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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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 Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:17 pm Post subject: Any experiences of any kind in France!? |
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OK since no one responded to my previous post, I've edited - anyone traveled around France at all with some interesting info. or tips?
appreciated.
although not hopeful 
I have a month in France this summer, starting in the South and ending in Paris. Am thinking about hiring a car, or bike and driving around, camping most of the way.
Don't supposed anyone has any experience, I have a lot of questions regarding licences, costs, safety, etc etc. |
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:08 am Post subject: |
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My wife and I went to Europe for a few weeks in the winter and we spent four days in Paris. Paris was our start and end point for the trip. The city was great and food cost was very reasonable for Europe. We did not drive but it did not look difficult to drive in France. The roads and drivers seemed to be very orderly. We used the subway and TGV, it was nice but we wished we would have had the freedom of a car. Paris was our favorite part of our four week trip.
We stayed in a beautiful hotel (The Grand Hommes) in the latin quarter for $95 euro's a night. The Latin Quarter is the university district and has many wonderful affordable romantic restaurants. It is also a very safe area.
Stay away from Gare du Nord, Chatelet-Les Halles, and Montmartre at late night.
http://www.hoteldesgrandshommes.com/index.html
If you like French Impresslists (Monet, Renoir, Manet) you should go to http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html
In our opinon it is the best Museum in Paris (it is not overwhelming like the Louve). |
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drunkenfud
Joined: 08 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:53 am Post subject: |
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| A few years ago I worked in the Dordogne (Perigord)for 3 months. The food was amongst the best I've ever tasted, the scenery was superb, the wine was both cheap and amazing. I highly recommend the South West of France. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:18 am Post subject: |
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I've been up and down France several times with my parents (my mum speaks French) and with my husband.
You need to be more specific in your questions.. what do you want to know?
Paris? Provence? Brittany?? |
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articulate_ink
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Location: Left Korea in 2008. Hong Kong now.
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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| I've been to Paris twice. A good friend of mine is a French guy who likes to direct me to the interesting places he's found. Love the place. I've never stayed in a hotel there, though. I second the Musee d'Orsay. Also go to the Institut du Monde Arabe and if you care about art at all, the Pompidou. The Picasso museum in the Marais isn't as great as the one in Barcelona but it's also worth a visit. I liked Pere Lachaise and the Catacombs a lot (but this requires a morbid turn of mind). Saint-Sulpice isn't a district many tourists pay attention to, I suspect, but it's full of cool little shops and cafes. On my second trip, we rented a car and drove to Amsterdam by way of Bruges. It was great: breakfast in France, lunch in Belgium, and dinner in the Netherlands. The countryside of northeast France is beautiful and I wish we'd had time to stop along the way. (I know Bruges isn't in France but if you've got the time it's worth the trip; so, obviously, is Amsterdam.) My advice? Get the Time Out guides (Lonely Planet's only advantage is the large number of titles they publish but in all other respects they've got nothing on Time Out) for Paris and Provence. Oh, and be careful where you step. |
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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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| articulate_ink wrote: |
| I've been to Paris twice. A good friend of mine is a French guy who likes to direct me to the interesting places he's found. Love the place. I've never stayed in a hotel there, though. I second the Musee d'Orsay. Also go to the Institut du Monde Arabe and if you care about art at all, the Pompidou. The Picasso museum in the Marais isn't as great as the one in Barcelona but it's also worth a visit. I liked Pere Lachaise and the Catacombs a lot (but this requires a morbid turn of mind). Saint-Sulpice isn't a district many tourists pay attention to, I suspect, but it's full of cool little shops and cafes. On my second trip, we rented a car and drove to Amsterdam by way of Bruges. It was great: breakfast in France, lunch in Belgium, and dinner in the Netherlands. The countryside of northeast France is beautiful and I wish we'd had time to stop along the way. (I know Bruges isn't in France but if you've got the time it's worth the trip; so, obviously, is Amsterdam.) My advice? Get the Time Out guides (Lonely Planet's only advantage is the large number of titles they publish but in all other respects they've got nothing on Time Out) for Paris and Provence. Oh, and be careful where you step. |
Great advice, thanks.
But what do you mean by your last comment?  |
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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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| drunkenfud wrote: |
| A few years ago I worked in the Dordogne (Perigord)for 3 months. The food was amongst the best I've ever tasted, the scenery was superb, the wine was both cheap and amazing. I highly recommend the South West of France. |
Great, thanks for that. Hopefully I get a chance to go through that province. I'm curious, are there quite select/distinct differences in wine/grape variety according to province? What kind of wine were you drinking in Dordogne? And do you have any specific guesthouse/restaurant etc recommendations? |
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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:12 pm Post subject: |
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| No_hite_pls wrote: |
My wife and I went to Europe for a few weeks in the winter and we spent four days in Paris. Paris was our start and end point for the trip. The city was great and food cost was very reasonable for Europe. We did not drive but it did not look difficult to drive in France. The roads and drivers seemed to be very orderly. We used the subway and TGV, it was nice but we wished we would have had the freedom of a car. Paris was our favorite part of our four week trip.
We stayed in a beautiful hotel (The Grand Hommes) in the latin quarter for $95 euro's a night. The Latin Quarter is the university district and has many wonderful affordable romantic restaurants. It is also a very safe area.
Stay away from Gare du Nord, Chatelet-Les Halles, and Montmartre at late night.
http://www.hoteldesgrandshommes.com/index.html
If you like French Impresslists (Monet, Renoir, Manet) you should go to http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html
In our opinon it is the best Museum in Paris (it is not overwhelming like the Louve). |
Excellent, cheers for the links. That hotel does look good, I might end up staying there  Funny name - doesn't that translate into 'Big or Great Men'? And whats wrong with the Gare Du Nord, Chatelet-Les Halles and Montmartre at night? dangerous? |
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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
I've been up and down France several times with my parents (my mum speaks French) and with my husband.
You need to be more specific in your questions.. what do you want to know?
Paris? Provence? Brittany?? |
lol, i know, I was very vague. Thing is, i'm kinda just fishing for ideas at the moment because I don't have an itinerary yet. All I know is that I'm ending in Paris. I guess I'll start with this question: what was your favorite part of France?  |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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| CabbageTownRoyals wrote: |
| tzechuk wrote: |
I've been up and down France several times with my parents (my mum speaks French) and with my husband.
You need to be more specific in your questions.. what do you want to know?
Paris? Provence? Brittany?? |
lol, i know, I was very vague. Thing is, i'm kinda just fishing for ideas at the moment because I don't have an itinerary yet. All I know is that I'm ending in Paris. I guess I'll start with this question: what was your favorite part of France? |
My favourite part has to be Provence - loved it. You can go anywhere in Provence and you will love it.
There are mountains (The Alps and The Pyrenees), and there are beaches (Cannes, Nice etc.), so you get to do a variety of things. It's hot in the summer because it's in the Mediterranean but June is about the best time to go (actually, Cannes is where I met my husband.. LOL).
Be careful, though, with your budget because France can get really expensive... but restaurants have menus posted outside, so you can decide whether 1. the food is what you want and 2. it's within your price range. There are also food stalls that sell REALLY great baguettes relatively cheap.
We normally eat a really good breakfast (we usually stay at hotels that include breakfast, or smaller boutique hotels that provide breakfast), then have a street baguette for lunch and then a good dinner. If you eat a lot of breakfast, you can also skip lunch and have an early dinner. We do that sometimes.
The thing I love being in Cannes is that you can eat al-fresco, and breathe in the wonderful Mediterranean sea air. Mmmm.... I can just smell it now.
We will likely be going to France in the summer, cos my sister in law is French and we are going to visit her before heading home for a visit at the same time. Can't wait!!! |
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scribld
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk-do
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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Head to le Mont St Michel. You need about a half day to full day to explore it all, but it's an amazing place- it's a cathedral built on top of the only rock within eyesight, so it just rises out of the salt plains/coast as you approach it. The view at the top is worth the climb up to the top towers too.
It's on the north-west coast, and you can just barely see England from it. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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| scribld wrote: |
Head to le Mont St Michel. You need about a half day to full day to explore it all, but it's an amazing place- it's a cathedral built on top of the only rock within eyesight, so it just rises out of the salt plains/coast as you approach it. The view at the top is worth the climb up to the top towers too.
It's on the north-west coast, and you can just barely see England from it. |
Ah... Mont Saint Michel is gorgeous, yes. but it's in the middle of no where and you definitely need to rent a car to go there. They have a hotel inside, as well as restaurants. We spent a couple of nights there and it was amazing.. we got there in the evening during low tide, and there was hardly any water (it's by a sea) but in the morning, all the water came back in and it was just beautiful. |
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scribld
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk-do
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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| I saw it during a 5-week bike trip from London to Madrid. We camped in a campground just before the causeway out - I don't remember the price, but I think it had little cabins too. |
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scribld
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk-do
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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Oh - also, if you want to camp, the maps are pretty accurate with the little red tent symbols. We were using those as our guidelines, and didn't see too many more campgrounds than were marked on the maps. As I said, we were on bikes, so we were very grateful they were reliable.
Just a note of caution - "naturaliste" campgrounds are actually nudist campgrounds. We discovered that accidently. |
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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| scribld wrote: |
Head to le Mont St Michel. You need about a half day to full day to explore it all, but it's an amazing place- it's a cathedral built on top of the only rock within eyesight, so it just rises out of the salt plains/coast as you approach it. The view at the top is worth the climb up to the top towers too.
It's on the north-west coast, and you can just barely see England from it. |
Ah... Mont Saint Michel is gorgeous, yes. but it's in the middle of no where and you definitely need to rent a car to go there. They have a hotel inside, as well as restaurants. We spent a couple of nights there and it was amazing.. we got there in the evening during low tide, and there was hardly any water (it's by a sea) but in the morning, all the water came back in and it was just beautiful. |
OK, definitely going there, that sounds amazing and few tourists hopefully... |
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