The winding mountain roads, forming part of the Tour de France, from Tournay towards La Mongie, where we caught the 2877m high cable car to the observatory at the Pic du Midi that was where NASA mapped the moon’s surface prior to the Apollo landings.
00 33 (0)5 62 56 70 00; www.picdumidi.com; adults E30, children (under 12) E21
Best outdoor thing to do:
Mooching around Toulouse’s teeming Sunday morning African market in the shadow of the Basilica of St Sernin, the largest Romanesque church in Europe, whilst looking for sunglasses for Phoebe that “in real life have to be pink because I am a girl and have bunnies on them because you know bunnies are my favourite animal”.
Best rainy day thing to do:
Visiting the Cité de l’Espace (Avenue Jean Gonord) in Toulouse, where I put my hand in a tub of -200 degree liquid nitrogen and Charlie made a fool of our educative parenting by answering the guide’s question: “what do astronauts’ backpacks contain?” With: “Is it their sandwiches?”
00 33 (0)8 20 37 72 23; www.cite-espace.com; adults E19.50, children (5-15) E14, under 5s free.
Best place we’ve stayed:
The Mercure Pau Palais des Sports (106, Avenue de L’Europe) in Pau for its outdoor pool Phoebe swam her first ever width in without floats. Or Hotel Alba (27 Avenue du Paradis) in Lourdes for a) the four-course meal thrown in for the rate and b) its souvenir shop, where you could buy anything from a singing ‘Tit Miss doll to an oven glove featuring St Bernadette.
00 33 (0)5 59 84 29 70; www.mercure.com; Double room from E123 per night.
00 33 (0)5 62 42 70 70; www.hotelalba.fr; Interconnecting rooms, dinner, bed and breakfast E131.25 per night.
Best meal:
The filet de poulet marine au gingembre at the Novotel Toulouse Centre (5 Place Alphonse Jourdain) in Toulouse because of the wonderful chef. Playing along with our game that the “chef will be cross if you don’t eat your greens” he came out from the kitchen to lean menacingly on the bar and scowl until Charlie had woofed his plate clean.
00 33 (0)5 61 21 74 74; www.novotel.com; Main meal from E10.
Don’t miss:
Staying within the walls of the UNESCO-listed medieval city of Carcassonne to catch the sun rising over the fairytale battlements.
00 33 (0)4 68 71 98 65; www.hoteldelacite.com; E425 per night for a Grande Deluxe Classic room with views. (PUT accent over e at end of cite)
Worst behaviour:
The milling in the nave of the Basilique du Rosaire et de I’Immaculée Conception during a packed Latin Mass in Lourdes that resulted in Charlie and Phoebe tripping up an elderly incense-waving priest processing to the altar. Or maybe Charlie insisting on taking his plastic beach spade and a map (a Road Safety in France leaflet) into the Mary Magdalene church in Rennes-Le-Chateâu in order to hunt for the lost gold of the Cathars that generations of treasure hunters have failed to find at this historic site that helped inspire Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.
00 33 (0)4 68 31 38 85, www.rennes-le-chateâu.fr; adults E4.50, children E3.50
Phoebe most excited by:
The bouncy castles and kids’ games along the banks of La Garonne River during the annual Toulouse Plage festival (10 July- 29 August). Dinah most excited about looking for Gerard Depardieu, rumoured to be holidaying at Cap Ferret, the chic harbour resort we passed on a boat trip round Arcachon Bay from Jetée Thiers.
0033 (0)5 61 22 21 43; www.uk.toulouse-tourisme.com/entertainment-and-events.
00 33 (0)5 57 72 28 28; www.bateliers-arcachon.com; adults: E14, children (3-11) E10.
Most embarrassing moments:
The needless fuss I made about the threat of jellyfish at the Biarritz Surf Training School (Côte Basque) during a bracing 8 am lesson.
00 33 (0)5 59 23 15 31; www.surftraining.com; €30 per hour.
Or perhaps Charlie’s inappropriate touching of a €2,000 chocolate sculpture of a naked woman at the Planète Musée du Chocolat.
00 33 (0)5 59 23 27 72; www.planetmuseeduchocolat.com; adults: E5, children (5-15) E4, under 5s free
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