Two years ago, my husband and I flew to Provence with our then one year old son. Although we'd rented a great property, we quickly realised we were missing two vital ingredients... toys and on site entertainment. A trip to the supermarché for some cheap plastic rubbish and he was temporarily amused.
Fast forward two years and we now have three children - one year twins and a three year old. With our hands full and both absolutely knackered we wanted a holiday with some sunshine, but having learned our lesson from our previous trip, we knew we needed something uber child-friendly that could also cater for twins. A quick search on The Sunday Times' website for ‘family friendly villas' threw up Tots To Travel, a genuinely child-friendly company, which rents properties suitable for families with small children. Translated that means their holiday properties come complete with stair gates, cots, highchairs, blenders, plastic plates, spoons, toys, baby baths, secure pools and many offer babysitting.
We plumped for a property in the Charente region of France called Abelia. About a four and a half hour drive from St Malo, or a 30 minute drive from Angouleme airport, the gîte sits in beautiful countryside on the farm of an English family. It's not overtly child-friendly, in that it's beautifully decorated and furnished (though thankfully the sofas were all wipeable). But it's the small touches that make it a successful holiday home for children - Sky TV with an endless supply of CBeebies for those inevitable meltdown moments, a children's playground, free use of adult and child bikes, a wonderful pool and horses in the field opposite.
The owners couldn't have been more helpful and gave our son a ride in the cart pulled along by Sid the donkey, provided a paddling pool for our babies and were always on hand, without being intrusive, with helpful suggestions and advice. They also have their own wood fired pizza oven, where you can order pizzas from only 5.50 euros!
Venturing out of the gîte, there's also plenty to do in the area including Futuroscope, Valley Des Singes (monkey world), Cognac complete with a tourist train (a must for my son), St Yriex-Sur-Charente, a park with a man-made beach, 
watersports and quad bikes (for children nine years plus) and bike rides direct from the property.
Although Tots To Travel is a relatively young company, their properties are hugely popular, so if you want to book up for next summer, I'd suggest doing it by early autumn to get your first choice. We left it until November and many of the properties were already booked for the following summer. All in all a fab holiday and we're already looking forward to the next..!
Prices range from £975 rising to £1175 in peak season.
Update 1 October 2013 Abelia is now only available via www.escapetocharente.com