The beaches
You can avoid the necessity for unseemly overnight towel-parking on the sands of the Côte d'Azur by staying at a five-star hotel where you can reserve your place on a private beach for a sizeable daily supplement. Alternatively, you can head for less populated Languedoc or the unspoiled Atlantic coast. The strands of Brittany and Normandy are hard to surpass, but here you take your chances on the weather.
Brittany
Beg-Meil is one of the best beaches for a bucket-and-spade holiday. Not only is it clean and relatively uncrowded, but it also has a children's beach club. Older ones are entertained with trampolining and sandcastle-building competitions, while youngsters can paint or play.
A small cottage for six is ideal for a family seaside holiday and is situated on the outskirts of Gouesnach, a short drive from Beg-Meil.
Where to book: VFB Holidays (01242 240340, vfbholidays.co.uk). From £503 for the cottage for one week, including ferry crossings.
Normandy
Deauville, situated midway between Caen and Le Havre and with easy ferry connections to Portsmouth, is an international seaside town famous since the 19th century for its long sandy beaches, casino, and horse-racing.
Villa Gardenia has four-star apartments facing the sea and an indoor swimming pool.
Where to book: Lagrange (020-7371 6111, lagrange-holidays.co.uk). From £468 for a one-bedroom apartment sleeping four, including ferry crossings.
Languedoc
Less fashionable Languedoc borders the Mediterranean and makes a viable alternative to the fleshpots of the Côte d'Azur, with lower prices and less crowded beaches.
Domaine de Sainte-Véziane is a complex of villas close to the beaches of the Cap d'Agde and the port of Agde with its wealth of fish restaurants. The villas share a swimming pool and games area.
Where to book: Just France (020-8780 4480, inghams.co.uk). From £316 for a two-bedroomed villa for one week, including channel crossings.
The chateaux
The Loire Valley
The Loire is distinguished above all for its white wines and the celebrated châteaux that command the high ground along every sweep of this lazy river. So what better than to stay in your very own, quaff your own vintage, and explore the likes of Château Amboise and Chenonceau? Take in, too, the city of Tours, with its cafés, art galleries and restaurants in a pedestrianised medieval centre.
Château de Noizay is surrounded by formal gardens and has 19 bedrooms.
Where to book: Crystal Premier France (0870 888 0023, crystalfrance.com). From £140 for two nights' B&B with ferry crossings.
Cottages, villas and castles
France has a wealth of enchanting properties for rent. Self-catering means you can shop at the local supermarchés, boulangeries and boucheries (all far more exotic than those at home) or eat out at a different restaurant each night.
Brittany
The 16th-century Manoir de Lezurec is in the middle of a 100-acre wildlife sanctuary. You can either rent the whole manoir for up to 20 people, or take any of the three self-contained units. The property has a swimming pool, a lake, and the beach of St Tugen is a 10-minute drive away.
Where to book: Abercrombie & Kent (0845 0700610, abercrombiekent.co.uk). From £1,300 for a two-bedroom unit to £7,300 for the whole estate for seven nights.
Dordogne
Château de Bachac is in a remote position in the Perigord region; Henri IV of France was a guest here in 1565. It has recently been renovated and is furnished with antiques and works of art. The chateau has 10 large bedrooms, an orangery that has been converted into a dining room, farmhouse kitchen, panelled "salon", and a marble-floored entrance hall with a sweeping staircase. The swimming pool is heated and floodlit.
Where to book: Serendipity La Perla (02920 443844, serendip.co.uk). From £2,750 to rent the chateau.
Provence
Sillans la Cascade is a three-bedroomed house set among olive groves, vineyards and pine forests, with a small river nearby. A natural swimming pool has been hewn from the rock and fed with clear water from the river.
Where to book: Bowhills (01489 872727, bowhills.co.uk) from £762 for one week including ferry crossings.
The camping
What better way to see France than under canvas? At a fraction of the cost of staying in a hotel, you can explore the countryside and live alfresco.
Canet en Rousillon
Ma Prairie campsite is a five-minute drive from the glorious Mediterranean beaches of Canet-Plage and offers a wide range of facilities for all ages. Activities include scuba diving, rafting, canyoning, guided walks, and cross-country cycle rides. St Cyprien golf course is 6km away. The site has a shop, restaurant, and night-time entertainment.
Where to book: Select Site Reservations (01873 859876. select-site.com). From £220 in own tent, or £314 in rented mobile home, both for seven nights including ferry crossings.
The Vendée
This stretch of the Atlantic coast boasts sandy beaches and hidden coves with unpolluted water. Camping Le Bois Dormant is a large, relaxed site set in a pine forest at St Jean-de-Monts. An ideal base for families, it is close to the beach with tennis, volleyball, mini-golf, football, and three swimming pools with waterchutes. Entertainment includes discos and live music.
Where to book: Canvas Holidays (01383 629000, canvasholidays.com).From £230 for a fully-equipped family tent (sleeping two adults and up to four children), £333 for a mobile home, both for seven nights including ferry crossings.
Food
Inntravel runs cookery weekends in Normandy, the Tarn and Provence for "aspiring cooks of all levels". This is about hands-on enjoyment of your food, as well as a chance to get behind the scenes of a hotel kitchen.
At Hotel Chiffre in Tarn, you can learn to cook cake au crabe (crab cakes) and croustade aux pommes (apple pie with a French twist).
Where to book: Inntravel (01653 629001, inntravel.co.uk) from £347pp for three nights' half board including flights and rail transfers.
Wine
Few regions offer better imbibing than Bordeaux and the Loire. You spend the night in Saumur, and a day in each of Vouvray, the Médoc, and St Emilion. Wine-tasting is the central activity of the trip, with the opportunity to buy direct from the chteaux. Similar tours are held in Burgundy and other wine regions.
Where to book: Arblaster & Clarke (01730 893344, arblasterandclarke.com). £799pp on the five-night Bordeaux & Loire Wine Tour from October 26 to November 2, with travel by coach. Includes half-board accommodation and ferry crossings.
Golf
Golf in France has come a long way since 1856 when the Scotsman Willie Dunn Snr designed mainland Europe's first golf course at Pau. Today, there are over 530 courses.
Biarritz
Golf de Seignosse is one of the finest courses in Europe. The Golf Hotel de Seignosse is on a hill overlooking both the course and the Atlantic Ocean. A restaurant serves traditional Aquitaine cuisine, and there is a pool. The unpretentious Seignosse beach resort is nearby.
Where to book: French Golf Holidays (01277 824100, golf-france.co.uk). From £255 for three nights' half-board including three days' golf at Seignosse, one at Moliets.
Picardy
St Quintin, 20km south-west of Paris is worth a detour. St Quintin has three courses, two 18-hole and one nine-hole. The three-star Novotel Golf National hotel is on the course itself and has an outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts.
Where to book: Motours (01892 677777, motours.com). From £103pp for two nights' B&B including ferry crossings.
The offbeat
The Dordogne is one of France's most glorious canoeing rivers, with its dramatic limestone cliffs and gorges, and picturesque villages perched high above the river banks. A nine-day canoe trip starts and ends at the hamlet of St Julien, including a lesson on how to handle your canoe. The nights are spent at comfortable riverside hotels, many with swimming pools.
Where to book: Headwater (01606 813333, headwater-holidays.co.uk). From £479pp in two- or three-person canoes, including half-board accommodation and ferry crossings.
Thalassotherapy
These spa treatments based on the therapeutic use of seawater are particularly popular in coastal France. The Miramar-Crouesty Hotel is on the Rhuys Peninsula in Brittany and resembles an ocean liner. All 142 rooms and suites open on to terraces overlooking the sea. The Thalassotherapy Centre Louison Bobet also runs programmes for back pain, slimming, and stopping smoking.
Where to book: Erna Low (020-7590 1777, bodyandsoulholidays.com). From £490 for two nights' half-board including flights, transfers, and four treatments a day.
Family holidays
France has every type of holiday for families, but beaches are still the biggest attraction.
Aquitaine
Moliets et Maa is a holiday complex an hour's drive from Biarritz. Two and five-bedroomed villas, each with a private garden and swimming pool, are light and airy. The sandy beach is five minutes' away and a children's club offers beach football, mini-golf and water sports.
Where to book: Scott Dunn (020-8682 5040, scottdunn.com). From £675 per adult, £105-£400 per child per week, including full board, flights and car hire.
Grimaud
Les Restanques du Golfe de St Tropez Holiday Village, near St Tropez, has excellent family facilities. A magnificent outdoor pool complex has wave machine, lagoon and water slides. The children's clubs range from three months to 18, with a circus school, beginners' martial arts, dance and fencing. You stay in apartments or villas.
Where to book: Leisure Direction (0870 4429847, leisuredirection.co.uk). From £314 for one week in a studio for four including ferry crossings.
ABTOF is the Association of British Tour Operators to France and this is where to start planning your French holiday. Find its website at holidayfrance.org.uk
