Holiday rentals such as apartments and villas are a great option if you are looking to base yourself somewhere for a week or more. The range and number of properties available is staggering. Everything from studio apartments to sprawling historic mansions are available and the prices are usually surprisingly reasonable. The advantage of a holiday rental is that they are completely self contained with fully set up kitchen and laundry so you don’t have eat out every night or do battle with laundromats. Often these properties are owned by UK or German citizens who use them as their vacation home and rent them out for the remainder of the year.

These are ideal for family groups or adult couples. It is possible to rent a beautifully restored 18th century 4 bedroom stone house in the south of France for under AUD 1,000 per week. The villas, houses and apartments can be beautifully appointed with swimming pools, cable TV, wireless internet.

As France is relatively compact with excellent transport infrastructure it is feasible to base yourself in one property and do multiple day trips and the odd overnighter instead of an endless procession of hotels.

Citea Apparthotels is a chain with more than 50 properties across France. They are self catering serviced apartments.

See a selection of rental agencies below:

Holiday Rentals is a UK site with an enormous portfolio of properties Europe-wide. They provide in depth information on the property and once you have selected it you deal directly with the owner.

Greenacres is essentiall a UK real estate site that specialises in properties in Europe for UK buyers or renters. They have a large range of properties available for rent in France or if the mood takes you to buy. House prices in regional France may by a pleasant surprise compared to the hideous prices which are now the norm in Australia.

Rentals France is a comprehensive UK based holiday rental site offering a good range of properties on an easy to use site.

Le Guide has villas, apartments and gites with a strong representation for the Languedoc area.

Allez Languedoc as the name suggests specialises in the Languedoc Region which is a fantastic region with just as much to offer as Provence, but without the hype and the price tag.

Holiday Lets offers rental properties for all over Europe including a good range in France.

South France Villas specialises in Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Regions of France

Gites.com offers both gites and rentals. Gites are often listed along with holiday rentals. The main difference between these two modes of accommodation are that Gites are uniformly rural and have to have the owners living on site whereas rentals can be anywhere and the owners typically live in anothe country.

At Home in France concentrates on higher end properties in Provence, Dordogne and Paris. For those wishing to spend a week or more in Paris this agency has a portfolio of stunning apartments there. Rates are fairly reasonable for what you get.

If you like living on the edge LateLet.com specialised in last minute holiday rentals with under a week lead time. This is not a bad option if you are already in the neighbourhood and fairly flexible.

Use Viamichelin.com to plan your route and zoom down to a street level map.