ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

The Most Beautiful Villages In France

Updated on December 1, 2015

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL VILLAGES IN FRANCE : GARGILESSE (visited with children)

France is a beautiful country. A country of contrast and diversity. Travelling through France is not just discovering cosmopolitan cities and mediaeval villages. Visiting France is also tasting its regional cuisine, drinking the region's wines, talking to the people who are always friendly and ready to help foreigners.

Travelling with small children, however, can be a very different experience. As many parents sadly know, with small children one can not sit in the lovely cafes to see the "life go by" and absorb the ambiance. With young children it is always go and one only gets to see the most relevant things of a place and eat Mac Donalds. Other times, however, it is thanks to the little devils that we discover little jewels.

Travelling with our five year old princess and three year old hooligan we have discovered some of the most beautiful villages in France. Pushing prams, go-chairs, carrying nappies and picnic bags is more our "travel style". Sleeping in camping sites rather than 4 o 5 star hotels where our "darlings" would cause disrepair. Eating picnics and fast food rather than five course meals in fancy restaurants... that is us!

Thankfully leaving in the centre of France it is never too far to take a couple of days off to discover a new place. For example, just 15 minutes from where we leave, there is a gorgeous artist's village: Gargilesse.

Gargilesse

Gargilesse


Gargilesse is a romantic little village perched on top a hill. A village inhabited by artists of all sorts: artisans, sculptors, wood-crafters, leather crafters, ironmongers, painters and poets. It is in Gargilesse that the famous French writer George Sand came when she wanted peace, she had a little house in here, her refuge, now a small museum that can be visited for a small fee.


Gargilesse is dominated by its castle and church hidden on top of an evergreen hill. The houses are grouped around the XIth century church, from there the views are outstanding. My daughter loves this place as it is small and looks as if taken from a fairy tale. In here she can run freely and admire both the castle and the river running under. The children always love to go to the creperie where they can have an ice cream while we have a "kir" which is white wine flavoured to your taste with violets, raspberries, or rose liqueur. The crepes in here are also superb. One of my favourite starters is the salad with Gargilesse cheese. A very simple dish of lettuce and toasted bread with the most mouth-watering grilled goat's cheese on top. To follow, I always fall for a salty "cheese" crepe and of course, greedy as I am I take a crepe for desert. Here I can never decide, the choice is ample and deliciously mouth-melting, pears and chocolate, honey, grand Marnier, just sugar and lemon juice, apple puree, apples in caramel... you name it, they will have it.


If you are daring enough, you can also walk down to the river and dip your toes there or just sit and watch the children play in the water.


There are several festivals during the year in Gargilesse. In May, there is a flower and farm market where you can stock with all types of geraniums for you flower beds and delicious cheese, honey, and seasonal vegetables. In August, there is an Arp festival, followed in September by a book festival. And of course, all year round you can visit the crafters and the creperie for an indulgent treat.


Must-sees and must-dos in Gargilesse...

The castle

The Romanesque church

George Sand's house

The creperie

Beautiful Small Towns in France

Argenton sur Creuse

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)