Good value guide to France Rentals also cost less if you're willing to drive inland - up to 20 per cent cheaper on Corsica, says directcorsica.com, and at least 25 per cent less in Brittany, according to Brittany Travel. Timing If you visit outside the school summer holidays in June and September, cottage and villa rentals can be as much as 40 per cent cheaper, and camping packages are cheap as chips, too. Air and ferry fares are also much lower. If tied to the school holidays, savings can be had by going in the last week of August, the second and third weeks of July (private school holidays), and, even better, over the summer half-term in the first week of June, which coincides with two bank holidays this year. For a week in a two-bedroom mobile home on a Brittany campsite, Eurocamp quoted me £1,143 in early August, compared with £459 in early June, £878 in mid-July and £813 in late August. Some cottage/villa rentals are flat rated in July and August. However, compared with peak rates in early August, Alternative Aquitaine says many villas on its books cost 15 per cent less at the end of August and in the second week of July - and 40 per cent less the first week of June. Saving on accommodation Use budget hotel chains for overnight stops: see accorhotels.com and louvrehotels.com. Consider staying in chambres d'hôtes (b & bs) rather than hotels: Sawday's (sawdays.co.uk) is the best source, with more than 300 recommended French b & bs offering rooms for under £56 a night. For self catering, inquire about second-week discounts - as much as 35 per cent off, says Peak Retreats. Ask about lower under-occupancy rates (usually only available outside the peak months): Vintage Travel spells them out on vintagetravel.co.uk. Forgoing a pool will reduce the rental cost. But if that seems too much of a sacrifice, book somewhere with a shared pool. It could be an apartment in an apartment complex or holiday village: turn to lagrange-holidays.co.uk and pv-holidays.com. Or the pool could be shared with another holiday home or two, or with the owners - if so, the rental will be around 20-25 per cent cheaper than a similar standard property with private pool, according to Brittany Ferries' calculations. Booking direct with property owners will avoid agency commission fees - but proceed with caution as you'll have no or little backup if things go wrong. Listing more than 66,000 French properties, many with previous guests' reviews, and with excellent search options, homeaway.co.uk is the best starting point for direct bookings. Camping packages are significantly cheaper staying in a pre-erected tent rather than a mobile home: with Canvas Holidays, for a week in early August in Brittany, around £900 in a tent, instead of £1,100-£1,500 in a mobile home. Once you've invested in the kit, DIY camping works out massively cheaper. For a week in August for a family of four, a pitch on a top-flight site in the grounds of a chateau (see camping-castels.co.uk) will set you back around £330-£400. On a municipal campsite - see recommended ones on alanrogers.com - it's probably less than half that. Operators and agents This is our selection of some of the best and most interesting travel companies specialising in holidays to France. Hotel breaks VFB Holidays (0800 171 2160; vfbholidays.co.uk) Characterful, often good-value hotels offering good food - best viewed online in VFB's e-brochure. Kirker Holidays (020 7593 2283; kirkerholidays.com) Packages using quality hotels; west coast, Normandy and Burgundy new for 2012; various extras included in Paris breaks. i-escape.com Some 60 special hotels appealing to all budgets, reviewed in meticulous detail and often with i-escape-negotiated deals. Inntravel (01653 617000; inntravel.co.uk) Short foodie breaks to affordable country inns in northern France. French Travel Service (0844 848 8843; f-t-s.co.uk) Big choice of rail/hotel packages. Self-catering Countrywide Cottages4you (0845 268 0760; cottages4you.co.uk) Hoseasons Group's one-stop shop for 2,500 French villas and cottages - the biggest agency selection. Tots to Travel (0845 269 4126; totstotravel.co.uk) Rentals ideal for families with young children, including gîte clusters with shared facilities; copious, reassuring information on properties. Brittany Ferries (0871 244 1444; brittany-ferries.co.uk) Affordable gîtes and cottages in north-west France packaged with company's ferry crossings; blanket 15 per cent discount for bookings before February 6. James Villa Holidays (0800 074 0228; jamesvillas.co.uk) For bookings made before the end of January, free car hire, welcome pack and travel insurance on packages with most rentals. Wake up in France (01484 680855; wakeupinfrance.co.uk) Excellent Vendée selection. Regional specialists Alternative Aquitaine (01395 576655; alternative-aquitaine.co.uk) Coastal south-west France - website highlights rentals rated best value by previous clients. Brittany Travel (0345 230 1380; brittany.co.uk) Excellent knowledge and website; rentals for all budgets. Côte d'Azur Collection (0844 576 0176; cotedazurcollection.co.uk) Useful new collection of affordable apartments and villas in complexes. Gascony Secret (0844 800 1637; gascony-secret.com) Enticing chateaux, farmhouses, cottages with pools; ask about under-occupancy rates. Peak Retreats (0844 576 0170; peakretreats.co.uk) Alpine apartments and self-catering chalets. Simply Périgord (0033 553545 431; simply-perigord.com) Desirable Dordogne properties. Susan Paradise (0345 230 1330; susanparadise.co.uk) Provence/Côte d'Azur, including a "value collection." Vintage Travel (01954 261431; vintagetravel.co.uk) Carefully selected, high-quality houses with pools in the south west, Vaucluse and Brittany. Camping packages The three big camping operators, Eurocamp (0844 406 0402; eurocamp.co.uk), sister company Keycamp (0844 406 0200; keycamp.co.uk) and Canvas Holidays (0845 268 0857; canvasholidays.co.uk) each offer lots of mostly busy French campsites, with accommodation in mobile homes and well-equipped, pre-erected tents, plus, at some sites, children's clubs and various activities at no extra cost. At some sites, Eurocamp also offers stylish safari-style tents, Keycamp tree houses and Canvas Holidays kit for babies and toddlers for free except in July and August. For a more personal service, consider Carisma Holidays (01923 287339; carisma.co.uk): Mobile homes on sites with direct beach access; and Matthews Holidays (01483 285213; matthewsfrance.co.uk) Discounts up to 18 per cent for bookings made in January. Alan Rogers (01580 214000; travel.alanrogers.com) books cheaper, less hand-held breaks using sites' own mobile homes. Activity holidays Inntravel (01653 617000; inntravel.co.uk) and Headwater (01606 720199; headwater.com) Big choices of independent, not too taxing walking and cycling breaks, staying at charming hotels offering good food. HF Holidays (0845 470 7558; hfholidays.co.uk) and Ramblers Worldwide Holidays (01707 331133; ramblersholidays.co.uk) Good for fairly priced, well-run guided walking breaks. Saddle Skedaddle (0191 265 1110; skedaddle.co.uk) Reasonably priced, gentle self-guided pottering and demanding guided mountain road cycling. Breton Bikes (0033 296248 672; bretonbikes.com) Its USP is budget "cycle camping" holidays. Exodus (0845 863 9600; exodus.co.uk) and Explore (0844 499 0901; explore.co.uk) offer their many solo travellers the option of sharing a room with someone of the same sex to avoid a single supplement. They are good for challenging, guided walking - for example, along Corsica's GR20. Esprit Holidays (01252 618300; espritfamilyadventures.com) which has excellent childcare at its Alpine bases; and PGL (0844 371 2424; pgl.co.uk) offering canoeing in the Ardèche for example are good bets for keenly priced summer family activity holidays. Cultural holidays General escorted tours Riviera Travel (0844 826 2122; rivieratravel.co.uk) Telegraph readers' favourite tour operator in 2011 - inexpensive tours of Paris, Normandy, the Loire and Rhine valleys. Treyn Holidays (01904 734940; railholidays.com) A dozen French tours using train travel, with the emphasis on value. Turn to well-regarded sister programme Great Rail Journeys (01904 521936; greatrail.com) for breaks using first-class travel and better hotels. Expert-led, specialist tours Andante Travels (01722 713800; andantetravels.co.uk) Dordogne and Pyrenean cave art, and Roman Provence. Arblaster & Clarke (01730 263111; winetours.co.uk) Best for wine tours - at under £500 a head, Champagne and Bordeaux short breaks are not expensive. Holts Tours (01293 865000; holts.co.uk) Best for First World War and Second World War and other battlefield visits. Martin Randall Travel (020 8742 3355; martinrandall.com) Pricy but worth-it trips include new Brittany and Matisse options. Boating Le Boat (0844 463 3594; leboat.co.uk) Part of holiday giant Tui, it can arrange cruiser rentals from 27 French bases; one-way drop-offs with no extra charge sometimes possible. Freewheel Afloat (0116 255 8417; freewheelafloat.com) Rents pénichettes (traditional barge-like craft). Corsica Corsican Places (0845 330 2345; corsica.co.uk) Everything from two-star hotels and apartments to fancy villas, bookable as packages with its own charter flights. Directcorsica.com An equally broad range of accommodation, described in great detail on the very informative website, for more independent-minded bookers. Crossing the Channel SeaFrance stopped operating its Dover-Calais service in November. If it doesn't resume or is not replaced, capacity on the Dover Straits will be tighter this year, and fares may rise. Book soon for best fares (on any route). DFDS Seaways' (dfdsseaways.co.uk) Dover-Dunkirk service is usually the cheapest Channel crossing. Brittany Ferries' (brittany-ferries.co.uk) western Channel fares can be high, especially at peak times. So even if heading to western France, consider Eurotunnel (eurotunnel.com) or a ferry to Calais, and put up with the longer drive. LD Lines (ldlines.co.uk) to Normandy is cheaper than Brittany Ferries, but the service is not as good. Brittany Ferries's conventional ferries can be as much as £140 return cheaper than its faster catamarans on same-day peak crossings. Discoverferries.com summarises routes. Research and book on operators' websites: most show when the cheaper crossings are. By train Use the calendar on eurostar.com to find days on which cheapest fares are available. To get lead-in fares, book well ahead: 120 days in advance is possible on most Eurostar services, but only 84 days ahead for through fares from British regional stations and 90 days for combined Eurostar/TGV bookings. Eurostar sells tickets to major French cities in conjunction with TGV services, while Rail Europe (raileurope.co.uk) can book tickets to any station in France. By air Use skyscanner.net to see which airlines fly where and to compare fares. But also calculate the extra charges for checked-in bags and payment with cards before booking: then, British Airways may not be dearer than, say, easyJet or Flybe.