Where to find the perfect French villa this year
France summer booking guide
Type "French holiday rentals" into Google and you get 3.1 million results (in 0.458 seconds). Either you and the family are going to spend the next two or three generations researching your summer holidays - or you're going to have to thin these down a little.
A good starting point is to decide where, more precisely, you want to go. This may seem obvious, but I would be a rich man if I had a pound for every person who has asked: "Recommend me somewhere in the south of France." The south of France- below, say, a line drawn east from Bordeaux - is significantly bigger than England and Wales combined. There are around one zillion rental possibilities.
We need to be more specific yet. Eyes will be drawn to Provence and the Côte-d'Azur. Between them, these two drain the most foreign tourists - with good reason. But that can have a heady effect on prices. I have before me details of a sea-view villa on the Cap-Ferrat headland which rents for £42,323 a week. Granted it sleeps 16, in the style favoured by the late King Farouk, but it indicates the sort of circles you will be moving in. A luxury four-sleeper - mum, dad and two nippers - with pool and sea view is, in high season, unlikely to be less than £2,500-3,000 a week.
Going just inland should push that down below £2,000, while real inland Provence - admittedly, some way from a beach - will seem a comparative bargain. There's decent four-sleeper choice around the £700-800 mark.
Or why not hop just out of Provence, to the Drôme to the north? The south of this département is indistinguishable from Provence, but without the crowds - and I've seen cracking four-sleepers for around £700 in the Buis-les-Baronnies district.
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Should the two kids nevertheless insist on the Med sea-side, Languedoc-Roussillon will do less harm to the budget. It doesn't yet have the Côte-d'Azur cachet but who cares when, five minutes from the long, flat beaches, there are acceptable four-sleepers at £700-800?
Brittany and Normandy may be cheaper still - say, £600-750 for our sea-side family-of-four accommodation, but it's going to rain some of the time and, conceivably, all of the time. The Dordogne is another favourite. I recently came across a cracking 18th-century hill-top cottage near Le Bugue for £981. That said, you'll find very much cheaper in not dissimilar landscapes slightly off the beaten holiday track in, say, the Auvergne. Around £500 will see you and the family acceptably lodged amid slightly wilder, more remote hills, but no less beauty.
When searching, incidentally, don't ignore newer-wave sites like Airbnb, where individuals rent out part or all of their homes for prices often (but not invariably) cheaper than on traditional rental sites. Customer reviews and payment-via-the-site offer some protection against being ripped off.
Wherever you book, please remember (a) that French accommodation can be snugger than British. When they say: "Six sleeper (four plus two)" they mean, in our terms, four. And (b) the isolated farmhouse may sound fab, but do you really want to get the car out every time you need bread or a café?
Scroll down for a list of tour operators offering French self-catering and villa holidays
It is also worth considering the shoulder months - May, June and September - when prices drop by at least 15-20 per cent, with not much loss of good weather. Average maximum temperatures on the Côte-d'Azur are around 81F (27C) in July and August, and only three degrees lower in June and September. It's much the same story across southern France. Of course, this is no use if you're tied to school holidays, but is worth bearing in mind if you aren't. Don't overdo it, mind. Prices are even lower in November or February, but much is shut and the weather unreliable.
And do keep your wits about you. There are sharks out there. If not booking through one of the large rental sites with their own reservation systems (and payment by credit card), don't pay anything until you've had direct contact with, and all the contact details of, the villa owner, then pay by a traceable, trustworthy method. PayPal is good. If asked for a bank transfer, ensure the bank account involved has the same name as the villa owner. Any cheques should be sent to a proper address, not a PO box or some address in the Czech Republic.
Most of all, when you first make contact, expect a fast response. The market is tight. A proper villa owner will be back in touch rapidly. If he isn't, or if anything else at all raises suspicions, look elsewhere. There are, as we've said, a zillion possibilities in France. Anthony Peregrine
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Tour operators and booking sites offering villa and self-catering holidays
Countrywide
Brittany Ferries (0871 244 1444; brittany-ferries.co.uk) Big selection of gîtes and cottages in north-west France, to book with the company's ferry crossings.
cottages.com (0345 268 0760; cottages.com) Over 1,500 villas and cottages in France, the biggest agency selection.
Holiday In France (01225 310623; holidayinfrance.co.uk) Over 200 characterful properties; detailed plans on the website.
Interhome (01483 863500; interhome.co.uk) Vast choice of apartments, houses, villas.
Pure France (020 3514 2359; purefrance.com) Over 500 rentals, many but not all expensive, across much of France.
Tots to Travel (0800 014 2770; totstotravel.co.uk) Rentals ideal for families with young children, thoroughly inspected and written up.
Vintage Travel (01954 261431; vintagetravel.co.uk) Quality houses with pools in south-west France, Provence and Brittany.
For direct bookings, homeaway.co.uk, featuring over 140,000 French properties, many with previous guests' reviews, and excellent search options, is a good place to start.
Other websites for direct bookings:
cheznous.com
frenchconnections.co.uk
holidayfrancedirect.co.uk - a Brittany Ferries brand: bookers get 20 per cent discounts on its ferries
holidaylettings.co.uk
ownersdirect.co.uk
oneoffplaces.co.uk - for properties that are special in some way
Regional specialists
Alternative Aquitaine (01395 576655; alternative-aquitaine.co.uk) Coastal south-west France.
Brittany Travel (0345 230 1380; brittany.co.uk) The leading Brittany specialist.
The Gascony Secret (01924 439521; gascony-secret.com) Enticing châteaux and farmhouses.
James Villa Holidays (0800 074 0122; jamesvillas.co.uk) Provence, Côte d'Azur.
Joie de Vivre Holidays (0161 408 3917; jdvholidays.com) Provence, Côte d'Azur and Languedoc.
Normandie Vacances (0113 256 4373; normandy-holidays.co.uk) Carefully selected Normandy gîtes.
Peak Retreats (0844 576 0170; peakretreats.co.uk) Alpine apartments and chalets.
Simply Périgord (0033 5 53 54 54 31; www.simply-perigord.com) Lovely Dordogne properties.
Susan Paradise (0345 230 1330; susanparadise.co.uk) Provence, Côte d'Azur, including a "value collection".
For Corsica villa specialists, see the France summer holidays guide: beach resorts section.
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Luxury specialists
CV Villas (020 7563 7999; cvvillas.com) A top agency: high-spec properties, most in Provence, Côte d'Azur.
Dominique’s Villas (020 3265 1052; dominiquesvillas.co.uk) Long-established specialist French agency: characterful villas, houses, châteaux across France.
Oliver's Travels (0800 133 7999; oliverstravels.com) Big choice of châteaux.
Private Properties Abroad (01423 330533; ppaproperties.com) No-expense-spared manoirs and châteaux.
Quality Villas (01442 870055; qualityvillas.com) A country spread, but with many properties in the Côte d'Azur and Provence.
For rentals chiefly, but not necessarily only, in Provence and the Côte d’Azur:
Abercrombie & Kent Villas (0845 618 2205; akvillas.com)
Palmer and Parker (01494 815411; palmerparker.com)
Red Savannah (01242 787800; redsavannah.com)
SJ Villas (020 7351 6384; sjvillas.co.uk)
Wimco (0870 850 1144; wimco.com)
Tour operator listings by Fred Mawer
