It’s August and to the French that means just one thing: les vacances. Urbanites are abandoning Paris and other cities for the coast or countryside, and hordes are descending on the Côte d’Azur.

But there’s no need to get carried away with the crowds. Canny holidaymakers head to the Atlantic coast to blow away the cobwebs, relax in the hills of Provence or attend one of the many Gallic music festivals.

Cooling off is the priority, especially down south, and for those wishing to escape the fashionistas in the über-chic resort of St Tropez, a trip north makes a great escape. Inntravel’s Emily Bailey tells me she often heads up to the hills behind Menton to the pretty villages of Sospel or La Brigue.

Both serve as gateways to the Mercantour national park, a nature-lover’s paradise where golden eagles soar overhead and marmots, chamois and wolves roam free. An ideal day trip from La Brigue is the Vallée des Merveilles, the "Valley of Marvels", an area covered in tens of thousands of bronze-age rock carvings depicting tools and animals.

Why I adore France

France Magazine editor Carolyn Boyd on beach bars, soggy Gascony hospitality and a Franco-British film festival

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Close to the west coast, meanwhile, freelance writer Jacqueline Karp is excited by a new cycling route that has just opened up in Rochefort-Sur-Mer (website is in French only). It starts underneath Gustave Eiffel’s transporter bridge and takes you along the Charente river and out to Soubise. The route offers great views of old fortresses dating from the days when Louis XIV built his ships there, while birdwatchers will delight in the marsh harriers, avocets and egrets.

For a quick dip afterwards, the coast is a short drive away, but any beach-lover visiting this area shouldn’t miss out on the gorgeous island of Oléron further south, see the Blue Flag website for a list of its best beaches, as well as others in France.

If you’re looking for a typically French way of cooling off, wherever you are in the country, why not try le trempé, a rather unusual recipe from one of our key contributors Régine Godfrey’s home region the Berry area. She tells me to fill a soup bowl with chilled red wine and a little cold water, add some sugar lumps and ice-cubes and then dip bread in it. She assures me it is delicious.

Although the annual Fête de la Musique took place back in June, there are some exciting music festivals taking place this month, a wonderful way of spending a summer’s evening. The International Piano Festival at Roque d’Antheron comes highly recommended by travel writer Jon Bryant, who is based down in Provence.

He says he loves the way nature accompanies artists playing on the main stage, which is set in the middle of the woods in the village's Chateau de Florans. “When the stage is lit, the peacocks start up, hundreds of cicadas accompany the piece and thousands of moths flicker all over the performer and the gleaming Steinway piano,” he says. The festival runs until August 22.

Meanwhile, British composer John Ellis and Boston-born Aaron Goldberg kick off the departement of Cher’s Chateau d’Ainay-Le-Vieil’s "72 hours in August" festival with New Orleans Jazz on August 22. It’s followed on the Saturday night by classical music concert and a wonderful candlelit gastronomic feast, while Sunday’s music is dedicated to children.

And if you’re looking for another enchanting venue, there's the The Festival Lyrique de Sanxay, held in a Gallo-Roman amphitheatre that has perfect acoustics. The 28-year-old American mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich appears on August 8.

And finally, one of our readers, Bernard Patry, discovered a local farmer’s own interpretation of the musical season over the Bastille Day weekend. Thinking he was hearing a PA system from a local event, he soon discovered an old-fashioned transistor radio tied to the branch of a cherry tree in a field next to his house (pictured above).

It was the farmer’s way of keeping the birds away from the fruit tree.

“It's been going some days now and is getting a little wearing,” he told us. “As I write, the birds and the fruit are being treated to Tom Jones!”

Carolyn Boyd is editor of France Magazine. To subscribe to France magazine (three for £3, then £9.58 a quarter) visit www.subscription.co.uk/france/TO78 or buy a single copy (£3.99) at www.francemag.com. The August special driving issue is out now, while the September issue is published on August 20.

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