Our Luxury Family Holidays in France

Getting a luxury family holiday to France is vital. France is so close to us British types! And so interwoven with love and conflict.

It is easy-peasy to get to, even after the crass stupidity that is the result of Brexit. It is harder than it used to be to enjoy the splendour that is France, but not impossible. Who knows... in the fulness of time...

Anyway, lets not get bogged down with recounting the lies we were spun. Onwards...

To your luxury family holidays in France

France is so close to us British types! And so interwoven with love and conflict.

It is easy-peasy to get to, even after the crass stupidity that is the result of Brexit (and when the French civil aviation authority aren't son strike!). It is harder than it used to be to enjoy the splendour that is France, but not impossible. Who knows... in the fulness of time...

Anyway, lets not get bogged down with recounting the lies we were spun. Onwards...

To your luxury family holidays in France

Luxury family holidays are the perfect opportunity for families to spend quality time together while enjoying the best that travel has to offer. The French countryside has breath taking landscapes dotted with ancient chateaux. These types of holidays offer a wide range of activities and experiences that cater to both children and adults, providing the perfect balance of relaxation and excitement.

Here are some of the key features that make luxury family holidays so special.

Spacious Accommodations.

Luxury family holidays offer spacious and comfortable accommodations that cater to the needs of the whole family. From multi-bedroom villas and suites to family rooms with interconnected rooms, there are many options available to suit families of all sizes, whether for two children or more. Family rooms in the best family friendly hotels in France give you the simplicity of a family room and the luxury of service.

Luxury Holidays Amenities

Family resorts accommodations often include amenities such as private swimming pools, kids' clubs with music workshops, table tennis, table football and play areas, providing plenty of space for children to play, do nature trails etc. and adults to relax.

Activities for All Ages.

Luxury family holiday offer a wide range of activities that cater to both children and adults. From water sports, fitness classes and beach games to cooking classes and cultural tours, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Many luxury resorts and hotels also offer kids' clubs and a babysitting service with baby monitors, giving parents the chance to enjoy some time alone while their children are entertained, allowing families maximum holiday time.

Gourmet Dining.

A Luxury family holiday offer the chance to enjoy gourmet dining experiences for evening meals that cater to both adults and children. Many luxury resorts and hotels offer children's menus and special dining experiences for families, such as private beachside dinners, tasting session or picnics in the park. This allows families to enjoy delicious food in a relaxed and comfortable setting. When it is this good, do you want to self cater?

Personalized Service.

Luxury family holiday offer personalized service that caters to the unique needs of each family. From arranging private tours and experiences to providing childcare services, luxury travel agents can tailor the holiday to meet the specific needs and preferences of each family member. Your travel specialists will be ATOL protected with their ATOL number.

Time to Connect.

Luxury family holidays in France provide the perfect opportunity for families to disconnect from their daily routines and spend quality time together. Whether it's playing games on the beach, exploring a new destination, or simply lounging by the pool, these experiences create lasting memories that strengthen family bonds. Its not about sending the children off to kids club, because kids club is not offering them the culture and the together time!

So, luxury family holidays offer the perfect blend of relaxation and excitement, catering to the unique needs of each family member. From spacious accommodations and activities for all ages to gourmet dining and personalized service, these holidays provide the ultimate family travel experience. So why not treat your family to a luxury holiday and create unforgettable memories that will last a lifetime?

Imagine staying at this stunning chateau in south west France for your luxury family holiday

Why Go To France For Your Luxury Holidays?

France is an excellent destination for a luxury holiday for several reasons:

Rich Culture and History

France boasts a rich cultural heritage with a long history of art, architecture, and fashion. The country has countless museums, galleries, and historic sites such as the Louvre, Versailles, and the Palace of Fontainebleau that exude luxury and sophistication.

World-Class Cuisine

France is renowned for its gastronomy. A luxury holiday in France would include dining at Michelin-starred restaurants, indulging in local delicacies, and savoring exquisite wines from famous regions such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne. Most French towns have colourful food markets to sample the local delights.

Lavish Accommodations

France offers a wide range of luxury accommodations, from opulent hotels with a family room for up to four people, or family suite with a parents room, and chateaus to charming boutique hotels and private villas and a family resort to enjoy. Many of these family friendly establishments offer personalized services and world-class amenities, ensuring a memorable stay. At family resorts you can expect to be amongst other like minded people at the family friendly resort or family hotels. You'll want to consider if it has a heated swimming pool, table tennis, tennis court (or multiple tennis courts), a private beach, a Michelin starred restaurant nearby for evening meals (any good local restaurant will do). Maybe a fitness room or private chef.

Fashion and shopping

Paris, the capital of France, is also the world's fashion capital. A luxury holiday in France could include shopping for high-end designer brands at the famed Champs-Elysées or exploring the exclusive boutiques in the Marais district.

Beautiful Landscapes

France has diverse and breathtaking landscapes, from the glamorous French Riviera with its stunning beaches and yacht-filled harbors to the picturesque Loire Valley, known for its fairy-tale chateaus and lush vineyards.

Amazing Beaches.

France features miles of sandy beaches around the west coast and the south coast. Around La Rochelle is famous for its sandy beaches and you might find luxury family holidays in France with their own private beach! Around Nice and St Tropez you will find stunning sandy beaches along with more family resorts.

Exclusive Experiences

France offers a wide array of unique, luxurious experiences, such as hot-air balloon rides over the Loire Valley, private wine tastings in Bordeaux, or guided tours of historical landmarks.

Easy Accessibility

France is well-connected by air, rail, and road, making it easy to travel within the country and explore its various regions. The high-speed TGV train network allows for quick and comfortable travel between cities.

Language and Hospitality

The French language is often associated with romance and sophistication, adding to the allure of a luxury holiday in France. Additionally, the country is known for its warm hospitality and exceptional service, ensuring that visitors are well taken care of during their stay.

Expect a Heated Outdoor Pool.

When it is wonderfully hot in the French summer sun, families on holiday need a heated outdoor pool to plunge into to cool off with your family. Make sure that your heated swimming pool has the legal requirement of a safety enclosure of some sort for the safety of all the family. (It is a legal requirement in France for a heated swimming pool to have 1 of 4 types of safety device, such as a fence or cover over the swimming pool). Is it an infinity pool, a large or small pool or a glass enclosed swimming pool?

Overall, luxury family holidays in France offer an unforgettable experience of indulgence, relaxation, and cultural enrichment.

Where Did We Go For Our Luxury Family Holiday?

We spent a day in Paris to gawp at the Eiffel Tower, see the sprawling pavement cafes for a bit of people watching that blend romance with street grime, and try one of the local restaurants (it wasn't that great to be honest).

The small pool at the family friendly hotel was basic but necessary as it was roasting hot, so for families like us, we just plopped in appreciatively.

The family resorts place we stayed at did have air conditioning there, which is a must in Paris on summer days, as well as table tennis so my children were content, but it honestly was not what we wanted so I'm not going to mention it here because I don't want to bad-mouth them. They just were not a luxury family holiday type of place we had been lead to believe.

Moving on...

Having driven down to the south of France, south west France really, and cruised the 4 hours from Paris comfortably on the amazing, smooth and empty French motorways (keep up Britain!), we arrived at our luxury family holidays in France.

It was everything we had hoped for.

A comfortable, massive house without being ostentatious. It is not one of those sprawling family resorts places where you don't get any privacy. If you want private villas in the south of France, this was ideal.

As the guy who owns it said to us - it is like having your own kingdom in the south of France; Rural, secluded in acres and acres of land, ideal for families who want a bit of peace, far from the madding crowd.

It is ideally for 1 large family or a family get-together of adult siblings, their partner and all the kids.

There is a massive swimming pool with a secure glass enclosure so you get outstanding views from the terrace next to the farmhouse villa, out across the pool and to the forests beyond. I could also keep an eye on the children and everyone in the pool area while having a glass of Chardonnay wine sat in the Jacuzzi hot tub on the terrace.

Tough work!

We spent a lot of our days out on the terrace with the children in the pool, while us "boring old people" lapped up the sun on the terrace, and cooked lunches and dinners on the brick barbeque which is off to the side.

Indoors, walking in to the house is a unique experience. We were introduced into the house through the main front door (there is more than just one front door!). This comes into area of the house with the bedrooms. The rooms are all large, spacious doubles so nobody is crammed into tiny spaces. Each of the rooms has a double bed. There are 4 rooms downstairs and the one Master bed upstairs which is quite spectacular, as is the bathroom.

But what is truly unique is I was shown to the end of the hallway corridor, and asked to open the wardrobe door at the end of the hallway...

And as I opened it, a new world came into view...

They've brought to life the wardrobe door from the Narnia series.

You pull open the wardrobe door, and step through into a cavernous, modern Banquet Hall. This, they tell me, is a converted old stone barn that used to house cows and hay bales. Now it is a double height, vaulted ceiling room with chunky oak beams up at the high roof top, with clever uplighters up there, highlighting it all.

In this big old Hall, is a lounge area at one end, an open kitchen area and dining area at the other end, and a meaty brick chimney in the middle that almost separates the two halves.

There is another barn conversion that is entirely turned over to being a games room. I've been in houses which were small enough to fit two of them into this games room alone! There is a full size pool table, a drinks bar, table tennis, table football, air hockey and a cinema. We watched a couple of films here and the kids are now demanding we get a cinema at home!

We didn't come with our dog this time, but we are very likely to come back with the pooch because this place it ideal for dogs. They are well set up for it - acres and acres of space, and dogs are managed in the large cellar under the house where they can keep cool on hot sunny summer days of France, without the need to come up into the main house and get the rooms messy.

There is a lake on the property which is nice to walk down to. My kids were itching to go out on the lake in the little boat they've got, so after we had read them the riot act of how to behave safely and what the rules were, out they went. It would be a lie to say they came back in as dry as they left. And their welly boots were a bit squelchy on the walk back to the house.

There are plenty of forests all around, but far enough from the house that you've got views and it doesn't feel enclosed like in some forest villas I've been to. Because the forest are owned by the same villa, we were allowed to go in there and muck about, make dens and generally let the kids do their kids thing.

Because of all this, for many of the days, we didn't leave the property. Or maybe one of our group popped out to the local shops to get fresh bread and croissants for the day, and that was it.

Back home, plop into the pool and... TSSSS... open up a cold one! Hey, we are on holiday!

The only sound was the farm animals in the next field over.

Normally children get bored-feet after a few days of staying in one place for any length of time. Here it was about a week into the holiday before any such urge was surfacing.

We did a holiday day out to the Dordogne River, went canoeing at Brantome which is an absolute hoot on a hot day. Be prepared to fall in. You will want to. I had worried, as one does with children, that they would struggle, have problems, maybe the danger, maybe just physically not be able to do it.

I shouldn't have worried. The kids were brilliant. "Mum, watch this!"

The joy of children!

Another day we went out to the local lake which has a sandy beach and you can swim quite happily. There is another which is a bit further, at Ruffiac, which is has a nicer beach, as well as a local restaurants.

Oh, and another great day in we had...

Was cooking a hog roast!

Never done it before in my life. What an experience. It was arranged for us and delivered, and we were given a crash course in how to become an expert chef. Not exactly, but we felt pretty god about ourselves.

We prodded and poked the fire for most of an afternoon, while mooching about with wines and beers. You have two fires going. One that you light like a normal fire, feeding with logs, which burns, then burn down into charcoal embers. Then you shovel these burning embers across onto the other 'fire' which is underneath the rotisserie which gently spins our hoggy friend.

And 5 hours later, we dined on the most sumptuous, juicy hog roast dinner I have ever had!

In the past I've search for family resorts with more obvious amenities like fitness classes and a kids club, which this place doesn't have, but having been here, with its serenity and remoteness, I honestly see no need for anything else.

For families looking for a luxury holiday in France, I would utterly, thoroughly recommend this beautiful place. So many happy memories!