Links to all our France Accommodations

When I started sharing on IG that we paid $0 for two weeks of accommodations in France, people kept asking me HOW.

When I shared we used Home Exchange, people asked me for all the links of the homes we stayed in! 

So....I wanted to take a few moments and share the links of the amazing houses we stayed at on Home Exchange. 

Remember, anyone can sign up for Home Exchange. Upon signing up, you receive quite a lot of guest points, and can literally start using those guest points to immediately to stay in other's homes. As a reminder, we do not live in a tourist town, and yet we get SO MANY inquires each year of people wanting to come stay in our home. You just never know who is coming to your town that needs a place to stay! Many of the people who have come have family in my town, so don't count yourself out if you feel like you live in the middle of nowhere haha!! 

So...the first 10 days of our trip to France we stayed in the region of Provence. We stayed 5 nights in the first Provencial Farmhouse, and 5 nights in the other one. Both houses are within minutes of Avignon, but were on either side of the city so we got to experience 2 distinct places. The last few days we stayed in Nice, in a lovely apartment set in the trees upon the hill overlooking the city! It was a 10 minute bus ride in to Nice! 

Avignon House #1- Rochefort du Guard 

This home was absolutely stunning. We couldn't get enough of the yard, with the gorgeous pool, blooming bougainvillea, and blue shutters on the stone house. The family who lives here was so kind to us, left us a basket full of goodies, and even met up with us before we left. An incredible experience staying here! 

Avignon House #2- Morières-Lès-Avignon

This truly was a dream house for a larger family. Every room of this house was gorgeous, not to mention the courtyard where we ate every meal. It has a swing and turtles that the kids loved playing with. The family was so kind and also left us gifts:) 

Nice Apartment

Sadly, I didn't even snap one picture of our time in this lovely family apartment. The family who owned it was beyond kind, and left wrapped presents for each of my kids, as well as presents for Kevin and I. We felt so spoiled. We got to meet and get to know them before they took off on their trip to Scotland! 

 I Never expected to make such lovely friends from this experience, but we did!! 

If you're interested in Home Exchange, click the link below to check it out and make a profile!! You never know where it will take you....

HOME EXCHANGE LINK

Happy Adventuring!! 

Kid Friendly Activities in Provence, France

 

As you know, we just returned from a few weeks in Provence and Nice with our family of 6. We have four very young children (ages 7, 5, 3, and 1) and knew we had to combine a mix of sight seeing with some very kid friendly activities. This was THEIR vacation too, so we wanted to devote some sweet time to doing this specifically for children. 

Don't get me wrong, the majority of the trip they spent exploring local hill top villages and market towns, as well as swimming in the mediterannean and soaking in the sun on the French Riviera. But we really loved giving them a few special days to do some specific kid related activities...So, without further ado...these were our favorites....

Avignon Aquatic Center  (Stade Nautique d'Avignon)

It was HOT in Provence, and the kids asked multiple times if we could find a place to swim. Since we were staying in Avignon, we found this amazing aquatic center. The kids loved it. Aside from regular swimming pools, they had water slides, splash pads, kiddie pools, and a whirlpool. You have to be a certain height to ride the big slides, so only our 7 year old could ride down. But our younger kids loved the smaller slides, and we could ride with them too. One hilarious sidetone is that men have to have a speedo to enter. Kevin clearly does not own a speedo, but never fear, they have a vending machine, and for $14 you too can get yourself a speedo haha! (As a side note, if your kids are a few years older, these is a fantastic waterpark called Wave Island. You have to be a certain height so only one of my kids could have done it now. But if we go in the future we want to check it out!) 

Piratland

I thought this was going to be quite ridiculous, but to be honest, our whole family loved it. It was perfect for our kids ages. They have bounce houses, rides, trampolines, and a small water park area. You buy gold coins (in keeping with the pirate theme, haha), and then use them to spend whatever you want. So it's free to get in which is nice. Most of the rides are only 1-3 coins, and the water park is 5 coins. We bought the 100 coin option and ended up with way too many coins, so you could get away with a smaller package. For reference, we stayed a full 3 hours! 

Le Bois de Lutins

We honestly didn't know much about this fairy/troll land before going, but it was truly a delight. Nestled in a woodland area were layers and layers of themed fairy and troll playgrounds. Treehouses with canopies and bridges, huge blow up tires to run inside, trampolines to bounce on, and a fairly large water park area. Our family favorite was the luge...you sit in an inflated ring and ride down a track. It was so much fun. We literally spent ALL day here, time flew! My only complaint is that it is up and down hills, so a little tricky with a stroller. But we did it, and it was fine! 

Aix en Provence

As I mentioned in my last blog post (which you can see here), Aix en Provence has so many kid friendly activities around town. They have the iconic carousel which the kids rode on a few times, and then they have a little kids activity center (across from the carousel) which has trampolines for the kiddos to bounce on (and other activities). Everything is so cheap. The carousel was $3/kid and then the trampoline bounce was $5/kid (in American this would be like $50). 

Ok...so tell me, what did YOUR kids love in Provence?? What else should I add to this list? 

Our favorite villages in Provence, France with kids

Oh France, you are a dream! We just got back from spending 2 weeks with our 4 young children (ages 7, 5, 3, and 1) in both Provence and the French Riviera. I will share our favorite towns in both regions, but today's post is dedicated to the stunning hilltop villages and market towns of Provence. 

I first stepped foot in Provence 15 years ago when my parents whisked my siblings and I away to an old stone house nestled in the middle of vineyards as far as the eye could see. I felt as though we had traveled back in time...it truly was the French countryside at it's finest:) This time, our accommodations were also incredible as we used Home Exchange to swap houses with French families. The homes we stayed in were so stunning! You can read about our experience here. 

While there are LOTS of places to go in Provence, here are a list of our favorites. In my opinion, you really can't go wrong with any of them. It's just a gorgeous region! 

Avignon

We stayed in Avignon, truly a lovely city. The kids enjoyed seeing the Pont du Avignon (learning the history, and singing the song), as well as the Papal Palace. The Catholic Church moved the seat of the church from Rome to Avignon in the 1300's, and then a few hundred years later moved it back. So it's quite a sight to see. My kids had so much fun on the beautiful carousel in the main square, with multiple ice cream shops abounding. 

Arles

 

Arles is one of my absolute favorite town in Provence. It is bigger, so there's a good amount of sights to see. The Romans built both an amphitheater and arena in Arles which you can tour. Around the Arena are sweet little alleyways with darling shops filled with market baskets (my favorite) and French soaps and souvenirs. There is a large square which is a great place to grab an ice cream and people watch. They also have some fantastic markets here. My kid's favorite was the playground on the side of the hill by the amphitheater. 

Gordes

I almost didn't take our family to Gordes. I had heard it was very swanky, a place where the rich and famous stay, and somehow taking 4 young kids didn't sound like the best recipe for success. I AM SO GLAD WE DECIDED TO GO ANYWAY! It ended up being one of my most favorite mornings. First of all, it's gorgeous. It is very posh, but in an approachable way. The main square with a fountain in the middle of it was seriously oozing with charm and giving me all the Beauty and the Beast vibes. There's a lovely church you can walk in, delicious ice cream shops, and some wandering in and out of the colorful alleys. It was a fairly quick trip, but so worth it! 

Lacoste

I adored Lacoste. It's a city that winds upward, and I had a lot of fun hiking up with the kiddos and Kev. We were quite the sight with all our kids tromping up haha! There are So many iconic spots to take photos, so if you're in to photography like I am...absolutely check out Lacoste. I loved every minute of being in this little hamlet! Again, it's best to tag on to a day where you're seeing multiple of the little hill towns, they are all so close to and another. 

Menerbes

Menerbes is so pretty it almost feels fake. It is best to go if you're looking for a walk that leads to picturesque views...the landscape below filled with vineyards and farmland was breathtaking. There isn't much in this town, but I'm still glad we went to soak up the beauty. We were there around noon and tried to get an ice cream, and the owner (who was sitting outside with a friend) let us know it didn't open until 2pm. Haha, that would never happen in America, but I love that the French hold their work/life boundaries well! Menerbes is very close to many other hill towns so best to see in conjunction with Lacoste, or others! 

Aix en Provence

Aix was the biggest town we explored, and it did not disappoint. We felt like the beauty just kept going and going, and sadly we had to leave early to get to an appointment (our rental car had an issue so we had to take it back), so I wish we could have lingered longer. Aix has loads of fun activities for kids, including the iconic carousel, trampolines (In American these cost like $50 to do, but here they were $5 so we let the kids try them!), and of course some very yummy ice cream shops. The kids said their favorite ice cream was from Aix! Aix is a little further away than all the towns listed above, however if you're driving to Marseille or Nice, could make a great stop over! 

St Remy de Provence

This town is pure delight. The word I kept using to describe it to Kevin was "cute"! I may have said "THIS IS SO CUTE" approximately 53 times haha! But in all honesty, it was a great little town to explore. They had THE BEST Playground (maybe of the entire trip) with loads for the kids to climb on, and sweet little swings. The French know how to make cute playgrounds. The town is easily accessible walking, and they had multiple parking lots to try.

If you've been to Provence I'd love to hear your favorite towns! We obviously couldn't visit them all, but these are the ones we visited and really enjoyed:)