probably add attractions there to this list - we have created a dedicated section just for that region.

And after visiting Eurodisney in 2005 that would be near the top of our list!  To book a holiday there, click the advert below...