England to South of France advice

We always use the late ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, 4 hrs. You can have a cabin or take your sleeping bags on deck and sleep on the floor as most of us do!! The route down to Orleans then Clermont Ferrand  then over the Millau bridge is much cheaper than the route de soleil  down to Marseilles area, and much less busy. Look for a campsite in Langudoc Roussillon, there's plenty to choose from, you're still on the Med if that's what you want, but there's lots of choice a bit inland.

Every year the family and I (With kids similar age) pull our Swift Challenger with our VW Transporter to the South of France. 400 miles in the UK, Dover to Calais to keep the cost sensible and then push on south. I've done this in one go on a number of occasions but would not recommend to all as it really is tiring. However, it's remarkable how quickly you recover when you are all set up with a beer in your hand in 30 degrees temperature.  One stop en-route (just north of Lyon) is sensible. Try and avoid Route D Anglais on a Saturday as all of the German's, Belgians and Dutch join it circa Lyon and the traffic jams can completely bugger your plans. My advice is, make sure you vehicle is mechanically up to it  and then go for it !!!! Don't be put off by the less adventurous out there.. Good luck

We went to the nice last summer no van £350 in tolls. We have a twin axle caravan and it would be charged as a 38 ton lorry. Looking at 600-800 in tolls

Not quite so bad.  A twin axle caravan is charged at the same rate as a single, so provided it's under 3 metres high the toll using motorways from Calais to the Med at Agde is €107.50 . But that's bad enough .

Currently 165e Calais to Nice if you use toll roads, we keep ours to just under 50e by using a mix of autoroute/Millau Bridge and non toll roads over three days on the continent itself, crossing to Caen. (usually start off around 9am arriving at next sit 3-4pm)

Perhaps depends if you mean South of France as in Biarritz, or as in St Tropez? But, for what it is worth, travelling from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in a MoHo (never exceeding 60mph), it is possible to do Biarritz area with three overnight stops. I should add, we do not have children travelling with us (we are 70+ years old). We rarely use toll roads. there is good toll free road south to Biarritz area. If heading for Langadoc, we would use either (toll free, except Millau Bridge) A75, if heading for Provence, we would use N7 along Rhone Valley. It is of course much more enjoyable to take your time, but, if you have limited holiday time, then needs must. Some details on our route here.

Have been holidaying in France for many years Ferries vary from DFDS dirty rough poor staff attitude cold food (we didnt like them!) to the well oiled Brittany ferries. All depends where you want to end up.We favour the club offers so travel out of  Portsmouth Sunday afternoon stop at Ranville  5mins from ouistreham port then up and away via Caen ring road and motorways and then an overnight stop after about 280 miles on to the lot region via  a roads to site set up open the redwine and chillin' by 5pm! The vast majority of Municipal sites are clean and very adequate for travelling take a mix of hook up leads reversed polarity ready just in case .then you see the "real" France.

Hi. I have nothing to add about the routes and journey times as they have pretty much been covered. However, as a mum to 3 children who were taken all over France I do know about the chorus of "are we there yet?". I used to start early and buy 3 bags - something like a school shoe bag/p.e. kit. I would then slowly fill these with bits and pieces to keep the kids occupied. In those days Hawkins Bazaar were always brilliant but you have many more choices on the internet today. Pens, crayons, sticker books, mini toy cars or soldiers etc. They always looked forward to the goody bag as the real start of the holiday. Many years later my daughter did a season working for Eurocamp at Biarritz.  At her interview she was able to point out 15 regions she had visited! Good luck. Hope you make some wonderful memories.