To some, life is a piece of cake. To others, it’s a beach. Combine them into a happy medium and you get life on a beach with cake. I found that perfect combination in Brittany.

I’ve always had a sweet tooth but even I was surprised by the amount of patisserie you can happily consume in a week.

The answer, it appears, is about four portions a day – all different, of course.

I made my discovery after driving from Caen to southern Brittany, to the holiday resort of Domaine de Kerlann.

The holiday park contains more than 200 individual mobile homes, some of them available for hire but others run as second homes.

The first thing I noticed was how peaceful the park was. There was no car noise, no loud music blaring out. The only interruptions to the silence were the sounds of nature, mainly crickets and birds.

The mobile home was compact, with a double and a twin bedroom, separate shower and toilet and a living room/ kitchen. The kitchen was well stocked, including a modern oven, a microwave and a fridge-freezer.

We also had a raised decking area where we could eat outside and there were tables, chairs and sun loungers ready for us.

The big attraction of Domaine de Kerlann for us had been the facilities for children. Our two love the water and the park was perfect for them.

It has two outdoor pools, a heated outdoor slide and an outdoor splash zone where the kids could run between jets of water being fired at them.

Best of all for a pasty Brit like me, who doesn’t like to take off any layers unless it is at least 25C outside, there are two heated indoor pools and a heated indoor slide.

There are also multiple play areas as well as grounds for archery, football, crazy golf and tennis.

There was a small supermarket on site that was freshly stocked with the essentials such as croissants, bread and milk each day, a couple of restaurants and an entertainment zone featuring bars, a stage for the evening entertainment and kids’ clubs offering activities for children of different ages to let their parents have some time off.

Domaine de Kerlann is ideally positioned for a relaxing break, just a few miles away from small and large destinations offering a variety of entertainment.

For a novice European driver like me, the trip to the Continent prompted fears of driving on the wrong side of the road, turning into incoming traffic on roundabouts and breaking down lost in the middle of nowhere.

Thankfully it only took a few minutes to get used to the different style of road signs – signs on the left saying what is ahead, signs on the right saying what you need to turn off to.

Aside from that, driving was not a stressful experience, although the French do seem to like to tail-gate more than the British.

We loved our drive into Concarneau, where the children practised their “bonjours” and “mercis” in the market with helpful traders.

We sat on the quayside there and devoured a giant punnet of fresh strawberries between us before walking through the gates of the town’s citadel and into a hidden community of shopkeepers and shoppers who had made their business inside the fortress.

We walked around the tops of the defensive walls and looked out across the harbour at the yachts moored nearby.

At Quimper there is a stunning cathedral, a historic trading district and more delicious cakes. We spent a couple of hours walking the medieval streets, popping into patisseries here and there to keep our sugar levels levels up.

Slightly further along the coast we visited Benodet and Fouesnant, which are both popular with families in the summer. Each has a beautiful sandy beach and Benodet also has a stunning marina filled with yachts to aspire to.

We had ice cream rather than cakes there but stopped at a biscuit factory on the road back to Domaine de Kerlann to watch workers bashing out their next delivery and then sampled some of their excellent goods.

Closer to our base were the beautiful beaches of Trevignon and Kerjean. Cafes and bars are dotted along the two-mile strip but we took the children on a fun patrol along the coastal path that runs alongside the harbour. They loved the anticipation that came with seeing the golden sand so seemingly close, yet just out of reach until we had got to the end of the route.

Then it was a charge into the sea and everyone was happy – so much so that I had to carry the exhausted youngest back to the car.

If you head east along the coast for just a few minutes you get to the picturesque mill town of Pont-Aven, made famous by Paul Gauguin.

With fellow painter Émile Bernard, he formed the École de Pont-Aven art movement and the community is still filled with artists and galleries.

The other famous export from Pont-Aven is the galette, a delicious butter biscuit that you will struggle not to find yourself following with another. And a third.

We visited in the middle of a rainstorm but even that did not detract from the beauty of the town, which hugs the banks of the river Aven.

Instead it gave us the excuse to step into another cafe for more cake – the perfect antidote to the storms outside.

  • James stayed for seven nights at siblu’s Domaine de Kerlann holiday village in southern Brittany, where holiday homes for up to six people are available from £544 for seven nights starting July 27, as part of siblu’s current sale.
  • To book go to www.siblu.com or call 0871 9117777
  • Brittany Ferries operates the longer routes from Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth to western France, saving miles of driving. Travel overnight by luxury cruise-ferry in the comfort of your own cabin with en-suite facilities or be whisked across the Channel in three hours. James travelled from Portsmouth to Caen and back from St Malo to Portsmouth. July fares on these routes cost around £548 return for a car and a family of four. Book online at www.brittanyferries.com or call 0871 2441400