Les Charmettes holiday parc on the Côte Sauvage in Charente Maritime has a giant swimming pool complex with slides and waterfalls that the kids will love. The region’s many beaches are screened by pine trees, and surfing and cycling are favourite activities. A 12-night holiday at Les Charmettes from 7 August starts from £1,435 for a family of four, with a January saving of £221. Dover to Calais return ferries are included.

La Réserve siblu parc, in Aquitaine, sits on the edge of Lake Biscarosse, which has a gentle beach and shallow waters making it the ideal play area for parents with young children. A 12-night holiday at the parc, which also has indoor and outdoor pools and free children’s clubs, costs from just £1,090 starting on 3 July, with an early-booking saving of £175. Dover to Calais ferries are included.

Lac des Rêves is a truly relaxing family site in Languedoc, close to the Mediterranean coast and Montpellier (it’s where I took my wife on our first wedding anniversary, old romantic that I am!). There is a highly rated pool and large sandy beaches nearby, and this is the biggest wine region in the world. A 12-night holiday, giving families plenty of times to try out the beaches, swimming pools and vineyards, starts from £1664 for a 24 July departure, saving £152. This price includes Dover to Calais ferries.

So, our new French Language Classes for children are a brilliant way to bolster their confidence to use the French they’ve learned at school, and to bring their school lessons to life.

Our five-day Fun With French classes run at two siblu parcs and have been specially formulated by a professional teacher to appeal to 12-16 year olds. Best of all, they cost just £10 to take part in, and that include a last day meal.

Each Fun with French course includes five 90-minute group sessions with themes such as celebrity life, holidays, TV and films, shopping, restaurants and winning the lottery. The focus is on conversation, games and fun, and  courses are designed to increase each child’s self-belief when speaking French.

The classes have been designed to get kids talking French on their holiday. Even one week of speaking French will benefit them greatly when they head back to school.

Fun with French is available at two siblu parcs – Bonne Anse Plage in Charente Maritime and Le Bois Masson in the Vendée. Classes take place during the Whitsun week school holidays (from 31 May 2010).

Entries were submitted in two categories, for newspapers and magazines, and voted for by a panel of travel editors.

The winner of the Newspaper category was freelance journalist Ian Belcher, for his fantastic piece ‘Living high on the hog in the Languedoc’ for The Observer newspaper.  Ian’s victory was a triple celebration – this piece was named overall French article of the year, and he won a siblu holiday to France as part of his prize.

The Magazine category was dominated by articles from the fantastic France Magazine, edited by Carolyn Boyd. The winning article was ‘Flea for all’ by Kate Chappell, about her visit to Lille’s Grande Braderie in Lille – Europe’s biggest flea market.

One bugbear was that the online category was cancelled because of a lack of entries – a real shame when there are so many great blogs and travel writers working online now.

Of course, we are always disappointed when articles we love don’t win, so here’s a roll call of our favourites from 2009, from the Telegraph, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror.

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We have been shortlisted in the Best Camping & Mobile Tour Operator category of the British Travel Awards, in a vote that is claimed to be largest on travel industry performance in the UK. Over 90,000 people took part in last year’s event.

There’s one month of voting left, so if you enjoyed their holiday with siblu, don’t forget to vote (follow this link).

We have been shortlisted in the Best Camping & Mobile Tour Operator category of the British Travel Awards, in a vote that is claimed to be largest on travel industry performance in the UK. Over 90,000 people took part in last year’s event.

We are included as Best Camping & Mobile Tour Operator with companies including Eurocamp, Haven and Keycamp. To find out more about the awards and to cast your vote, click here. Once you have entered your details, you can choose the category to vote for.  

So if you loved your Siblu Holiday and want to see us do well against the great big corporate companies we are up against, cast your vote for siblu.

Voting ends on 30 September, with results announced in November.

Maître Kaisen, a Buddhist living in the Dordogne, has written a book saying that many of the qualities associated with playing la pétanque, or boules, help in good quality meditation.

His theory is that petanque players move towards a meditative state when they line up a shot, as they ignore distractions, focus on their breathing and forget about their self and others.

La Pétanque originated in southern France but is now popular across the country. Players throw metal balls as close towards a small wooden jack, with the winner getting their boule closest to this ball.

So for a calmer late summer, it’s not too late to book a break and experience your own siblu meditative break… boule and pitches are included at no cost. 

For a calmer end to the year, I recommend you try Domaine de Kerlann in Brittany (from £244 starting 12 September), Domaine Dugny in the Loire Valley (from £298 starting 20 September) or Les Charmettes in Charente Maritime (from £242 starting 18 September). All prices are based on a 7-night holiday for a family, with Dover to Calais ferries included.

The frogs are out in Charente Maritime, which local tradition decrees is a sign that August will be hot (this method seems at least as accurate as the Met Office!)

Indeed, Charente Maritime is officially the sunniest part of France after the south coast, so a holiday here is sure to shine.

We still have accommodation at La Pignade holiday parc in August. For a family, staying seven nights from 14 August, accommodation with Dover/Calais ferries is available from just £1,145.

Slightly further north is the Vendée, which is also looking promising according to weather forecasts, hitting highs of 29oC in the next few days. A seven night stay at Le Bois Dormant for a family from 10 August is available from £1,121 with Dover to Calais ferries.

And there’s still a smattering of availability of the south coast, where it will be hot, hot, hot.

Le Montourey on the Côte d’Azur has two-bedroom holiday homes from 18 August, with prices from £1,038 for a family with Dover to Calais ferries.

Tourers can also find a deal on the south coast, with Les Sables du Midi on Languedoc offering pitches for seven nights from 14 August for just £482, with Dover/Calais ferries included.

So don’t pack away thoughts on burnt sausages and black burgers just yet, you can still enjoy a barbecue summer.

The site is the brainchild of respected travel writers David Whickers and Mark Hodson, who praise siblu’s affordable family holidays and the broad range of on-parc activities for all ages.

Get a load of us here!

Alarig, head of entertainments at Pierres Couchees, has invited great groups from France’s west coast to perform on the parc’s outdoor stage.

There are 12 groups covering French pop, rock and even punk. Bands appearing include Drunken Butterfly (pop & indie, 18 July), Voxcivilian (rock fusion, 25 July), Cabassa (afrobeat, hip-hop, 1 August), Goodbye Juliet (electro pop, 5 August), Les Vieilles Margattes (French pop, 8 August), Justine & Dolores Riposte (punk rock, 12 August), Cirkus Palace (rock, 15 August), Users (hip hop’n'roll, 19 August), Vladivostok (disco punk, 22 August), Le Pied de la Pompe (French pop, 26 August) and Ad Libe (pop, 29 August).

Well it’s a nice idea, but the recent rain storms in the UK have made lots of families think twice about the suitability of a week under canvas in Britain.

Our reservations teams are already receiving calls from people who have changed their mind, and are on the hunt for a holiday in France, Spain or Italy.

We don’t want to add to the gloom for anybody who has bought a tent, so until 15 August, we’ll discount the cost of your tent off the price of your siblu holiday.

Anyone who bought their tent on or after 1 April can take part, if they send us a valid receipt. So effectively, you can trade in your tent (doesn’t look like it will be getting much use in the UK this summer) and save with siblu.

Find out more on the siblu website.