Camping Parc du Charouzech

You may well decide that Lake Pareloup has all you need – after all, you can go boating, try out a variety of watersports, fish for carp and pike, walk around its shores and swim off pocket-sized lake beaches. Should you fancy a change of scenery, the spectacular Gorges du Tarn runs east from the sleepy waterside village of Le Rozier (55 minutes’ drive), and makes a dramatic backdrop to hiking, cycling and canoeing adventures. If the kids need a little persuasion to join such day trips, hopefully they will be intrigued by the bizarrely shaped rock formations at Chaos de Montpellier-le-Vieux (an hour and 10 minutes). There are more stunning views – this time of the manmade kind – to be had at the Millau Viaduct (45 minutes), designed by Sir Norman Foster with elegant spans crossing the Tarn Valley. For a day of urban sightseeing, Rodez (45 minutes) repays a visit with modern art in the ultra-contemporary Musée Soulages and peerless Gothic architecture at its pink-stoned cathedral, or you can get out into rural Aveyron to sample well-known cheeses matured in caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon (50 minutes).