Anyone done the driving to south of france type hol with 3 kids?

[nfhhenry]

have just returned from the vendee area and did an overnight stop in Le Mans splitting the journey, it worked really well. Has anyone the experience of driving to the south of france with kids & what route did u do. We'd like the warmer sea for the kids to swim in

[Playbill]

Used to do it with the kids some years ago. Route we took was either Calais, Paris, Bourges, Clermont-Ferrand to Languedoc region where there are nice beaches and warm seas.
Or further east via Lyon to the Cote d' Azur.
We have stopped in Bourges, Clermont and Lyon overnight. These places are between 400 and 500 miles from Calais. Early ferry to Calais plus the autoroute means can be done without too much bother.
If you do decide to go book hotels on way before hand. F1, Etap and similar all good for overnights and much better than finding hotels are full and having to sleep in the car.
Did it last year and this year with just two of us and it was a whole lot easier and quiter!

[Playbill]

Or even QUIETER!

[craft1948]

Must admit I chickened out of this.....used to put the car on the Motorail at Calais and offload at Narbonne.....

[nfhhenry]

Thank you for all the replies, how much was the motorail to narbonne? craft1948?

[Lil O'lady]

We use to use the Portsmouth-St Malo ferry route because it is more convenient for us Lancastrians. By booking a cabin this gave a good night's sleep & an decent start onto the motorway system southwards. You could easily hit the Vendee in one day (hey that rhymes) or areas like Oleron / Ile de Re.
I've never rated motorail because of the cost, especially now that there are excellent motorways in France.

[craft1948]

sorry henry I've no idea........did it for several years but not since 1990.......can't have been that much as me and my mate were always skint but she owned a holiday home in Argeles so we always went there for 3 weeks......

[Playbill]

Motorail fare during summer will cost �400 -�500 each way. You do get a sleeping berth, but for that sort of money you could spend an extra night in an hotel, pay fuel and toll charges and still save several hundred pounds.

[Paul22118]

We drove down for years and years with two children. The formula we ended up using was fly bucket and hire car. BUT if you drive we found the best was Newhaven to Dieppe. LD lines now operate here and this allows a night crossing with recliners. Arrive early and hit the autoroutes which take you south west of Paris - big plus- and then southbound take a cheapy hotel stop at Macon. On the return do the same but cheapy at Auxherre. That means you break the back of the journey (about 700 miles from Dieppe to St Raphael) by knocking off two thirds of the trip leaving the fresh start to get to the port the following day.