France with your family - tips, tales and blogs | Packed

France with your family - Family hike in a country lane

Hop the Channel with your family and explore France’s delicious flavours and breathtaking landscapes to the full: cycle it, walk it, sail it, or just play, kick back and relax. We’ve been there, and we brought our kids along. Follow us.

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France with your family

We've been there... Slowly up the Midi

“It’s just a floating caravan!” That was my wife’s first unhappy reaction to the sight of Beauregard, the French canal boat that we were about to spend the next seven days on.

France with baby

Exciting holidays are still possible once you have children, and the French mountains are an ideal destination for little ones, says France holiday specialist Alison Willis.

10 reasons to go self-catering

Self-catering accommodation can often be the best option for your holiday – making your stay more relaxed, comfortable and fun. Self- catering expert Matt Richardson tells us why…

France for casual cyclists

You don’t have to be training for the Tour de France to enjoy a French cycling holiday. The Loire Valley offers gentle pedalling and pretty chateaux to stop off at, says Alison Willis...

We've been there... Le Touquet Paris-Plage

Last summer six cousins and I squeezed into a large estate car with all our camping gear and spent a few days pottering down the coast of northern France...

Pear Tarte Tatin from At My French Table by Jane Webster

French recipe: Pear Tarte Tatin

Try this delicious recipe from At My French Table by Jane Webster. This glazed upside-down pastry is traditionally made with apples, but the pears give a lovely texture.

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Returning to the Auvergne

Eight years ago, I spent a year in Le Puy-en-Velay, a small, historic city in the south of the volcanic Auvergne region, deep in the heart of rural France – la France profonde, as they say... Having never written about it at the time, I return to it now...

Absent minded holidays?

Recent reporting by the Department for Children, Schools and Families this month has revealed yet again the extent to which parents are taking their children on holiday during term time... However, we in the Geography Collective take the view that a new, more holistic approach to holidays is needed.

Moving to France

In 2001, Justin Saunders decided that adding a couple of extra miles on the commute for a better life would be worth the effort... although this commute was to be from France. Here he describes the experience of buying and living in France and whether it has met his expectations.

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