Skip the Hotel, Skip the Villa: The French Summer Luxury Everyone Overlooks

The first light of day on a still lake. A château, French for castle, is reflected in the water, whilst a solitary canoe slowly cuts through the water. Someone is up before the other visitors. It is a French summer morning that those who have booked an ordinary hotel room or rented a cheap villa will never experience.

The Holiday You Didn’t Know You Were Missing

A hotel imposes its own rhythm on you. Breakfast is served before you’ve even fully woken up. Your room

could be any one of the forty rooms down the corridor, and the keycard stops working at 10 am sharp. Renting a

villa, on the other hand, offers you space, but also a locked gate and an evening that begins and ends behind it. In

both cases, you stay indoors, in a country that has perfected the art of outdoor living.

There is a third option, but most British travelers overlook it without giving it a second thought. Imagine a

working château whose grounds are open to visitors: you stay in a canvas lodge or a wooden chalet, with a

swimming pool, a restaurant and a proper spa just a stone’s throw away.

The best of these France campsites offer four- or five-star comfort without ever feeling like you’re in a hotel. Les

Castels offers exactly this kind of experience, combining luxury outdoor stays with the charm of historic château

estates. You make the most of the grounds. You make the most of your days.

What a Château Estate Gives You

On one estate, safari-style tents stand on a slope of mown grass, with a pond covered in water lilies stretching

out before them and a small stone chapel watching over the scene from the edge of the forest. This is glamping

in France, and the place is a world away from a simple caravan site.

As you explore the estate, the comforts reveal themselves: a barrel-shaped sauna with a round porthole offering

breathtaking views across a whole valley of vineyards, a sun-drenched terrace where morning orange juice is

served along with a basket of freshly baked croissants. No bell to signal the buffet. No corridors. And as night

falls, a canoe awaits you at the jetty, the château reflected in the background, the lake at your disposal.

These are luxury outdoor stays, within historic estates. The descriptions don’t exaggerate; one of them is

presented, without irony, as ‘a real-life fairy-tale in the wooded estate’. After a week, it begins to feel like a

private garden, with a château at the far end.

This Is the Way the French Spend Their Holidays

No other country in Europe has a camping culture quite like France’s, as Eurostat figures clearly show:

France: 154 million overnight stays in campsites and caravan sites in 2025, representing 37.2% of the EU

total

Spain: 49.8 million overnight stays

Italy: 49.1 million

Germany: 45 million

The number of overnight stays in campsites and caravans across the EU has risen by 28.5% over the last decade,

whilst growth in hotels and short-term rentals has been more moderate, at 23.4%.

Choosing Your Corner of France

So, map in hand, where does this take you? To a vast array of choices. Fancy the southern parts and the sun? The

Gorges de l’Ardèche offer active mornings on the water and breathtaking views – which you might not capture

well in photos, but which you’ll remember perfectly. Burgundy, on the other hand, offers peaceful country roads

winding through vineyards and France’s rich history.

Further north and west, the possibilities expand. Normandy puts you just a morning’s drive from the D-Day

beaches. The Loire lets you wander among grand châteaux by day and sleep between lake and forest by night.

And Brittany always preserves its tranquility, somewhere between Saint-Malo and Mont-Saint-Michel. These

unique holiday destinations rank among the best places to stay in Europe precisely because they refuse to choose

between nature, comfort and culture.

Whilst you’re scrolling, dreaming of castles, someone else, somewhere, has already woken up feeling as though

they’re on sacred ground. The reflection of the castle in the morning light will make them regret ever having

paid for an impersonal hotel. On your next holiday, that person can be you.