Along the old postman’s trail from St Martin to Val Pelens, look out for chamois, marmots and eagles, stopping to dip weary feet in soothing mountain streams. Spend each night in ecolodges and mountain inns, while your donkey gets some well-earned rest too.
A week’s full-board costs from £590pp, with Responsible Travel (01273 823700, responsibletravel.com).
Best for reluctant glampers
Injecting some Riviera chic into the cabin holiday experience, Prairies de la Mer sits by the beach at Grimaud, next to St Tropez. Styled like a South Pacific paradise with soaring palms, a beach club and Polynesia-inspired huts (the Faré côté jardin type, amid the burgeoning greenery, are the ones to go for), it’s pretty enough to be a parent pleaser. Kids, meanwhile, get a football academy, pony club, lagoon-like swimming pool and petting farm – or try a family activity such as archery or tennis.
From £2,118 for a week’s self-catering, for four, in summer, booked direct (00 33 4 94 79 09 09, riviera-villages.com).
Best for an adventure
The treehouses at Les Cabanes de Chanteclair are the real deal. Set in private woodland populated by wild boar and deer, they’re so high in the forest canopy that most come with lower age limits (all children are sensibly banned in deer ‘Love Season’ in September and October). Accessed via a daredevil rope bridge, L’aventure is the best of the lot and open to those aged eight and up. Wake to a breakfast delivery in a basket, for you to haul up to your temporary home.
From £380 for three nights, B&B, for four people during summer (00 33 2 54 37 63 82; lescabanesdechanteclair.com).
Best for mingling with French friends
Seemingly lost in endless countryside but actually just 45 minutes from Paris, Le Barn works well in combination with a city break – but it’s equally good for a standalone holiday. Well-heeled Parisians come here to play croquet, gather by the campfire and cycle round the Rambouillet Forest, while connecting rooms give plenty of privacy. Their mix of blond wood, burgeoning plants and black and white photographs should be an added bonus for social-media loving offspring too.
From £355 per night, B&B, for connecting rooms for four, booked direct (00 33 1 86 38 00 00; lebarnhotel.com).
Best for Brady Bunches
Every night’s a sleepover at Villa des Pins, on the outskirts of Lacanau on France’s Atlantic coast: one of its four bedrooms is a bunk room where kids can gossip and midnight feast to their heart’s content. This coastline is great for sporty teenagers: the 14km stretch of blustery sand at Lacanau is a surfing hotspot, while there’s a cycling trail to understatedly posh Cap Ferret. It’s a 10 minute cycle to the villages’ cafes and shops too – if you can tear yourselves away from the blissful pool. Sleeps up to 10.
From £6,548, self catering, excluding flights with SJ Villas (020 7351 6384; sjvillas.co.uk).
Best for bonding
Trying to teach teamwork? Headwater’s eight-night Canoeing on the Dordogne trip should help. After initial instruction, families set off along one of France’s most serene rivers, paddling in two or three person canoes past honey-hued villages hidden below limestone cliffs and ancient chateaux that loom above the banks.