In July 2025 we headed to the south of France for our summer holiday – a two week stay in a chalet on a campsite in Port Grimaud, close to St Tropez. We are a family of six and at the time the children were 18, 14 and 10 year old twins. We were joined by family friends staying on the campsite with their own 17 and 15 year olds.
As usual, we decided to drive, and catch the Channel Tunnel, as we find that this tends to be cheaper than flying. We also like the freedom of having our own car on holiday. With four days to travel to the campsite, we decided to take a more circuitous route and stopped in Chamonix, Turin and Monaco on the way.
The weather was hot, the scenery beautiful and we had a really relaxing break. Read on below to find out more about where we stayed, details of the road trip and some of the amazing sites and places we visited.
Why the French Riviera?
We’ve been on many summer holidays to Brittany and Normandy in northern France and the Vendee, Aquitaine and the Dordogne on the west coast and while these have been good holidays, the weather is never guaranteed. We had a terrible two weeks in the Dordogne, weather-wise, in 2017 when it rained nearly every day.
The French Riviera has a reputation for much better weather during the summer with an almost guaranteed hot and dry climate.
We had previously thought that the Mediterranean south coast was too far to drive. However, after three successful road trips to Lake Garda, Italy and an epic 25 day road trip through Eastern Europe for a holiday in Croatia in 2024 we felt that the 950miles or so to St Tropez would be manageable in the car.
- The French Riviera (also known as the Cote d’Azur) is the Mediterranean coastline of the south-eastern corner of France. It includes the tourist destinations of Nice, Cannes, St Tropez, Antibes and Monaco.
- Average temperatures of 28’C in July and August with highs of 37’C.
- Playground of the rich and famous in St Tropez, Monaco and Cannes.
- Flight times to Nice are under two hours from many UK airports.
- Approximately 870 miles drive from Calais to St Tropez.
We stayed at a Marvilla Parks campsite on the north shore of the Gulf of St Tropez called Le Domaine Des Naiades, booked through Eurocamp. This was just outside the village of Port Grimaud in the Provence Region.
The Road Trip
Regular readers of the Blog will know that we rarely like to take the direct route when travelling somewhere new and this trip was no different.
With two and a half weeks booked off work we had allowed ourselves four days and three nights to travel down to the campsite. We booked the Channel Tunnel crossing and the direct route from Leicester to Port Grimaud would have been approximately 930 miles and 16 hours of driving.
We had the added complication of having to meet up with our eldest daughter who had been Interrailing across Europe for two weeks after completing her A-level exams. Her last destination was Venice and after failing to find suitable flights from there to the nearest airport to our campsite, we decided that we would drive in to Italy and pick her up on the way!
With one final journey left on the Interrailing ticket Mary parted ways with her college friend, who was flying back to the UK, and got a train across northern Italy to Turin where we would rendezvous and travel on to France together for our family holiday.
We left Leicestershire early on a Thursday morning and began the 900 mile journey to Turin. With the Leicester school holidays being earlier than most other areas, we made good time and were offered an earlier crossing, arriving in Calais at about lunchtime. We drove on to Auxerre, south of Paris, and stayed in a budget hotel for the night.
The next day was another long drive through the Alps to Turin. We stopped in Chamonix Mont Blanc for lunch before driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel into Italy. Leaving the hotel in Auxerre at about 09:30, we made it to our pre-booked hotel on the outskirts of Turin by 18:30, just in time to order some pizza and drive to the train station to pick Mary up at 20:00.
Turin
With the family reunited, we spent a relaxing Saturday site-seeing in Turin visiting the cathedral – home of the famous Turin Shroud – the Royal Palace and an Italian restaurant for lunch.
We left Turin on Sunday morning for the final leg of the road trip with 240 miles to cover. The route took us south to the coast where we soon crossed the border back into France. The scenery was amazing driving south from Turin through hills and forests before hitting the Mediterranean with the motorway then hugging the coast, winding through mountains with great views of the sea.
Monaco
The route took us straight past Monaco, the second smallest sovereign state in the world (after the Vatican City), so we didn’t want to miss the chance to tick another country off the list and stopped for a well deserved pit-stop.
We parked in a modern multi storey car park on the edge of the city and walked down to the marina to look at the super yachts and sports cars.
After an expensive ice cream stop we had a leisurely stroll past the main landmarks including the Mote Carlo Casino, the F1 tunnel Lavrotto and the Hotel de Paris.
After walking 2.5 miles in the heat we decided to catch the shuttle bus back uphill to the car park before setting off on the final leg of our journey to the campsite.
The final 80 mile drive took us past Cannes and Nice before finally arriving at our destination in the early evening. We were all very glad to arrive after four days of travelling 1,100 miles in the car.
Port Grimaud, Provence
The campsite, Domaine Des Naides, was fantastic. The caravans were set within wooded lanes on the side of a hill just a short walk (1 mile) to the beach.
This is a relatively small site with 413 pitches, an Olympic sized 50m pool and two very fast water slides. There is a restaurant and small shop on site.
For a relaxing, restful holiday the campsite was perfect for our family. We had a lot of fun teaching the kids how to dive into the 4m deep pool and spent a lot of time on the water slides.
In the evenings we relaxed on the decking with our friends while the kids exhausted themselves playing cage football with French, Dutch, German and Danish kids most nights.
At home we spend a lot of our spare time taking the kids to football training twice a week and three matches most Sundays. I was glad to see that this commitment to grassroots football definitely showed as their mixed-nationality team would regularly win against teams of much older teenagers who would then get upset and change the winner stays on rules!
Two days into the stay we unxpectedly bumped into some more friends from Leicestershire who have three children who go to school with our youngest three. Of all the campsites in all of France we couldn’t believe that they were on the same one after they had booked an impromptu stay after a villa holiday elsewhere in Provence.
This was great news for our 10 year olds who get on really well with the other families children and they all spent hours playing together in the pool and on the slides.
Sitting on the north shore of the Bay of St Tropez, Port Grimaud is a picturesque sea-side town created by an architect in the 1960s in a Venetian style. The centre of the village contains a number of small tourist shops and restaurants and a marina. This was a twenty-five minute walk from the campsite and we enjoyed a few meals here including on Bastille Day when we were treated to a brilliant firework display.
The white sandy beaches close to the campsite were picturesque but we found that they were very busy with little shade and not particularly relaxing with energetic children who don’t want to lie in the sun and read a book for very long.
We are used to the wide, sandy beaches of Britany and the Vendee with their fine golden sands, big waves and endless space for digging holes, building sandcastles, playing Frisbee, beachball and exploring the sand dunes etc to keep everyone entertained. We spent more time at the pool as a result.
St Tropez
We caught the regular boat service from Port Grimaud to St Tropez on a very hot day which was just 20 minutes and took us past several super yachts out in the bay and in St Tropez Marina.
The old town and harbour of St Tropez is quite small and we wandered past boutique designer shops, strolled up to the fort and stopped for lunch in an Italian restaurant.
Unfortunately we didn’t bump into Elton John or the Beckhams, who were rumoured to be in town at the time, but the streets were full of super cars and tourists clad in designer clothes straight off their super yachts.
Seeing where and how the A-list elite holiday was an experience but we were ultimately glad to head back to the ferry and our Eurocamp caravan that evening.
Grimaud
Three miles inland from Port Grimaud is the original village which is situated on a steep hill and set around a medieval castle. To try and escape the intense heat at the campsite we drove the short distance to have an explore.
Grimaud was definitely worth the visit. We parked for free on the street and walked up through the steep winding streets up towards the castle. We passed several art galleries and murals painted on the sides of buildings which were unexpected. How knew that Provence has a history of attracting artists including Van Gogh, Cezanne and Picasso who have all created iconic works influenced by the region’s unique landscapes and light.
After a kind family offered to take our photo at the top of the castle in the photo above, we continued our walk into the valley beyond the village on a nature trail which was ok going downhill but a struggle walking back up towards the village up the steep tracks. We had to placate everyone with an ice-cream when we eventually made it.
It was not until we got back to the campsite that I realised that couldn’t find my glasses which I knew I had been carrying on the walk around Grimaud in my sunglasses case. After looking back through all of the photos to see if we could see me holding the case, we thought that I might have left them at the top of the castle ruins while posing for the photo above. I drove back to the village determined to re-trace my steps to see if I could find them.
I started back at the castle and after climbing up the hundreds of steps and steep paths, much to my relief, the glasses were still there on the wall. this isn’t the first time I have lost and found my glasses on holiday in France – I once dropped some designer sunglasses in a deep river in the Dordogne only to find them on the river bed about 3m deep after several attempts swimming down and searching with my hands in the dark murky water!
The Drive Home
After almost two weeks relaxing on the French Riviera it was finally time to travel home. To make the most of our stay in Provence we only gave ourselves two days to drive the 960 miles so it was a bit of a slog. We had pre-booked a hotel in Sens which was about halfway and spent most of the first day on the motorway with just a few toilet stops at Châteauneuf-du-Pape and a Lyon.
On the second day we only stopped once before Calais, at my favourite French service station Aire de la Baie de Somme – https://www.autoroutes.sanef.com/fr/aire/service/baie-de-somme-autoroute-a16
After two days of over twelve hours travelling we finally made if back home with memories which we hope will last forever.
Overall opinion
We really enjoyed our 2025 road trip to the South of France. It was a long way to drive but felt manageable giving ourselves four days to get there. Driving back home in two days was difficult but we survived.
We love to visit new places and being able to visit Turin, Monaco, St Tropez and the Provence Region for the first time made the holiday feel like a real road trip adventure.
Mixing culture, campsite, beach, pool and day-trips made for an active holiday which we all enjoyed. From the palaces, museums and cathedral of Turin, Juventus Allianze Arena, Mote Carlo, St Tropez, the art of Provence, boat trips, castles, meals out, meals in, playing cage football with kids from other countries, learning to dive in the pool, socialising with friends, reading, card games, long walks, swimming in the sea, table tennis, driving through the Alps and the Mont Blanc Tunnel – we packed a lot in.
We hope that the kids will remember this holiday with fondness for a long time to come and be inspired to travel and open their hearts to different cultures and places as they grow up themselves. As mentioned above, our eldest joined this trip in Italy having just travelled with a friend by train through the Netherlands, Germany, Czechia, Austria, Slovakia and Italy so the travel bug seems to be rubbing off.
Holiday Run
When away from home I love to get out and go for a run around the sites or local countryside. I run a lot at home around the same few routes so it is really good to go for a run with more interesting sites to see along the way.
I managed to go on a few runs from the campsite around the local area either down to the coast and into Port Grimaud or up into the hills and vineyards inland from the campsite. With the high temperatures I had to go out early, generally before everyone else was awake, but some of the views were amazing.
You can find details of my route on Strava on the following link – https://www.strava.com/activities/15194276667
About Us
After the shock of finding out that we were expecting twins in 2015, one of the first things that we realised was that …we’re gonna need a bigger car!
We’re a family of six with two girls and two boys aged 18, 14 and 10 year old twins.
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