South of France with an 8 month old?

Glowing

Hi all

Planning to head to France with the car for 3/4 weeks this coming May. Our baby will be about 8 months old by then - and we're looking for a nice village to base ourselves for a week or ten days within driving distance of Nice.

We are open to camping (mobile homing!) but want to avoid any chaotic parks. Somewhere quiet, near the coast and with access to a pool, walking distance to child-friendly restaurants and within driving distance to some sights would be ideal. I don't know France at all so would appreciate your advice.

I'm not sure if it's relevant or not but my French is appalling!

Thanks

Mr. Nice

Bear in mind that it will take 2-3 days to drive down from Ireland - I did that trip with the family in July. Tolls and fuel costs will be quite high and you'll probably want to do regular stops with the baby. Ryanair and Easyjet fly into Nice from Dublin and Belfast. You could rent an apartment in Nice and hire a car down here, there are some lovely mountain villages (and Italy) within easy day-trip distance. If you stay in an urban area you will have easy access to shops etc. and you might decide that you don't need a car for the whole holiday. The public transport network is very good down here.

galait

Glowing wrote: »

Hi all

Planning to head to France with the car for 3/4 weeks this coming May. Our baby will be about 8 months old by then - and we're looking for a nice village to base ourselves for a week or ten days within driving distance of Nice.

We are open to camping (mobile homing!) but want to avoid any chaotic parks. Somewhere quiet, near the coast and with access to a pool, walking distance to child-friendly restaurants and within driving distance to some sights would be ideal. I don't know France at all so would appreciate your advice.

I'm not sure if it's relevant or not but my French is appalling!

Thanks

At 8 Months the Child wont be able to walk , Will need a lot of attention ,
We brought our 6 month to Lanzarote and it was not a great experience ,
You have to think of cleaning feeding utensils etc , At 8 months you will need proper baby solid food - Not easy to source in a foreign country ,This all leads to stress when you are out of your own home , I would think again..

Mountainsandh

OP, I'm French, and France is brilliant for baby food, only thing is that it's usually way healthier than baby food here, so if you're feeding jars, expect "green beans and chicken", "asparagus and fish" sort of jars, along with a few blander ones like mashed carrot with ham.
Lots of pureed fruit, and custardy style yoghurts for the little ones too.

Travelling with the 8 months old should be ok, but I think you should go for the campsite mobile home option, even in one of the busy campsites. A lot of these campsites are so large, that if you ask when booking, you can usually get a mobile home in a quiet spot, away from the madness, but you can still avail of all the facilities. These campsites often have at least one large family friendly restaurant/bar, and sometimes several. They have brilliant pools, and if you opt for a seaside campsite, the pools are quiet enough during the day when people go to the beach. There are emergency supermarkets in the campsites (with baby stuff). Pick an air-conditioned mobile home (essential with the baby), and you'll be fine. If you can afford it, try for a mobile home with a reasonably sized terrasse as well, so you can organise a little safe area to play for baby with towels on the timber floor, better than sandy/pine needley/anty soil (although mine never suffered from playing on the ground, we travel with camper). A pop up beach tent is brilliant for kiddy to crawl in safely away from dirt and sun too.

The trip down does take 2 days minimum if you take breaks with the baby.

There are loads of great campsites with mobile homes in the South, Homair is a great site, prices are expensive, but the spots are reliably brilliant.

The beaches in Nice are not really child friendly (pebbles and a big step down when you walk in the water).
Cagnes sur Mer, Antibes, Juan les Pins are popular places, never experienced the beaches there, they might be more suited to your family, and they're bound to have super campsites like the rest of the coast.


More to the West near St Tropez, there is a brilliant campsite called LES PRAIRIES DE LA MER, no pool there, but really pleasant spot.

Prices should be ok in May, but do go for air conditioning, you might not use it, but safer to have it in case it turns out to be a warm stretch.

Mr. Nice

Mountainsandh wrote: »

The beaches in Nice are not really child friendly (pebbles and a big step down when you walk in the water).
Cagnes sur Mer, Antibes, Juan les Pins are popular places, never experienced the beaches there, they might be more suited to your family, and they're bound to have super campsites like the rest of the coast.

JLP/Antibes beaches are definitely better for children but I don't think this will be an issue for an 8-month old. Villefranche beach is good too, and only down the road from Bono's villa in Eze.

naughtysmurf

We have stayed in Domaine Juan Flore just outside Juan les Pins, twice in the last four years but we fly into Nice also, it's a lovely quiet complex with an excellent pool, ten mins of a stroll into the center of Juan les Pins or a cheap 15mins bus ride into Antibes or Cannes in the oposite direction. Large supermarket next door, 2mins to sandy beach

This is who we booked with
http://www.holiday-habitats.net/pages/juanflore.html

It's not the cheapest place to rent, there are some studio appt's on the site also, a google search may find those

Bus & train are excellent down there too for getting around

él statutorio

Go.

Our daughter is 9 months old and since she was born she has been to the US (twice) Italy and France. We're off to the US again at Christmas.

You'll be fine bring a few bits and pieces food wise for the journey down after that shop local. It's France you're going to, not some 3rd world country.

Glowing

Great, some food for thought here, thanks for the suggestions!

galait

él statutorio wrote: »

Go.

Our daughter is 9 months old and since she was born she has been to the US (twice) Italy and France. We're off to the US again at Christmas.

You'll be fine bring a few bits and pieces food wise for the journey down after that shop local. It's France you're going to, not some 3rd world country.

Traveling is the Easy Part - I have brought all my kids to the US/Europe Many times and getting from A to B was the easy part, The OP is on Holiday in the south of France During Summer , I presume Sunbathing beside the Pool , Going out for Dinner to a Restaurant in the Evening are things he wants to do , My point is an 8 Month Baby is not going to play ball in such instances