Les Roulottes de Cambonis

Saint-Sardos 10 minutes’ drive away has plenty of shops, supermarkets and eateries, as well as a massive lakeside leisure base where you can canoe and kayak and paddleboard across the waters or zipwire your way right over them. Swimming's not allowed in the lake, but that’s no problem thanks to the three pools of different depths with slides and inflatables, right next door. There’s more stuff to keep the small folk smiling (especially on those rare grey days) at Tohubohu Theme Park, 25 minutes away on the edge of Montauban, with indoor go-karts and dodgems, rides, slides and ball pits. Montauban is worth a wander too for a tour of the exquisite drawings in the Ingres museum, and riverside walks and picnics. For urban excursions, Toulouse is very doable for day trips at an hour away, and home to museums devoted to space (the outer kind), aviation, natural history and medicine, as well as a trampoline park, boat rides down the Garonne and tempting treats in the lively Victor Hugo market. After all that urban action, lose yourself in nature with walks, horse treks and bike rides through the cliffs, canyons, woods and river valleys of the Causses du Quercy Regional Natural Park, whose southern edge is an hour away.