Anyone who has held off booking a summer trip to France until now can still grab some great bargains for self-catering holiday accommodation. A browse of our special offers reveals that owners are offering anything from 10 to 50% discounts on their last remaining summer weeks.
Why are these properties making such offers? Well, they may have availability due to last minute cancellations or bookings for stays of a fortnight may have left single weeks unfilled. Many are popular holiday properties, including desirable stone cottages with oodles of period charm, beautiful converted farmhouses with country views and attractive gîtes with heated swimming pool or close to good beaches.
Read more: Last minute summer booking? Get smart to special offers
Bradley Wiggins’ historic Tour de France victory has inspired many of us to get on our bikes. If you’re an even half serious road cyclist, what better way to pay homage than to follow in the great man’s tracks by taking a cycling holiday in France?
Make your base a self-catering property in one of the great cycling areas of France and you have maximum freedom and flexibility to plan your timetable and routes. In the evenings, there’s a choice of relaxing by the barbecue while you massage those weary legs, eating out locally for a change of pace and scene or falling into bed at an early hour to be ready for the next day’s fun.
Read more: Follow in the Tour de France cycle tracks of Bradley Wiggins
Today is France's biggest day of celebration, referred to as La Fete Nationale or simply le quatorze juillet, the 14th of July. The day marks the success of the storming of the notorious Bastille prison by the people of Paris in 1789, an event that led to the birth of the modern republic.
Celebrations take place all over France, with the biggest military parade providing a great spectacle in the Champs Elysees. This evening the sky at dusk will be alive with the blaze of fireworks as the French people reaffirm their constitutional commitment to freedom, equality and brotherhood.
We wish a wonderful day (bon quatorze Juillet)to the French people and anyone lucky enough to be visiting France and allowing themselves to be swept up in the festivities.
Bonjour everyone, hope you are having a good time wherever you are.
First we must congratulate Bradley Wiggins from here in the United Kingdom for his phenomenal win in the Tour de France Cycle race. We are very proud of him as it is an extremely arduous cycle race and he is the first British person to have done this. Bradley and his team apparently trained on a volcano in Tenerife intensively at altitude, in the heat, and on mountain ascents. Maybe we should all take to our bicycles once again and get some exercise – a little more gentle than Bradley’s regime of course!
There has been a great deal of talk recently in the media about people being overweight - young people particularly. Being overweight puts us at risk of heart disease and diabetes. Sounds very glum I know but it is a fact of life now as we do less physical activities compared to a few decades ago so it stands to reason that we may suffer as a consequence.
We’ve teamed up with FrenchEntree magazine to offer you the chance to win a week’s holiday for four in September or October at Mondounet. This period farmhouse with swimming pool is close to villages and vineyards in the sunny Lot, our featured region for July.
The Farmhouse is a gorgeous period building that retains a wealth of stone and beam features alongside a newly fitted kitchen and bathroom and recently refurbished bedrooms, with doors to the garden. Mondounet is surrounded by two acres of grounds and rolling fields but is also close to the buzzing town of Montcuq.
With 22 years’ experience of running Mondounet, owners Peter and Zoe Scott offer laughter and warm hospitality in comfortable surroundings so that guests feel immediately at home. The large heated, salt water swimming pool has pool house, views and underwater lighting, communal barbecues are a regular feature and in the grounds are table tennis, badminton and boules.
For your chance to win this great prize and enjoy a late summer week in the Lot (travel not included), click here
The schools are breaking up, the weather is finally due to improve, it must be time to go on holiday! Which part of France shall we head for? At one time it would have unthinkable to leave our summer holiday plans until the last minute, but these days it suits many of us to be more flexible. What fun and freedom to just search, decide, book and go. Personally I know this only too well as I once went on a last minute holiday to a sunshine island and stayed eleven years. But that's another story....
The great thing about a last minute summer break in France is the range of both accommodation and transport options. If you want to fly/drive, there are so many regional airport destinations with budget flights - and we're rather proud of our new search facility to get the best car hire deal from top providers.
Our featured region for July is the Lot – a part of France that’s particularly special to Glynis and Michael Shaw, the founders of French Connections, because they used to have a home there.
Where is the Lot? In the Midi-Pyrénées area of central south west France, just east of the Dordogne region, about 8-9 hours drive from Calais and close to Toulouse and Rodez airports, which are served by several airlines.
What’s it like? Sunny and relatively untouched with a huge National Park, a hearty cuisine, zesty local wines, four charming towns (best known is Cahors) and several delectable villages perched on dramatic hilltops. Oh, and a river runs through it - that’s the Lot, from which the department takes its name. A boat trip along its course is a great way to see the dramatic scenery.