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I'm sure that you well travelled lot can help me with this one.

Your brief is to recommend a site where we can experience the real Provence, we have 2 young bairns, need a river or coastal site but apart from that we are flexible.

Here's looking forward to your posts.

Steve 

- Have tent, will travel

I don't think you'll get 'Real Provence' on the coast. It's so busy most of the time that the traffic spoils that 'real' feeling, as although the views are lovely, you're crawling along behind a whole queue of cars!

When are you planning on going?  Because having said all that, the crowds are much thinner at the beginning and end of the season.

We like the area around St Remy de Provence - lovely town, with a real Provencal feeling.  All the shops, signs, shutters, etc., are painted in a similar range of colours, making it look very smart, but it has a real heart and isn't just a tourist town.  The campsite there, Monplaisir, is very nice, but not adjacent to a river or beach. 

Another 'real'  area is the Valensole plateau, and the town of Riez.  We stayed on a site near Regusse, and had an excursion out that way.  To me, somewhere like that is the real Provence. We had a picnic near a lovely little nunnery, where the nuns were singing in their chapel - just magical!  Wouldn't recommend the campsite though, although they did run some fantastic excursions!

Fontaine de Vaucluse, Ile sur Sorgue, the Gorges du Verdon and even the Peter Mayle villages are lovely outside peak season, as is Rousillon, and plenty of others, but in peak season all these can be a bit of a nightmare.

So, if you can go May/June or late August/September (only possible for those with pre-nursery babies these days!!!) then you can have the best of all these lovely areas!

Selection Camping at La Croix Valmer (near to our friend's house) is near the beach, just a little away from the madding crowd, and at the quieter end of the resort, but defnitely not 'real' Provence.

Thanks all, unfortunately we are tied to the school holidays as the missus is a teacher. I'll have a trawl through the sites and areas mentioned and will definitely bear in mind the comment about booking this year.

Steve

Tina - an excursion to St Remy is definitely worth doing - St Remy itself, Les Beaux, and all the little 'olive oil' villages out that way, but can also be combined with Fontaine de Vaucluse, Ile sur Sorgue, and the Peter Mayle villages, or Rousillon!

David's mum (for her 90th on her first flight to France) was very impressed by St Remy - especially as she was serenaded in the market square by Muriel et Patrice (street singers) who gave her their CD as a birthday present!

I thought the Camping Cheuqe site Les Terrasses Provencales (bit further north near Nyon) in the Drome, looked lovely, and in it's first year as part of Camping Cheques it won a Top Camping award.  It looks just our sort of place! 

Most of the budget hotel chains allow dogs - even in the breakfast room!  Any of them are OK for an overnight, arriving so late it makes sense as you've no pitching up to do.  Soulless but necessary!