France is the ideal destination for self drive tours.

SELF-DRIVE - these are short breaks based on a hire car awaiting you at the local airport of your choice, accommodation reserved for you in advance in country inns or guesthouses ... and a 'suggested itinerary' mapped out for you.

Our standard packages include.

Biarritz and the Basque Country - where the Pyrenees meet the Atlantic Ocean: surfing beaches to beech forests .

Most beautiful villages of France - Tarn and Aveyron valleys with their 'bastides' and 'castelnaus'.

Pre-history: heritage of the Pyrenees - 5 days touring the glorious foothills of the Pyrenees visiting such gems as the 'Grotte de Gargas' with its unusual 'hand silhouettes' and the little known 'Grotte de Oxocelhaya'.

EXAMPLES OF OUR SELF DRIVE TOURS IN FRANCE:

Discover Biarritz and the Pays Basque

The Pays Basque offers you a combination of beautiful landscapes, a deeply rooted and vivacious culture, a history it can be proud of as well as tasty gastronomy.

Day 1: Fly in direct to Biarritz airport, pick up your rental car and go to your Residence in central Biarritz (only 10 minutes driving). Settle in and explore this modern residence before taking a stroll down by way of the old fishing port to the 'Grand Plage' where surfers bob and weave through the waves and the beautiful people throng the promenade and open-air cafés. Check out the Casino and the fish restaurants around the port.

Day 2: After breakfast,we suggest you to discover Saint Jean de Luz (18km driving). It is the smallest and most refined of the three Basque coastal resorts: Biarritz and San Sebastian tending to be flashier and noisier. St Jean is a modest but chic resort, where turn-of-the-century townhouses line the unspoilt seafront rather than impetuous highrises. From this base you can explore the whole of the basque coast with your rental car as well as the inland foothills of the Pyrenees..The region abounds with tiny fishing villages and seafood restaurants.

Day 3: After breakfast,we suggest you to visit the Aquarium. In the afternoon you may prefer to discover Saint Jean Pied de Port (1h15 driving) or Bayonne (30mns driving)...or to do cheap shopping in Spain! A good day's outing includes a run over to the village of Espelette where the famous red peppers are grown before climbing (or taking the rickety mountain train) up the legendary mountain of the Basques, la Rhune, for a breath-taking view over the whole Basque region.

Day 4: Breakfast.Depending on flight times you may have time for a last dip in the ocean before going back to the airport. Biarritz Perched on rocky cliff tops or bordering the most fabulous sandy beaches Biarritz is a hotch-potch of architectural styles and urban planning. There are chateaux and follies at every street corner, unusual art deco palaces beside humdrum Victorian facades, but everywhere there is the smell and sound of the ocean as it pounds on the shore and covers the city in a radiant sparkle. Visit the excellent aquarium, the old port with its tiny restaurants and ancient Basque fishermen, watch the young surfers defy the rollers on the Grand Plage or just settle in front of a cold drink at a café on the promenade and wish yourself back in time to when the crowned heads of Europe jostled to be seen right where you are sitting. Saint Jean de Luz The town of St Jean was chosen by the Sun King, Louis XIV, as the setting for his marriage in 1660 to Marie-Teresa of Austria. The church, with its door by which the royal couple left bricked up immediately after, is on the charming pedestrian street which is the backbone of this small town and can still be visited. The fishing port, with its bustling activity, was once the centre of an atlantic whaling industry but now concentrates on smaller.

Self-drive tour of pre-history sites of the Pyrenees 5 day tour of the Pyrenean piedmont : cave paintings, roman villas, prehistory of southern Europe. Programme:

Day 1: arrive in Toulouse or Carcassonne : settle into your central hotel in Toulouse and step out to explore the Romanesque heritage of this Roman city: the Basilique St Sernin, the Augustin and Jacobin monasteries ... and the tomb of St Thomas of Aquinas. Overnight in 3* hotel.

Day 2 South into the Pyrenean piedmont, by way of Mas d'Azil and its extraordinary cave which we can drive through, to visit the Parc de l'Art Préhistorique in Tarascon: this will give a taste and an explanation of what is to come. On a few kilometres to the Caves of NIAUX, an important site with paintings of bison, dear and bear dating from the Magdelian age. The only tour of the day in english is scheduled for 1pm. Then on to Massat and St Girons and St Gaudens to visit ST BERTRAND de COMMINGES , its cathedral and the Roman church of St Just de Valcabère. Overnight in country auberge in St Laurent de Neste.

Day 3 GARGAS - la grotte des MAINS - paintings and etchings from the late Paleolithic (about 27,000 BC) of which the most startling and unusual are the 'hands'. Silhouettes and stencils of human hands, all shapes and sizes, some with fingers missing, out-lined in strong reds and ochres. Hands have appeared in other caves and other civilizations but Gargas presents the most singular collection in the world. VILLA ROMAINE de MONTMAURIN - a well-preserved Roman Villa just north of St Gaudens. The site is unspoilt and probably unchanged since roman times. overnight in St Laurent de Neste.

Day 4 Drive to Lourdes, the holy city of Bernadette, to visit the Sanctuary. On into the Basque Country and the Grotte de Oxocelhaya, a little-known splendour of high-vaulted chambers with colourful stalagmites and a number of cave drawings and paintings dating back 50,000 years to the Bronze Age. The caves around Isturitz housed important Paleolithic settlements and much remains to be explored. overnight in Biarritz, on the Atlantic coast.

Day 5 - breakfast - return to airport (3 hours).