While visiting the Alps, we attended Aux Bonheurs des Momes, a festival full of circus, games, and other performances in Le Grand Bornand, a rare traditional village in the Haute-Savoie, between Annecy and Chamonix. The festival dates change every year, but it's always sometime in August.

From there we were able to visit Chamonix, Cirque du Fer a Cheval, Col des Aravis, Annecy, and other spots. If you want to take the cable car up to Aiguille du Midi from Chamonix, you might want to check out what that entails in advance. It is somewhat weather dependent, since you won't see much on a day socked in with clouds.

Obviously, on Fodor's you will get a lot of knowledgeable folks who have different opinions. It's all good. I could spend 2 weeks in a micro-region of France but also I could travel widely visiting a different country each week. I have done both happily. I still say if you are looking for something to do between Brittany and Sarlat, then I would hit a place like Arcais (of course, you could always stay in La Rochelle).

Re Annecy:
I spent 4 very happy nights on beautiful lake Annecy in Talloires, using it as a base (in the Auberge du Père Bise), spending one day in Annecy (via boat from Talloires) and day trips to Megève, La Cluzaz, Le Grand Bornand and Mont Blanc.
I loved it.

Hi again !

We have a hard time finding our base for those 4 nights. Some says St-Malo is a nightmare of driving.

Option A: St Servan (near St-Malo) we can have an appartement with a parking. That would be nice to come back and go dinner every night intra muros of St-Malo. Getiing out to go to the west can be hard I guess (only one bridge over the rance river). Beach and aquarium for the kids.

Option B: Dinan. Nice place, plenty of restaurant but nothing for the kids to do.

Option c: Anywhere that we can have easy acess with car, restaurants and something to see !

Thanks !

I'd pick Dinan, and I'm curious why you say there's nothing for the kids to do there. Seems to me there's every bit as much, probably more, than in St-Malo.

St Servan is farther away from Intra Muros than you might think. We drove through it several times this year going & coming from dinner in St Servan, dinner in St Malo/Intra Muros, visit to St Malo/Intra Muros, dinner in Parame, and the train station 3 times. There is no charm whatsoever in St Servan. Also, no charm in the St Malo section east of Intra Muros. I don't think you would be happy in St Servan if you are looking for something to do within walking distance. And as I stated previously, I'm not a fan of St Malo. But I do love Dinan. Unfortunately, a huge fire the day we arrived destroyed an historic restaurant in Dinan. But Dinan and it's port are quite intersting to explore.

Stu Dudley

"Option c: Anywhere that we can have easy acess with car, restaurants and something to see !"

We have French friends who have a home just on the edge of Dinard-still walking and biking distance to the market in Dinard for example. It is called St Enogat. It much easier to park there and you can walk to bakeries crepe restaurants and there is a mini-golf and other things like nice parks for kids. If you want to see the area on a map it is the village area around the Hotel Thalassa Dinard-you can look at on google maps. It has a nice beach and it fun to rent bikes and take the back little "chemin" to the market in Dinard so that you don't have to worry about parking there in the summer. The market is Dinard is really nice-both yummy food but also good shopping-there is a local shop that makes lovely and relatively inexpensive bags and gloves.

In general, like St Cirq we try to avoid both Provence and the Dordogne in July August but we are also French and because we are retired we have the option of going to "heavily touristed" areas in the off season. But I totally understand your position-you essentially have to be somewhere during those month because that is the vacation period you have!

My brother-in-law lives in Annecy and I think it is a fun place for a few nights visit. But Aix-les-Bains is also nice too and is worth a look. Really the distances are pretty small around there so you could base even in a small village and go visit places pretty easily.

Thanks for those answers !

We decided to saty in Dinan. We have found an appartement that fits our needs, the price is great, 5 minutes walk to the center, private parking. We have chose this place beacause we are not that much into coastal towns. most of the time in summer thsoe places are crowdy by beach people. I guess that there must be alot of people in Dinan too, but not as much...we will see !

Good choice on Dinan. If you are looking for an alternate for your one night stop between Dinan and the Dordogne you might consider Chenonceaux with its famous Chateau de Chenonceau.

https://www.chenonceau.com/en/

https://goo.gl/maps/ekFQynzu2WhJeEbf9

We are not that much into castle (our kids are not in fact !) but thanks !

We now have a hard time figuring out what to do between on Britanny base and Provence. We will keep 11-12 nights for Provence, Alps and Lyon, os that leaves us with 8 nights to place somehere between Dinand and Provence.

We have some ideas :

1) Puy du fou: lut that means a lot and a lot of people in the heat of july. That would also meane to nights thre (before and after)
2) Nantes: For les Machines de l'ile, We dont know if Nantes itself is a worthy stop.
3) Dunes de Pilat + Bordeaux: we already seen bid dunes in Michigan (USA), and it will be croowdy. Bordeaux seems meh for many people.
4) Dordogne: 4 nights around Sarlat seem like an obvious choice.
5) Carcassonne : one night stop in route
6) Auvergne (near Clermont Ferrand): that would mean to cut Carcassonne.

Many choices, not enough time ! So any ideas for a family with 8 ans 12 years old kids that love swiming, to rides, bike and kids stuff are welcome !

Thanks !

I think given that you are flying out of Lyon and it sounds like spending some time in the Dordogne, I would opt for the route that takes you to Nantes for the machines-which are fun. We love Bordeaux but I agree that I don't think it has that much of interest for families with kids your age and with your interests that I think it might be worth skipping and also skipping Dunes de Pilat as well. I do think you could entertain yourselves for more than 4 nights in the Sarlat area-there are wonderful "gabarre rides" that are fun-here is an example of one:

https://www.gabarre-beynac.com/

And if you enjoy canoes swimming and and hiking and just hanging around outdoors then you have lots to do in that area. I also think if you are up for another big city, Toulouse might be more fun for your family than Bordeaux-it is larger and have a fair amount of fun things to do.

Unless you really like the historic theme park visit then I would skip Puy du Fou in July-just because as you mention it will be hot and crowded. Another fun park that will also be crowded but less so is Futuroscope. I could be too much of detour but maybe not depending on what you decide. And I also included a link that shows the 20 major theme parks in France and how many visitors they have so you can get a feel for how crowded they might be

https://www.futuroscope.com/

Classement des parcs d'attractions en France - Top 20 Visiteurs 2018


We finally drove through the Clermont Ferrand area and went to visit Puy de Dôme last June. It was fun but I don't think I would skip Carcassone for it. I personally, St Cirq like the village of Carcasonne but find the medieval citadel way too touristy but of course if you are there you should see it.

So I guess if it were me I would see the machines-Nantes is a nice town with some nice architecture so if you needed to make it an overnight stop I think you would enjoy it but I think it would also work just come to Nantes to maybe have lunch, see the machines and stop overnight further along on your route. Then I would allocate more time to the Dordogne, Langedoc Rousillon area-particularly things like Pont du Gard and probably skip Puy du Fou and Clermont Ferrand area. I may be wrong but I think you will be surprised at how much you find to do in the Dordogne area and while it is crowded in the summer there is a lot of space and beautiful things to see so it never feels as busy to me like the beach towns that go from 3000 people to 30000 people-because as you say everybody wants to be on the beach at the same time. And every time we bring friends (with and without kids) they end up being very surprised at how much they liked the Dordogne area and all the southwest of France in general compared to areas they might be more familiar with .

Also, I think since you are not that into coastal towns you are making some good choices there to stay more inland.

"No-brainer" again. The Dordogne. Of all the places you plan on visiting - I think the Dordogne will be the favorite for you & the kids.

I'm not a big fan of Nantes - too much of it was destroyed in WWII.

Stu Dudley

Ditch the Dune du Pilat and Bordeaux. Bordeaux isn't the slightest bit "meh" IMO and IME (one of my very favorite cities in France), but as a destination for kids, not so great.

Ditch the Auvergne. You won't be sorry to have two nights in Carcassonne. You can make a quick visit to the Cité, then enjoy the rest of the city, which is wonderful in summer - boat rides on the canal. music in the Place Carnot, gardens, a nice Musée des Beaux Arts............

Stop in Nantes on your way south if need be, but no reason to linger.

Add the time to the Dordogne.

I’m not sure if you ended up finding a base or not for Chamonix and Annecy but we spent a week in Geneva in 2017 and it was a great base for both towns.

Good morning !
Thanks once again for all the answers and folow up !

Still not decided about Puy du Fou. My boy really want to go there, but whne I rqd long waiting time, for a 30 minutes show, hot, crowdy i'm not sure at all that I want to deserve 2 nights for that place. We still have to find something that please our kids (and a canoe rental in the Dordogne wont do the trick with them !)


Thanks Jpie (for the answer and the links). We are not sure about les machine de lile. Beside the elephant there seem to not have much to see there.

I read a bit on the Dordogne this weekend. Yes it seems to be great but not sure about kids fun. Canoing while having an heatwave..not sure.

We (us and the kids) have seen tons of castle in our last 4 trips to Europe and we also have seen caves in Slovenia last year. Maybe it's an exciting place for people who dont have travel a lot or a new to Europe, but I guess we wont share the same excitation. We still have to go there but not sure about having to keep a lot of time for it.

Ok Bordeaux is now officially out ! Still have to decide about our stop between Dinan and our base in Dordogne (that we still have to find). 2 nights in Carcassonne....that would mean 5 nights in Dordogne. I guess it can be done.

Of our whole travel , this part is the one we have less ideas. For now we are very open minded about where to go/sleep.

"Still have to decide about our stop between Dinan and our base in Dordogne (that we still have to find)."

Well if you prefer to stay inland then you could spend the night near Futuroscope/Poitiers. However, given that your son really wants to visit Puy du Fou, that might not cut it since it is more science than history re-enactment. You could even make a stop in Nantes on the way down for the machines if you want. There are other exhibits than just the elephant btw although I agree that there isn't that much more....

I don't know why you're focused on a canoe ride in the Dordogne. First of all, kayaking is much easier and more pleasant. But more to the point, canoeing is only one of dozens and dozens of things for kids to do there - horseback riding, rock climbing, spelunking, zip lines, learning to throw spears and how to paint in caves, the Aquarium du Bugue, Le Bournat, children's concerts and films and animations all over, scavenger hunts, car rallies, fêtes du terroir, étangs and waterparks all over the place...I could go on.

What have you been reading and why is it so limiting? You certainly won't find a tenth of these things to do in Clermont-Ferrand.

StCirq, you are right about kayaking !

We have found a nice place in Mouzens. I know there's nothing there, but would it be a good base for the region ?

No!!! Not even close. You want to be within 40K or 25 miles of Sarlat la Caneda. Mouzans is south of Albi. 3 hours and 225 K from Sarlat.

Stu Dudley

I think we are not talking about the same place !

Mouzens is at 20 km of Sarlat ! Its near Saint Cyprien.