"French summer holidays" a France Travel Page by MikeBird

For most of the last 10 years we have spent time during August in France camping on small farm sites. We've explored many different regions but because France is so big and diverse you can always find somewhere new to discover and still be delighted.
We try and avoid the major cities and tourist centres always preferring the more rural locations. Usually there is a wide choice of farm campsites available. They are inevitably very good value for money and often surprisingly well equipped. Camping is always a great way to meet people and our children have struck up friendships with French, Dutch and German children in the past. We've never worked out why but we rarely find other British families on our farm campsites. Perhaps the Brits prefer the larger sites where the tents are already erected? We can't see the attraction ourselves but everyone wants different things out of a holiday.
Self sufficient camping does require more effort and a high level of organisation but we think it's worth it partly for the flexibility: if it rains you can move on, but also because after about a week in one place we feel ready to explore another part of France.
If you like the outdoors, are looking for a relatively cheap holiday and are prepared to go without some of the usual comforts of modern western lifestyles then we'd recommend independent camping on French farms. We've never booked and never been turned away so it's a very flexible way of touring and discovering France.
Another bonus with camping is that because you're spending less on your accommodation you can stretch your budget to enable to do other things like sailing, paragliding or canoeing. We did all of these during our two weeks in August this time in the Tarn Valley, near Millau in Aveyron.