Taking a dog to France is less complicated than it sounds, and considerably more enjoyable than leaving them behind. These are five hotels that make the case for doing it properly.

Getting there

Eurotunnel is our route of choice. You drive on, dog in the car, having sorted the vaccines and paperwork in advance and done the pet check-in on arrival. Thirty-five minutes later the doors open onto Northern France: proper motorways, farmland for miles, and aires so good they almost count as a destination in themselves.

France, generally, gets it. Most hotels and restaurants are dog-positive as standard, no negotiation required. Several are so committed to the cause they keep a house pet of their own, which might be the only hostility your pet faces.

If the summer trip is still taking shape and a dog is coming too, here are five hotels worth building the route around.

Château de Saint Paterne, Normandy

A small hotel with an expansive garden, roughly four hours from Calais and right in the heart of "Gourmandy". It's the perfect landing spot after a long drive, somewhere to get the dogs out and stretch their legs, and we've used it both ways: as an overnight stop on a longer trip, and as the sole destination for a couple of days. No two rooms are alike here, each one named rather than numbered, so it's worth asking what's free rather than booking blind.

The rooms are beautiful, dinner is French-formal but comfortable and welcoming, and it's luxurious without being pretentious. Family-owned, with an extremely well-curated hotel shop, and who doesn't love a hotel shop. It sits in proper Perche countryside, the kind of gentle, unhurried farmland that Alençon and its famous lace-makers grew up in, so if you fancy a change of pace from the château garden, the surrounding villages are worth a wander too.

Domaine du Colombier, Drôme Provençale

A chic, villa-style hotel with thick walls to keep out the heavy summer heat, and a shaded grove of century-old olive trees that's perfect for a gentle dog walk in the early morning or evening rather than the midday sun. The grove is part of a working kitchen and herb garden too, so the walk has the added novelty of watching your dog investigate rows of things the kitchen will be using for dinner that evening. The whole place has a slow, laconic pace, the kind of hotel that discourages you from rushing anywhere.

The restaurant, Le Colombier, quietly picked up a Michelin star this year, and there's a second, more relaxed table on site for nights you can't be bothered to dress for dinner. The estate makes its own biodynamic wine a short drive away and keeps its own beehives, so breakfast tends to be better than it has any right to be. You're in proper Provençal olive-and-lavender country here, Nyons and its famous olive groves are close by, and the hilltop villages further into the Drôme make for a lovely lazy day out once the dog's had its walk.

Château les Merles, Dordogne

Large, spacious rooms and a proper gourmet restaurant on site, plus golf and a swimming pool for anyone after more than eating and walking. The estate sits inside its own vineyard, which makes for a truly scenic dog walk, vines in every direction and nowhere near a road. The restaurant itself is set in the old barn, candlelit tables in the courtyard in summer, an open fire to sit by the rest of the year.

It's a good base for the wider Dordogne too, close enough to Bergerac and the Périgord's honey-stone villages to make a couple of nights feel worthwhile rather than a one-stop detour. Brantôme, often billed as the "Venice of the Périgord", is worth the drive for the river and the abbey alone, and Château de Monbazillac is an easy stop if anyone wants a proper wine detour on the way back. If you've got the stamina, the Dordogne river itself is made for a lazy canoe trip, though I'd leave the dog on the bank for that one.

InterContinental Lyon, Lyon

OK, this is obviously on the more expensive end of the scale, and a large city like Lyon might not seem the obvious location for a canine-centric holiday. However, the InterContinental Lyon was a class act in welcoming my "spirited" street dog: the staff all stopped to greet her, and were as concerned with her having a great time as they were with us. The hotel itself is worth a mention on its own merits, it's set inside a genuinely grand old building on the riverside, all vaulted ceilings and a dome you can't help but look up at in the bar.

Lyon is a wonderful city to explore with a dog, plenty of parks and dog-friendly restaurants, and Parc de la Tête d'Or alone is worth the walk. The quays along the Rhône and Saône make for good long morning walks too, away from traffic and with a proper view back at the hotel and the basilica up on the hill. The rooms are large and quiet enough for a dog who'd rather chill out solo once her social battery is spent, and if you've an extra day, the Beaujolais vineyards are close enough for a proper wine detour without the dog needing to come along. Lyon's food scene needs no introduction either, this is a city that takes its bouchons as seriously as anywhere takes fine dining.

Château Tilques, near Calais

Another château with expansive gardens, genuinely large ones, perfect for letting the dog off to properly stretch their legs after a long day's drive rather than just a token trot round the car park. There's an old moat still tracing the back of the grounds, a nice reminder this place has been standing since well before it was a hotel. Another great on-site restaurant, set in the old outbuildings, and large, comfortable rooms, plus a heated indoor pool for anyone who wants to swim regardless of the weather.

Also a great last stop near Calais if you need to find a local vet for the last twenty-four-hour checks before heading back to the UK. Saint-Omer itself is a lovely, low-key town to wander for an hour, worth it for the cathedral alone, and the Marais Audomarois just outside it, a wetland criss-crossed by canals, is one of the more unusual dog walks you'll find in France if you've time to spare before the crossing home.