South of France with kids: The Luberon and Provence

We adore France; the weather, the food, the architecture, and the scenery are exquisite. Did you know that France is the most visited country in the world?

As we are based in the UK, it is so easy and cheap for us to visit. It would be a crime not to!

To find out what we got up to in more detail, including the villages we visited and what we did, the kids click here to read our South of France family travel guide,

Or keep reading for the full itinerary of the trip.

Our Itinerary

We’ve done many a road trip over the years, lots through France, so we know what works for us and what doesn’t. We like plenty of stops, and we always make these stops interesting day trips and somewhere we want to visit.

Our furthest destination was a campground on the edge of the Luberon, Le Val de Durance.

We stayed in a static home with Eurocamp. For our top tips about Eurocamp holidays, click here, and for our experiences and tips driving in France, click here.

For the total cost of the trip, including a full breakdown of expenses, read to the end of the post where we’ve recorded all the details.

Itinerary

Day 1: The Cotswolds to Paris

We left super early from our home in the Cotswolds, UK on the first day- 4am. This got us to the port at Dover early and on the ferry by 9am.

We normally choose Dover- Calais crossing because it is cheaper than the Portsmouth routes, and although Portsmouth is a quicker journey for us on the UK side, it doesn’t add much extra driving to our route on the French side or increase our overall travel time.

We prefer the ferry to the tunnel, so my husband, who is driving, can have a break, and the kids can stretch their legs and get out of the car for a bit.

We packed our breakfast to eat on the ferry and lunch to have on route in France.

I also made a frozen meal and kept it in a cool box and cooked it when we got to our caravan in a holiday park on the outskirts of Paris, Parc du Roches. To find out what we thought of Parc Du Roaches, read our thoughts on it here.

Day 2: Paris

Paris can divide opinion, with some people loving it, and some finding it overrated.

My husband and I have been twice pre kids, and we love it! We were excited to be back in the city of light and to see it with our kids. I think it’s such a cool city, very beautiful and I love visiting the iconic monuments of which there are plenty.

The boys were very keen to visit Paris and see the Eiffel Tower, so we included it in our itinerary.

It was a fantastic day and well worth the extra stopover.

Read more about our day in Paris with the kids here.

Day 3: Paris to Clermont Ferrand

The drive time from Paris to the Luberon was over 10 hours, more with stops, so we decided to take another stop off along the way.

We could have powered through, but we prefer slower travel where possible and keeping everyone happy and not having too much time in the car.

We chose Clermont Ferrand as it was roughly halfway and looked like a nice city to go and get dinner in and explore. We much prefer staying overnight in a town and going for a walk and eating out, rather than staying in a hotel on the motorway with nothing around. It does add on a little extra time, but that is just our preference. We have discovered lots of lovely towns and cities this way, places we wouldn’t have visited otherwise!

I made a bit of an error when booking our hotel though as we stayed in the Novotel, which was lovely, but there are two Novotel’s, one in the outskirts of the city and one in the centre and I booked the wrong one!

This meant we ended up wandering around a retail park with no options for food apart from the hotel menu, which we didn’t fancy. It was still a good nights sleep, but lesson learnt for next time – always double-check the location!

Day 4: Clermont Ferrand to the Luberon.

We set off early from Clermont Ferrand and arrived at our campsite in the Luberon early afternoon. The kids really enjoyed exploring exploring the site, which was great. Read our review on Le Val de Durance Campsite in the Luberon here.

There were lots of pools and slides, sports, and activities to try, and the boys had an absolute blast!

Day 5 – Day 10 The Luberon and Provence

We spent this time exploring the region. We are so excited to be in this area of France, we have wanted to visit for a long time.

The Luberon region in France is renowned for its stunning landscapes, picturesque villages, and rich cultural heritage and although it might not seem like a ” kid friendly” destination, we think it made a fantastic family holiday, and our boys had a great time. In fact, they now say that France is their new favourite country!

Our plan was to spend the mornings driving to scenic villages, exploring and taking in the beauty, flowers, history and local produce ( yum).

We kept the kids on board with gelato or boulangerie treats, having a short stroll through the hill top villages, castles and ruins, before coming back to the holiday park for fun in the pool, sports and family time.

We found this formula worked a treat, and we had no moaning or complaining, even when there was quite a bit of walking. It also meant we didn’t get burnt out, and everybody was happy.

We visited several stunning and famous hilltop villages of the Luberon, and even scheduled in a beach day so we could have dip in the med! For more details of what we got up to, and things to do with the kids in the Luberon and Provence, click here.

Day 11: Drive to Annecy.

We started to head back north, and had another stop in beautiful Annecy.

We adore the alps in summer, and this pretty, historic village nestled on the edge of a lake at the gateway to the alps looked like a perfect place to stop. It’s not a long drive, only 3 hours, and it’s still knocking a few hours off the trip back.

We stayed at Camping Sandaya Nubliere, located on the southern shore of Lake Annecy.

It was a brilliant destination to visit with children. For more details on Annecy with kids, read my post about what we did during our time in the French Alps.

Day 12-13 Annecy

We stayed in Annecy for three days, celebrating my husbands birthday, and enjoying lots of lakeside activities with the kids.

It was impossibly pretty and felt like a mini holiday on holiday!

Having the mountains and lakes around us was so different to the hilltop villages and rolling hills and flower fields Provence. It was so great to experience such different landscapes on the same trip.

Day 14: Annecy to Troyes

We broke up the journey back to Calais from Annecy with an overnight stop in Troyes. We didn’t want to overload the kids of ourselves with driving and it was nice to take it easy, slow down the pace and have another town to explore on the way back home.

Troyes was a charming town to explore, full of twisting tiny lanes and colourful wooden buildings. We wandered around and chose a place to eat before heading back to our hotel to get some rest.

We stayed at the Ibis Troyes centre which was very well located, comfortable and a good price for our stop over.

It was an absolutely lovely town and seems like a great base to explore the Champagne region – I’d definitely like to return for longer and see some more of this place next time.

Day 15: Troyes to The Cotswolds, UK

We left Troyes early, it took about 4 hours to get to Calais, where we got the ferry back to Dover.

Arriving on English soil in the early afternoon, we had another 4 hour drive back home.

Time to start planning the next trip!

How much did it cost?

The cost of our French Road trip in 2024 was £2860 (14 nights in the South of France for a family of 4) for everything, including spending money.

It just goes to show – you can have a trip abroad for much less than a package deal, by making adjustments to make it more affordable and doing it independently.

Travel Costs

Total: £880

The biggest expensive for this trip was the travel.

We prefer to drive, so we can take everything we need for the camping and caravanning.

We also love road trips and exploring the little places we stop at on the way, and the kids are good passengers, so it’s the best method for us.

We still find it cheaper for a family of four to drive rather than fly – but there really isn’t much in it when you’ve added everything up. That being said, we fo save in the cost of a hire car and we love to have our own car to explore regional Grance so a driving holiday really works for us.

Ferry return trip: £200

Fuel: (approx 2000 miles) £300

European Insurance and breakdown cover: £200 (This is for the year, so to make the most of it, we are planning another trip in August to Austria and Switzerland).

We were planning to skip the tolls and save ourselves approximately £180 in toll fees, however when it came down to it we just wanted to get to our destinations as soon as possible, You can calculate the cost of tolls for your journey in France with the online calculator here.

Tolls: £180

Total Journey Cost: £880. I haven’t added our hotel stays as they were part of the holiday, but if you wanted to do it with one overnight stay and get there as quick as possible, you could perhaps add £100 each way for a hotel on route.

Accomodation Costs

Total accommodation cost: £780

I find the price of accommodation at European campsites unbelievably good value (anytime outside of August, as the cost does tend to shoot up then.)

The cheapest holiday static home/caravan to sleep 4 on our site was only £170 for a week in May half term! We upgraded to a newer model, which was more, but still extremely good value for money (For reference, for the equivalent in a UK holiday park, I was looking at over £1600.)

Paris (static home) 2 nights: £70

Clemont Ferrand, (Novotel), 1 night: £110

Luberon, (static home) 7 nights £350

Annecy, canvas tent 3 nights, £150

Troyes, (Novotel), 1 night, £100.

Total accomodation cost: £780

Spending:

Total Spending money : £1200

We spent £1200 for 14 days for a family of four, working out to be a daily cost of £85 per day.

We did supermarket shops for our food, including wine and beers for the evening. We had brought breakfast and snack items from home with us to eat at the holiday home or to take on trips out, however we brought fresh food every day from the markets and boulangeries for breakfasts and lunches as well, we visited cafes for breakfast nearly every day and a few lunches too.

Honestly, we found it cheaper than shopping at home and alot cheaper in the cafes – even in major tourost area it was 4/5 euro for a coffee and pastry which was about £3.50.

There were lots of ice cream and coffee stops and souvenirs brought.

We didn’t pay much in the way of entrance fees as most of what we wanted to see was free, either wandering the villages, swimming or enjoying nature.

We did pay every day for parking the car, and we did pay £100 to hire e-bikes for the day in Lake Annecy.

Total Spending money : £1200

Grand Total: £2860

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