Ideas please! Warm weather, but driveable from the channel!

Having holidayed in Britanny and the French Med for a number of years, we%26#39;re looking for the %26#39;best of both worlds%26#39; but can%26#39;t decide where to go! Our hol will be in July 2009 - we want warm sunny weather (pool useable) which you don%26#39;t always get in Britanny but it can be too overpoweringly hot in the South of France (Cote D%26#39;azur, etc). Also, we%26#39;d prefer to drive down rather than fly. We also want stunning scenery (not flat). All suggestions very, very welcome PLUS if you know of a good cottage / villa / gite with a pool (and nice views)!!!!!!

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Have you thought about the Poitou-Charentes? The area is full of rolling countryside, as well as being in a micro-climate making it the second sunniest area in France.

There is a new country house that has been recently renovated and I know they are having a pool put in for next year. Their website is www.boussais.com.

The Poitou-Charentes is about 5-6 hours from Calais/Boulogne so very driveable.

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I am not sure that what you are looking for exists. Certainly the famed %26quot;micro climates%26quot; of Charente Maritime etc. have been a bit of a joke these past few years.

There has been nothing like a %26quot;reliable%26quot; climate, %26quot;micro%26quot; or otherwise, anywhere in France for some time - it has been very topsy-turvy and unpredictable, like all of western Europe. Drought in region X one year, stair rods the next.

This year the Centre and Lower Normandy (inland of the coast) have had consistently %26quot;good%26quot; weather (meaning sunny but not overly hot) compared to most places further north, west, east, or south. But 2007 was crap and god knows what 2009 might bring.

In an %26quot;average%26quot; year, if you want somewhere with a fair dose of sun and not too hot (taking that to mean below 28°)in July, anywhere from Brittany through the Centre and north east to Alsace should suit, but is there any such thing as %26quot;average%26quot; these days? The weather is all over the place.

I reckon it%26#39;ll be pot luck for sun and temperature wherever you go, unless you go to the Vaucluse or similar, where it%26#39;ll probably be sunny but too hot.

How far do you want to drive. 4 hours from Calais? 6 hours from St Malo?

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The French always say that the Loire river is a dividing line as far as the weather is concerned, and you need to be south of the Loire to start to have good weather in France.

I live just south of the Loire, and whilst normally the month of July here is almost guaranteed to be hot and sunny, 2007 was cold, and although this year was better, it was not up to the norm for July.

Anywhere between Poitiers and Tours is easily accessible by car from the Channel ports, requiring about 4 to 5 hours driving from Caen, or about 6 from Calais. If you want to be on the coast, the Ile de Ré is worth looking at. It has its own micro climate, which usually means good weather (but with the weather, nothing is guaranteed). You will need to add about 2 hours driving to the above figures. The only problem with the Ile de Ré is that the whole of France seem to like it in the months of July and August!

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We stayed in a lovely gite with a pool in the Loire a few years ago. It was about 3.5 hours from Caen and in the heart of chateaux country. The weather that year was generally hot so the pool was needed but as said previously it has become more of a lottery recently.

The gite was the Grange, Les Mortiers - on http://www.frenchholiday.co.uk/ and type in Les Mortiers. The owners Jean and Mike were brilliant hosts but unobtrusive. We have not been back only because there are so many other places we want to see but would recommend.

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What length of time are you planning for your holiday?? That could have a stron bearing on how far you can go from the Channel ports.

(Technically you are about to hit the largest land mass in the world, so you could get to the other side of Russia, or Asia - but yes, I know that is not what you really mean!!)

Try the area of the Massif Central, which has some great scenery, and was nice and sunny a year or two ago! - Nearby is the Auvergne, also very pretty and, of course, the Dordogne.

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