Our trip to France with HomeAway

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...especially when that seaside is in the sunny Mediterranean!

I'm incredibly late with this post but last summer I was lucky enough to spend a week in apartment in the glorious South of France as part of a review for HomeAway.  HomeAway is the UK's number one holiday rental site, connecting private home owners and property managers with holidaymakers around the world who enjoy the space, freedom and value of a private holiday home over a hotel.  HomeAway allocated me a budget which I could use on accommodation anywhere I liked. We decided on South of France and I topped up this budget to get us a lovely apartment in a nice central location - as you can imagine it's not cheap on the Côte d'Azur!

We decided on a lovely two-bedroom apartment, Eclat de Couleur, in the beautiful small town of Villefranche-Sur-Mer which is nestled on the rugged coastline between Nice and Monaco.  From our first contact with HomeAway and communication with the very helpful owner Eamon, everything was smooth running. Eamon gave us lots of information prior to our trip including useful contact details for the English-speaking property manager who was able to arrange a taxi driver to collect us from Nice airport and deliver us straight to the door of the apartment where she was waiting for us!  Having someone like this to hand was invaluable - she spent plenty of time with us showing us how everything worked, giving us restaurant recommendations, public transport information and  we were able to contact her through the week if we should need to.

We were really pleased with the apartment - it was well appointed, spacious, clean and had a pretty amazing view from the beautiful terrace where many a meal was eaten and glass of wine sipped! The kitchen was well-equipped with everything you might need for self-catering and the apartment had Sky TV - which was invaluable for keeping the children out of trouble when we needed some quiet time and respite from the midday sun.  Wi-fi was included and the apartment had excellent air-conditioning which was definitely welcome in August! Out on the terrace there was a BBQ and also a stash of umbrellas, and snorkels etc that you could take to the beach - these were much used by us and very appreciated.

It has a fab location - okay - it's at the top of a steep hill when coming up from Villefranche town however that just helps to burn off all the extra calories you've put on from all those visits to the patisserie and look at the benefits of being at the top of a hill - the view you get from your terrace.

One of the children's favourite things to do every day was see which cruise-liner had rolled into town. Okay, I also enjoyed it - I've never been on a cruise-liner and would have loved a look around!  One day the Disney Magic ship was there - there was a lot of squealing that morning.

Villefranche-Sur-Mer itself is a really pretty little old town. We absolutely loved it. There's a good smattering of shops, patisseries, cafes, bars and of course plenty of restaurants.  There are lots of tiny little weaving streets to wander and the children loved the medieval atmosphere of the Rue Obscure. Built between the 14th & 16th centuries, the Rue Obscure is a walkway that runs the length of the medieval ramparts.

Villefranche has excellent transport links to surrounding areas. There are frequent trains along the coastline though we opted to use the bus for our trips into Nice and Monaco. I wasn't overly enamoured with Nice but I adored Monaco. We spent a whole day there and I could have spent a lot longer. Oh how the other half live!

A week spent in Villefranche was so relaxing. We went to the beach every day - which was shingle rather than the giant pebbles of Nice, snorkelled, ate our own weight in bread, cheese and cakes and generally just had a marvellous time! One of the highlights was an evening beach picnic with with children, swimming in the warm sea whilst the sunset. Memories are made of this!

Having a great holiday apartment was the icing on the cake for this wonderful trip. It was quiet and relaxing when we needed downtime and we slept beautifully, waking completely refreshed before enjoying breakfast on the sun-soaked terrace. I was pleased to find that the reviews I had read on HomeAway before the holiday were accurate which gives me a lot more comfort and security for the future and I'm pretty sure I would use HomeAway again in the future following this great experience.

Disclosure: HomeAway contributed to the cost of the accommodation mentioned in this trip in return for this honest and unbiased review. All other costs including flights, transport, balance of the accommodation and food were paid for by myself.