Some of the best trips we’ve had in France have been when we’ve been based at a gite or villa and this style of holiday works perfectly for France. Yet you don’t often find recommendations for individual rental properties in the press. This tends to be because editors prefer to recommend accommodation that will have lots of availability and, as gites and villas tend to be rented by the week or even fortnight, it means they’re often already booked by the time an article is published. Hotels, on the other hand, will tend to have availability and are, for many, the ideal accommodation for a holiday. Indeed, what’s not to like about someone else making your bed? However, there are so many reasons to book a self-catering holiday.
- You don’t have to cook
That whole ‘self-catering’ thing might have you thinking you’ll be chained to the stove as much as you will at home, and where’s the ‘holiday’ in that? In France, though, you don’t need to. Here’s how it goes: saunter to the boulangerie for a baguette, croissants and pains aux chocolats; later in the morning (before 11 ideally) head to the market to buy cheese, charcuterie, fruit, and local cakes, whatever else takes your fancy; have lunch out in a restaurant or café (lunch menu ‘prix fixe’ are often much cheaper than evening meals too, even as low as €12 for two courses), and for dinner graze on the rich pickings from from the market, plus a bottle of wine. Easy eh? - You can cook (if you want to)
See all those lovely things in the market? If you like cooking, they’re crying out for a culinary whizz to turn them into something sensational. Equally, if you don’t want to be in the kitchen long, then buy quiches, tarts, pre-mixed salads and all sorts from charcuteries, epiceries fines and boulangeries.
Sunflowers at Aix-en-Provence market - French supermarkets
This is where the self-catering holiday in France far outshines the self-catering holiday in Britain (or wherever you call home). Go on holiday in Britain you still have to schlep around Tesco/Sainsbury’s/Asda which is what you do every week and so doesn’t much feel like a holiday. In France, the trip to the supermarket is a cultural adventure in itself: whole aisles of random household goods you never knew you needed! An entire aisle of yoghurts and chocolate mousse! More cheese than you ever knew existed! An entire department of wine, much of which costs less than €5 and is (mostly) drinkable! It’s a wonder you ever get to the beach when there’s so much to look at and buy. - Picnics
If money is tight, or even if it isn’t, le pique-nique is a French holiday rite of passage. Everywhere you go in France, there are picnic tables and most (I might dare say ‘all’) tourist attractions have an ‘aire pique-nique‘ for you to eat your own nosh, and if you have access to a kitchen then you have the power to enjoy these amazing facilities. Also, beaches – some of the best French beaches (such as these in Brittany, and these in Normandy) I’ve found are nowhere near a cafe let alone an ice cream kiosk, so what are you going to do – starve? No, you’re going to devour crispy baguettes laden with camembert, salty Bayonne ham, eaten with grapes, a crunchy apple, and a box of patisserie for pudding. - You have your own space
Ok, enough about the food, a self-catering break in a gite or villa means you can just relax in your own space, if you have noisy kids (as I do) then you’re not worrying about disturbing other guests, you can just chill out. - You can have your own pool
Whether the pool is exclusively yours, or shared within a complex really depends on what you book, but a gite/villa with a pool is one of the best places you can stay. Kids have a constant source of entertainment, and once they’re in bed you can have a post-rosé-wine-binge midnight dip. - It can be really cheap…
In France there is self-catering accommodation for everyone – whether you’re a couple in search of a pretty golden-stone cottage in the Dordogne, or a luxury villa on the Cote d’Azur for ten, there’s something for everyone. If money is tight, look for the ‘residences’ which were born to cater to French families, who – the nation believes – all have the right to a holiday. See this handy list for the companies I’ve tried and recommend, from budget to luxury, such as the one pictured at the top from Red Savannah.