Holidays in the south west of France vary according to sporting (or otherwise) your needs

Getting to the south west of France by car for your holidays couldn't be easier - depending of course on your choice of ferry, but if you follow the directions below you won't need a map until you get near to your destination.

We seriously recommend that you pay the extra and take the longer ferry route to either Caen or St Malo, the third choice being Cherbourg - third choice because driving down the Cherbourg to a fast road peninsular seems to take an age. The longer ferry crossings cost more but you use a lot less of that expensive fuel.

Head for Rennes whichever of those three ports you use, and then to Nantes. Get onto the Nantes peripherique (ring road) and don't miss it because you only have one chance! On the peripherique follow signs for Bordeaux and exit the ring road at junction 48. From there just follow the road signs for Bordeaux.

Bordeaux also has a peripherique, and again if you miss it you have to wade through the city traffic. If you are going to Soulac then get off the ring road at junction 7 and which takes you north west to the coast. If you are planning to end up at Lacanau Ocean then junction 8 is for you, or for the Arcachon area then exit the ring road at junction 13 or junction 15 for the pay per KM motorway which splits off near Arcachon and carries on to Bayonne etc. Other than that exit it at junction 15 (motorway) or 16, the N10 which is free and go south west to the Bayonne, Biarritz area.

There are masses of places in the south west of France where you can take totally unspoilt holidays by the beach or lakeside, just communing with nature - and there is plenty of it reaching from Soulac in the north, just below the Gironde estuary and then right down the coast until you draw level with Bayonne, just above Biarritz.

The coastal area and quite a lot of the countryside inland is uninhabited by humans, or at least, habitation is sparse. Of course there are some holiday resorts like Lacanau-Ocean,  Arcachon and it's wonderful bay, Cap Ferret, Biscarrosse, Mimizan Plage and so on, down to Biarritz, St Jean de Luz and then the Spanish border.

If you like surfing then this is probably the best area in Europe, and the further south you go towards St Jean de Luz the better (and hairier) it gets and the rollers get higher the further south you go. This stretch of water is called the Golfe de Gascogne even though we Brits a call the whole darn thing the Bay of Biscay, and there is some excellent surfing up to 5 metres high (just over 16 feet).

To a non surfer that seems pretty hairy indeed, and to be honest, if you are not an established surfer then you should avoid the temptation - or at least get some good life cover! It gets better though, or worse depending on your outlook on watersports because there is a beach near to St Jean de Luz where the rollers are generated a couple of KM out to sea, and they can sometimes reach 12 metres in height, and in English that is roughly 39 feet high! House height or even more!

Now I have been around the block a few times but I would think twice before trying that at my level of surfing skill, and as the editor of this site I suggest you think twice too, because I don't want it on my conscience when your obituary appears with the words, "Well, we read this article about holidays in the south of France and this guy suggested surfing near St Jean de Luz....." Be thankful there are no sharks!