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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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 Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| 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!!! |
Wow, you really seem to know the country well, thanks for all that great advice. Its good to hear comments like this from somone that has a lot of experience there too... I will have to be careful about costs, especially since the only real traveling I've done is in Asia. Even cheap accomodation in France would probably be the equivalent of a 5 star hotel in Siem Reap.  |
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scribld
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk-do
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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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| scribld wrote: |
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. |
I'm curious - did u hire bikes over there or take your own? If so, is it easy to arrange a decent bike? I'd probably be wanting a mountain bike with front suspension and pannier bags too. I know its not 'safe' but would it be foolish to cycle alone (I'm female). |
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scribld
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk-do
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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| CabbageTownRoyals wrote: |
| scribld wrote: |
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. |
I'm curious - did u hire bikes over there or take your own? If so, is it easy to arrange a decent bike? I'd probably be wanting a mountain bike with front suspension and pannier bags too. I know its not 'safe' but would it be foolish to cycle alone (I'm female). |
We took our own over. We flew Zoom airlines to Gatwick, and they took our bikes for free. So I don't have any info about renting bikes there, sorry. We took mountain bikes with rear panniers and semi-slick tires, and they worked great. The only bad part was there were a few staircases in towns that we had to carry everything up. I went over with one of my male friends (I'm female), and other than a drunk frenchman in Calais, we had no problems with the people. |
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scribld
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk-do
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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My other favourite part of France was Vimy Ridge. I think this has the most meaning for Canadians, but it's quite a moving memorial. They preserved the original trench lines (you can walk through them) and in some places the enemy and allied trenches were no more than 10 metres apart. There's huge craters still from the shelling, but they're green and beautiful, in a surreal kind of way.
We were aiming to get to the D-day beaches on our bike trip too, but had to cut that out to save a few days biking. That's one of my regrets - missing seeing the string of beaches and memorials and museums. |
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scribld
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk-do
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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Actually, I could go on for a while about France - I lived there for 3 months in high school during an exchange, plus did my bike trip through it a couple summers ago. This forum is bringing back some good memories. Here's a couple more suggestions.
The Loire Valley - this area is packed with castles and historic sites. I was there for a week with my host family soon after arriving, and loved the medieval towns and castles. There's also the Clos Luce, which is Da Vinci's house - one of my favourite places.
Pairis Plage ( Le Touquet). This is kind of touristy, but it's a beautiful beach town near Calais on the north coast. If you're into water sports (especially windsurfing) then check out the coastal towns in Pas de Calais province - you'll be able to rent a windsurf board and sail there. |
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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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| scribld wrote: |
My other favourite part of France was Vimy Ridge. I think this has the most meaning for Canadians, but it's quite a moving memorial. They preserved the original trench lines (you can walk through them) and in some places the enemy and allied trenches were no more than 10 metres apart. There's huge craters still from the shelling, but they're green and beautiful, in a surreal kind of way.
We were aiming to get to the D-day beaches on our bike trip too, but had to cut that out to save a few days biking. That's one of my regrets - missing seeing the string of beaches and memorials and museums. |
you'll just have to go back  |
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CabbageTownRoyals
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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| scribld wrote: |
Actually, I could go on for a while about France - I lived there for 3 months in high school during an exchange, plus did my bike trip through it a couple summers ago. This forum is bringing back some good memories. Here's a couple more suggestions.
The Loire Valley - this area is packed with castles and historic sites. I was there for a week with my host family soon after arriving, and loved the medieval towns and castles. There's also the Clos Luce, which is Da Vinci's house - one of my favourite places.
Pairis Plage ( Le Touquet). This is kind of touristy, but it's a beautiful beach town near Calais on the north coast. If you're into water sports (especially windsurfing) then check out the coastal towns in Pas de Calais province - you'll be able to rent a windsurf board and sail there. |
I'm an information sponge right now, am lov'n it!! |
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scribld
Joined: 06 Sep 2007
Location: Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk-do
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| Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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If you want to see where we went, check out my blog. You'll have to skip through the newer stuff (it's all about Korea) but if you go back to the first entries, you'll see my account of biking from London to Madrid following the french coast. Might give you an idea of what to expect. Oh - and I do speak French, so that was a huge advantage.
www.getjealous.com/scribld |
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hugekebab
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| CabbageTownRoyals wrote: |
| 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... |
le Mont Saint Michel is amazing, I'll second that. France is a bloody fantastic country, loads of culture, beautiful and different towns cities and regions...fantastic. Personally I hated the south, the best areas are the north, the dordoigne is stunning; great for a summer holiday.
p.s y the south i mean the south costal cities; they suck, kind of remind me of posh versions of Torquay in the UK and they can be a bit rough, but go and see it cus some people love the south. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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| hugekebab wrote: |
| CabbageTownRoyals wrote: |
| 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... |
le Mont Saint Michel is amazing, I'll second that. France is a bloody fantastic country, loads of culture, beautiful and different towns cities and regions...fantastic. Personally I hated the south, the best areas are the north, the dordoigne is stunning; great for a summer holiday.
p.s y the south i mean the south costal cities; they suck, kind of remind me of posh versions of Torquay in the UK and they can be a bit rough, but go and see it cus some people love the south. |
Spoken like a true Brit.. hahaha...
The first time I went down South, my husband (we were dating then!) drove me from the South Coast towards Monaco / Monte Carlo.. the view was breathtaking.. it was absolutely beautiful. Clear sky, blue-green clear water, clean sand, seagulls flying around, fresh air. It was just wonderful. I really wanna move there but sooooooooo expensive  |
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Zaria32
Joined: 04 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:38 am Post subject: |
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| My favorite Paris hotel is Grande Hotel Jeanne d'Arc - 3 r. Jarente, 5 minutes walk to the Place de Vosges. It's marvelously convenient, a short walk to metro, Ile St Louis etc, and Le Marais is fascination. I've stayed there 11 times... |
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visitorq
Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 9:12 am Post subject: |
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| CabbageTownRoyals wrote: |
| 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... |
Bretagne (Brittany) is my favorite part of France. As you say, it's not so touristic (except for French tourists, and a few Brits) and has a unique charm being traditionally Celtic (a good friend of mine there's grandpa is actually a practicing druid). It's fairly distinct from the rest of France and feels kind of remote but in a good way with lots of beautiful scenery and forestation. If you can go around Halloween, that's considered the Celtic new year and there will be a bunch of really great festivals with Celtic music, dancing etc.
The food is good, the most famous thing probably being the galettes, which are a kind of buckwheat crepe fried in butter with melted cheese and ham inside - so tasty. Good seafood too, you can get a big plate of moules (mussels) with chips and some soupe de poissons ("fish soup") and wash it down with a cider. Mmm.
As for places to see, of course Mont Saint-Michel is very impressive, but also check out Dinan (one of the most gorgeous and authentic medieval villages I've seen anywhere) and Saint-Malo, an old corsair (pirate) town. Both are unforgettable.
Also, if you have extra time, I highly recommend checking out an island just off the coast of Brittany called Belle-Ile-en-Mer (lit. "beautiful island in the sea"). Nice beaches, a few old towns, mainly just a great place to kick back or spend the day strolling around pleasantly on the coastal bluffs. |
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olabueno
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
Location: Busan...as of 7/19
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| Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:38 am Post subject: |
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Don't overthink your trip to France. It's so easy to travel this country. The following goes for all of Europe:
1. Get off the train/plane.
2. Check in to your hostel, drop your pack/luggage.
3. Go to the nearest bar (no cheesy tourist bars/no english menus).
4. Sit down.
5. Order a beer.
6. Look for nice people.
7. By them a beer and chat them up.
** Don't just flat out ask them "What should I do?" Instead, just talk to them, ask them about their city/family. You'll find what you're looking for.
The best times I've ever had abroad were spent with complete strangers. Some of the best sites I've ever visited were reccomended by a local at a cafe.
Colmar is a nice city, very French. Also, the further south, the better.
As far as camping, you will have no problems finding space...and it's still pretty cheap. Plus, some campgrounds in France and Germany have really sweet bars (where you can also swap travel tips). Camping in France is the best! |
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ckub
Joined: 28 Apr 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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| La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast is worth a stop. During the summer, there are two very popular festivals: Francofolies (Music) and Festival du film (Film festival). From La Rochelle, you can take the bridge and go to l'Ile de R�. Gorgeous Island, very touristy, but still worth a day. Biking around the island is a must. |
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