South Of France

As a rule, beach locations during August are booked 1 year in advance, if not earlier. The entire country of France will be on vacation during August, and beaches are among the most popular destinations. Even making day trips into beach locations can be difficult as parking becomes nonexistent.

Mont Boron is fabulous, but expect big crowds. If you have never driven to St Tropez in summer, consider enormous lines and a 1 to 2 hour drive from Port Grimaud to reach it.

I think that August is a great time to be in Paris.

I know and I’ve thought about canceling my trip but we are kind of invested in it now.

I just got an email announcement from AirBnB they have some new search features, like kind of location and/or kind of place. They explain is so you don't have to be specific with a location when you start your search. And you might find some choices you might not have first thought of. So you could do "France and Beach" or "France and Cabin", with your dates and your 5 people, and then look on the map at the search results. If you see some things that appeal to you come back to the forum and see what others here think about them.

Thank you I appreciate that. I’ll take a look.

Yes it is peak season and some areas are very crowded on the French Riviera. However, I've spent time in August in pre-pandemic and last year (we have a place in Nice) and although there are crowds, I've seen worst (and I've stayed at what were supposedly the two busiest summers in modern times). The smallest of towns have the biggest of issues -- VIllefranche-sur-Mer, Saint Tropez/Ramatuelle.

You won't see too many crowds on Mont Boron, I've stayed there and looked at many places (including in July) while househunting. A car is pretty nice to have there and be cautioned that traffic can be very thick on the corniches (especially in Villefranche-sur-Mer. If you stay on lower Mont Boron you can walk down to the Port area, where there are many restaurants and services (Mont Boron itself is very residential, with a supermarket and a few services near the Cap). However, there are no real beaches on that side of Nice and the walk up the stairs can be hot and tiring. You can also look in Central Nice (Carre d'Or, Near Jean Medecin/Wilson/Carabacel or even in Fleurs/Gambetta) -- returning the rental car -- I recommend staying out of Old Town as the crowds are most intense, the apartments often not air conditioned and often have a lot of steps.

Try looking at Antibes as well. The beaches there are truly sandy (on the Gulf side). If you don't need to be near the beach and want to retain the car, look in Vence. There is a lovely old town there and it is off the tourist haunts.

Thank you that is great information! We don’t need to be by the beaches . Ideally I would love to be in an adorable quaint town with markets and stores but close enough to drive or Uber to the waterfront places like Cannes, Nice. Cap Ferret etc for a day trip.