The flight-free family holiday to France with water slides, amazing beaches and cheap pizza

LOOKING to beat the airport chaos this summer? 

Few destinations are better for a bargain family road trip than the resort commune of Vias on France’s southern coast.

 It’s packed with delicious restaurants, and there’s a trio of lovely beachfront bars right on the sand. 

The beach is clean, the sea refreshing — and in traditional holiday fashion, your kids will bring back more shells than you know what to do with.

Our home for the week was a ten-minute walk from the beach — a modern, plush caravan, with comfy living area and bathroom, on Siblu’s La Carabasse holiday park.

Boasting a theme park-standard swimming pool with three terrific flumes — including the Big One for the brave, which can flip you upside down — the site has more than 900 pitches but still has enough space for every family to have their privacy.

We arrived on a weekend, when the site comes alive with kids’ shows and discos, as well as comedy and special themed nights.

But the real highlight of this bubbly campsite is not the entertainment, it’s the sublime location. 

Close to the historic walled city of Béziers, La Carabasse is an excellent point from which to explore France’s south-west coast. 

It’s just over an hour’s drive from Perpignan, Montpellier or Carcassonne — and you could even make Barcelona for lunch.

If you can tear yourself away from the campsite’s bar and pizzeria — with outdoor big screen for sport and Stella on draft — or the free kids’ club, archery and tennis, visit the nearby beaches of La Tamarissière which are much quieter than those on the main strip.

If you enjoy wildlife, then the Domaine des Orpellières nature reserve is a must. 

Rolling vineyards

A 15-minute drive from Siblu, with windswept dunes and pile upon pile of driftwood, it stretches across a protected area of nearly 400 acres.

You won’t need to pack a lunch as a visitor centre serves fabulous local food — jars of cured meats, salads, ham, wine and artisan biscuits. 

You can get a baguette cut to order and build your own French footlong. If only Raymond Blanc did Subway . . . 

When you’ve gobbled as many French goodies as you can stomach, head to Bayou Canoë, run by the brilliant Ben, which hires out family canoes you can take along the winding River Orb that runs right through the nature reserve.

There really is no better way to see the undisturbed nature and we felt like we had the reserve to ourselves as we bobbed along on the current toward the sea, with almost no river traffic until we reached the harbour — to find just solitary French fishermen sitting next to the open boots of their Peugeots.

As we paddled, the still waters around us were teeming with fish, shadowing the boat and leaping out of the water. A recent flood had left the riverbanks peppered with stranded sail boats, hanging upside down among the bamboo. 

If that’s not enough water-based fun for you, the 150-mile waterway from Toulouse to Sète is the final link in the Canal des Deux Mers chain, which used to carry wine and wheat from the Mediterranean all the way to the Atlantic.

The 17th century marvel is now a Unesco World Heritage Site and the Fonseranes Locks in Béziers are a centrepiece.

We boarded the Cap des Miol canal boat at the Quai Port-Neuf where we tucked into coffee and croissants before cruising up the nine serene locks and stopping to take in the remarkable views at the top. Make sure not to fill up on too many pastries at breakfast, though, as you’ll want to save room for the lunch pitstop that comes highly recommended by locals. 

A recently opened canal-side restaurant, La Raffinere, is making culinary waves in the area, with succulent lamb chops, salmon and sweet treats cooked in a charcoal roasting oven — try the roasted pineapple dessert, which is barbecue heaven. 

If you want to head farther inland along the canal and don’t fancy taking the slow boat, e-bikes await you.

We hired three, plus a trailer, from Les Vélos du Brennus, located right by the locks with easy parking. Thanks to the tow paths, you can’t get lost. 

Effortlessly whizzing through rolling vineyards, we passed the pretty village of Colombiers before pedalling our way up to the Oppidum d’Enserune, a hilltop museum with breathtaking views of the Languedoc plain. 

After days cycling over hills and canoeing down rivers, you’ll be desperate for some downtime and we were able to get plenty by the pools at our campsite. 

La Carabasse has safe and shallow waters where little ones can splash under the watchful eyes of lifeguards, and a no-beers-by-the-pool rule makes for peaceful sunbathing and swimming.

If you’re still not full from all that delicious French cuisine, each eight-person Excellence Caravan features a large outside terrace and electric barbecue for sunny, wine-fuelled evenings and slap-up dinners. 

The best thing about the adventure, though? Even at £2 a litre for fuel, plus tolls, the 1,300-mile round road trip from Calais is still cheaper than peak-season flights for a family of four plus car hire.

And you can bring a whole lot more luggage, via Eurotunnel.

As we made for home, rolling down the A75 across the beautiful Massif Central, the views were like the Lake District turned up to 11.

You don’t get that on a budget flight.