If reading of the delights of St Malo has whetted your appetite for more of what the region has to offer, here are my suggestions for places to visit. On the assumption that you will be spending a lot of time in the car getting to your rental property, none of these involve driving more than twenty miles or so.

A trip to nearby Dinan (35 km from St Malo) is like a step back in time. The ramparts, higgledy-piggledy half-timbered houses and crooked, cobbled streets seem to be straight out of the Middle Ages. Sadly the number of tourists brings you back to the 21st century with a bump! The Rue du Jerzual and the Rue du Petit Fort are excellent for art galleries and antique shops but (and I speak from experience) beware of the steep slope especially when it is wet.

It's quite understandable that after the long ferry crossing to St Malo, UK visitors are tempted to hop in their cars and be on their way. It's a great shame, though, because St Malo is an attractive walled town and an excellent base for exploring the surrounding area. It is well worth tagging a few days on to the beginning or end of your holiday - doing this could even save you money, as mid-week travel tends to be cheaper. For ideas of where to stay in St Malo, see www.saint-malo.com

"It all became clear in a flash: there, right before me was the centre of the universe". So said the eccentric surrealist Salvador Dali, as he passed Perpignan's railway station in a taxi in 1963. This, in case you were wondering, is the reason for the benches in the shape of Mae West's lips in the road leading to the station and for the railway carriage suspended in mid-air in front of it. You will have to go to the Museum Ludwig in Cologne to see his work, The Railway Station at Perpignan, painted in 1965, but if you are a Dali fan, the trip from the Perpignan area to his home town of Figueres in Spain is an easy one. The coastal road (N114, becoming the N260 in Spain) is highly scenic, but not for the faint-hearted - twisting and turning like a corkscrew at times. Perhaps those prone to travel-sickness would be better off opting for the less attractive but straighter and far faster A9 (becoming the E15 IN Spain).

Sitting in the small French town of Ceret last week I could have been forgiven for thinking I was in Spain. The red and gold Catalan flags were fluttering, we were tucking into a delicious array of tapas washed down with a jug of sangria, and several small boys in Barca football shirts were kicking a ball around the square. Strange though it may seem, it was not a case of having had one glass too many, but rather that we were holidaying in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of Languedoc Roussillon.

Many people worry that a self-catering holiday will be nothing but a change of kitchen sink, and whilst it is not the same as being pampered in a five star hotel, it certainly has its benefits.

For far less than the cost of hotel accommodation you can have the privacy and space of your own villa or apartment. If you are a family rather than just a couple then the savings become even more attractive. There is no need for the whole family to squeeze into one room to keep the costs down, which can often be a temptation when staying in a hotel. If privacy and peace are not your priority, you should consider renting a property in a complex. Not only will you have the potential for company, particularly important if you have teenaged children, but many have swimming pools. All in all you may find it worth sacrificing the service provided by a hotel holiday to have plenty of bedrooms, your own living area and kitchen.

The arrival of children can throw a spanner in the holiday works of the most seasoned traveller. Packing for a holiday with young children is so gargantuan that flying seems out of the question, and yet with the vagaries of the British climate, a holiday in the UK can seem a bit of a gamble.

Where better to go therefore than France? Everything can be thrown in the car and you don't need to drive hundreds of miles to find a good holiday spot. If the weather's poor then at least the food and wine should provide some compensation.

Owners of rental properties often wonder how they can make theirs stand out from the rest. We have been renting holiday property for over 25 years and whilst some stand out for the best of reasons, others have stuck in our minds for all the wrong ones.

The best of the lot have always had swimming pools, not always big and seldom heated but they really are a bonus and can make a property far more attractive to holidaymakers and compensate for a property not being close to the sea. Games like table-tennis or snooker are also popular with families and even if there is no room indoors, a garage, barn or even car-port can be used. A collection of board games, jigsaws and books is always welcome and most people are happy to leave books behind that they have finished reading.

Holidays with children don't have to be of the traditional bucket and spade type to be a success. A lot of people thought we were very odd when we took our two children to the Loire Valley when they were about 5 and 8. Comments varied from "Poor kids being dragged round all these châteaux – they'll be bored stiff", to "It's not fair for them to miss out on the beach". Well the reality was that we were certainly not over-ambitious with our sight-seeing and they were never once bored. Neither did they miss out on the beach as we were staying near the attractive little riverside town of Montrichard with its lovely river-beach which ticked all the boxes. Now 15 years later facilities for children are even better in the region.