France is our nearest neighbour and our favourite road trip from Barcelona. These are the places we’ve actually been with our two boys, from toddlers to teenagers, and nothing we haven’t.
The south coast: our New Year road trip through Marseille, Martigues, Montpellier and Sète. Start with the full itinerary.
The Alps at Christmas: Annecy, Santa’s village at the Col du Mont-Sion and 5 days in Haute-Savoie.
The Basque coast: Hendaye, our cheaper base for San Sebastián.
Planning: Barcelona to Marseille by car, where to stay in Marseille and where to stay in Montpellier.
We spent New Year 2025/26 on a road trip through southern France with our kids, Damian (12) and Marc (9). We drove from Barcelona in our electric car, met my sister’s family and my parents…
We were staying in Montpellier over New Year, and by the third day the boys had run out of city. Someone at the hotel said Sète was twenty minutes on the train. That sounded like…
We stayed three nights at the Belaroïa, from New Year’s Eve 2025 to 3 January 2026, with our boys Damian (12) and Marc (9). We drove from Marseille, with two of our family’s cars, and…
We arrived in Montpellier on 31 December 2025, straight from Marseille, and found the Christmas market still up. We stayed three nights, until 3 January, with Damian (12) and Marc (9), my sister’s family and…
Martigues, France: The Venice of Provence in Half a Day Marseille had worn us out. Not in a bad way — but on our second day in Marseille the boys had done the Vieux-Port, the…
We stayed two nights at the Campanile Marseille Saint-Antoine on 29–31 December 2025, at the start of a road trip from Barcelona with our boys, Damian (12) and Marc (9). We were meeting my sister’s…
We spent two days in Marseille in winter, on 29–31 December 2025, and the first thing I’d tell you is the thing nobody told us: it’s cold. Not “cold for the Mediterranean” but cold, with…
Hendaye is the last town in France before Spain, just across the bay from Hondarribia. We stayed there for two nights at the end of December 2019, on a four-day Basque Country road trip with…
We saw Annecy with kids on a cold, bright December evening in 2018. Damian was 5 and Marc was 2, and we were staying with friends who live in Cruseilles, a village about 20 minutes…
Thirty minutes from Annecy, thirty minutes from Geneva, there is a hamlet in the woods where Father Christmas lives. Le Hameau du Père Noël at Saint-Blaise, up at the Col du Mont-Sion in Haute-Savoie, is…
In early December 2018 we flew from Barcelona to Geneva for five days with friends who live in Cruseilles, a village in the Haute-Savoie between Geneva and Annecy. Damian was 5 and Marc was 2.…
This weekend I thought to write about our experience of travelling in a car with a toddler for 9 hours. We went to Blois a lovely city in France, 900km from Barcelona. I propose you…