It just had to be done. Do NOT feed the trolls. (how do you say that in French?) Your personal stories, comments, and advice on Gallic travel here. I don't know who the mod for this forum is (or if it has one yet) - but whoever you are, please don't spare the bin-hand; it spoils the off-topic child.
ne parlez pas aux idiots i spent a week in france <paris and traveling> a few months ago and had the opportunity to travel around the northern coast of france for a few days with a rental car...and it was well worth the price of gas over there. i was able to see among other things; st malo, mount st michel, the american cemetary in normandy, d-day beaches, and etretat. it was a whirlwind tour but certainly worth the 3 days spent traveling the coast by car. the highlights: mont st michel is a medieval abbey that creeps in and out of the english channel depending on the tide, from it perch atop a rock outcropping. just an amazing site, one of the most unreal sites i have ever seen in life. pointe du hoc was certainly the highlight <if you can call it that> of the normandy beaches. the area of the beach which was challenged in the opening hours of d-day is left unchanged, bomb craters and bunkers still intact much like the day american forces came ashore. a chilling scene to say the least. etretat is a sleepy town but has some amazing chalk cliffs that were made famous by artists such as monet. this town became a haven for artists of all types in the late 19th century. more of a spot to see the coast and not the town, the beauty of the cliffs and walking along their crest was certainly worth the drive at the last minute. just some of the highlights.
I've been to Paris, Straasburgh, Alsace-Lorraine, Chamonix, Chartres, the Loire Valley and the Dordogne (Perigord). I want to go to Provence, Normandy, Burgundy and Bordeaux. I love France. The people are fantastic, the country is beautiful, the wine is world class, the food will knock your socks off. France is one of the greatest countries in the world.
I spent a few days in France, but I didn't bother to go to Paris (never really interested me). Instead I went straight to St.Malo. I also spent a night on Mt St Michel, which was an experience I will never forget. I went in November, so there were no problems getting a room. As nice as Mt St Michel is during the day, it doesn't compare what it looks like at night.
this past november perhaps? i was there this past november <2002> and spent the afternoon and evening at mont st michel. to me the most amazing time was right before dusk and right after the sun set...just amazing.
No, I was there November 2000. I also enjoyed waking up early in the morning and watching the tide come in...
I was there in '98 for the WC. Spent 6 days in Paris, and a road trip to St Etienne. It was a great time. Had a hotel on the Port de Orleans metro stop, maybe 10 yards from my hotel. We had a bank, a crapperie, a mystery meat sandwich shop, a bakery, a restaurant, newstand, and our own bum. I love the place, and many of the French peeps were cool. I'm ready to go back, maybe I can go there and they'll surrender to me.
I haven't been to France, but I would love to visit. I had originally booked my honeymoon to France and Europe back in 1985, but the events of that summer at various airports made a change in plans. Food, art, culture, are first rate. Paris is a beautiful city and the countryside particularly the south in Provence and the Alps to the east is incredible. I would love to visit Mr. Monet's garden in late spring. Too bad the trolls hit this thread and worse that no one cleaned it up.
Dammit - I was writing this long opus about travelling in France and freakin' AOL froze up. So, here's the abbreviated version. I've been to lovely small-town Alsace-Lorraine (for just a few hours); through Paris a number of times by train, but never really in it (a real shame); Cherbourg/Normandy/the D-Day beaches, which are terribly affecting (and the countryside is very beautiful, too) as well Calais a few times; one of the best of my Calais trips involved me leaving my London flat at 6 in the morning, biking to London Victoria, taking the train to Dover, the ferry to Calais, biking all over the area on a warm spring day, then returning the same way back home that night (only too bad I couldn't fit any duty free booze on my bike). I could spend the rest of the evening writing about places in France I'd like to go and intend to go; for one, I love the Swiss and Austrian Alps, and would really love to get some skiing done on the French side. I'd like to get to Paris, of course, and to Lille, which a French friend told me is a great city. An anecdote on why I like the French: In my first year at univ. in England, I decided to take a trip to Menorca during fall break - my friend's family had a place there which was free for my use. Since I'm not exactly known for doing things easily, I thought that instead of simply and cheaply flying from London to Mahon, I would take the train to Dover, the ferry to Calais, the train to Paris, the Metro across Paris, the night train to the Spanish border, the train to Barcelona, spend a night in Barcelona, and then fly over to Menorca for a relaxing break. All on a precise schedule of reserved seats that left little room for error. Easy, really. Things went great - at least as far as Calais. Something delayed the ferry from docking, and then I completely missed where to get off the shuttle bus, at the Calais station. The bus looped back to the dock terminal, and I was f***ed; within a few minutes I had missed the train to Paris, and my whole vacation - reserved couchette, flight from Barcelona, etc., looked like it was in serious trouble. Oh, and it's not like I was full of money, and could buy all the tickets again. I found a French mini-cab driver who sped me towards the only chance I had of making Paris in time to make my connections - to catch the Paris-bound Eurostar as it stopped at Calais-Frethun station, just after the Channel Tunnel. Calais-Frethun is in the countryside some distance outside the town, and he drove like a bat out of hell to get me there, perusing the Eurostar schedule and speaking what little mangled English he could manage, simultaneously. Somehow, I made it in time - to make matters better, I ran into a univ. friend on the Eurostar, and we got well and truly lit in the Gare du Nord before I had to go across Paris to catch the Spanish train. If it wasn't for that one French taxi driver, I might still be wandering, nearly broke, around Calais right now. At the very least, a great vacation would have been completely ruined. Merci beaucoup Mssr. Taximan, wherever you are. I'd go back to France for the wine, crepes and Calvados alone.
Can I post a couple of negatives here? 1) Had a cab driver tried to rip us off in Paris. Wanted to charge us 4x what was on the meter. I gave him less than half and thought that was more than fair. 2) On the Metro to the US v Germany game. It was not a very pleasant smell, the Metro was jammed packed. I said "Don't you wish everyone used Dial" to one of the people in our group. Then a German guy who we couldn't see says "its not us, its the French" The entire car on the train started laughing. Even some of the French. Good times...
I could write about this for a day, but I love Paris. I've lost entire days inside the Louvre and Md'O. Montmarte is my favorite, and if you haven't climbed the narrow dark stairway to the top of Sacre Coeur, you haven't seen one of the coolest views in Paris. Versailles is something everyone must see at least once, and I took a 1 day bus trip to castles in the Loire valley which was about $70 and very worth it. I got to see Fountainbleu (one of the coolest buildings ever), Cheverny and Chernoceau. The subway smells like you've stepped onto the planet B.O. I can't explain it. I've smelled the "used wine" theme of the NYC subways for 20 years and I never came as close to crying as I did the day I stepped on a packed Metro from Invalides back to my hotel. The street crepes are fabulous and cheap, the rest of the food is great. Anyone who hasn't been, you need to go. Most of the people there were okay, but I made it a point to talk to as few people as possible, just because I'd rather be quiet than be berated for my nationality. I can always use the "I'm Canadian" fallback, which takes the hatred out of the condescention, but the sneering will remain. Anyway, a great place.
Another memory. After the WC night games in 98 we would hit the street crepe guy. I would get the "lebeouf, frommage and jambon" crepe nearly every time. I started referring to it as Egg mcMuffin crepe. Well one night my cousin asks what I'm having, "Egg McMuffin crepe", I walk up to the counter, and the guy says "ham, eggs, and cheese right" I was stunned at the American accent. "Yeah, I lived in Georgia for 8 years, went to university of Georgia and now I'm making crepes in Paris". Sounded like he wanted to get back to the US.
Last time I was in France was in 1991 when I travelled by ferry from Ireland to Le Harve with a few friends. We spent 3 weeks camping all over the place. Great fun.
Re: Re: Re: France Travel Appreciation/Celebration Thread Alex mate. I know, or at least hope that your tongue is somewhere near your cheek - but just cease and desist. Your attitude of the French may differ if you actually go there and visit some of the sites (more like vast areas) of the conflagrations that have happened on it's soil over the years. If you're interested in WW1 (and maybe, just perhaps going even further back in history, to a time untouched by the History channel, the Franco-Prussian war) then I fully advise visiting the Alsace-Lorraine area. The place is fascinating and might actually give you some idea of what happened in WW1, what the French went through and how that in turn has shaped the rest of last century. It might stand you and a lot of your ilk in good stead, rather than brand them with the coward label which seems to be popular with those whose knowledge of European history stretches 'way back' to 60 years. If (and I've a funny feeling this will be the case) you're more interested in WW2 (given that WW1 was devoid of Americans until half an hour before the end- and consequently we aren't overrun with bollocks movies about the heroic doughboys) then I highly recommend visiting Normandy (amongst many other locations in Northern France). As a orevious poster said. The pill-boxes are still there, the reinforced concrete structures on the beaches are still there - you can still go in them (health and safety are dirty words in France), they're pretty decrepit by now, as you would imagine, but they still manage to give some kind of feeling as to what went on there. And as a final point, before slagging off the French for being ungrateful so and so's, go round the countryside in these areas (Alsace and Normandy), you'll find many cemetaries. Some have thousands of headstones, some just 5 or 6. But ALL of them are impecably kept and honoured, whether they be French, British, Canadian, German or yes, even American graves. You might say 'so what, nothing special about that' - but from a personal opinon, if those graves and cemeteries were in this country, I doubt very much whether they would be in the pristine condition EVERY SINGLE one is in France. I don't know how many individual sites there are, but I personally went to upwards of 20 and I know there are many many more than that. If ever there was a place in this troubled little continent called Europe, that respected the dead (military or otherwise, I just went down the military route because I thought it might pull the right strings), France is it. I could go on and on, but for the love of god, before slagging the place off, go there and find out if you like it or not, properly. Rather than pontificating about the quality of a country based upon a dreadful war from 60 years ago and the fact it doesn't lick the US' arse on a regular basis. Edit - I propose that I be made the moderator of this forum - No longer will Francophobes be safe to walk these particular streets. Plus my new job isn't as demanding as I'd first thought. Got time on my hands to smite.
Re: Re: Re: Re: France Travel Appreciation/Celebration Thread Absolutely right. As I posted earlier, I got to spend a little time - just a day - exploring Normandy and the D-Day beaches. The American, French and British cemetaries and memorials were, of course, deeply affecting. But so, dare I say without being rounded on, was the German cemetary - especially around 7 in the morning, when everything had this sort of haunting, elegiac mist about it. Just about every name on the tombstones I saw was Polish-looking, which wasn't so much strange as sad, in that these Silesians (I'm guessing) went to their deaths defending a madman, not even their own country. The whole area is both beautiful and sad and you really ought to go see it before spouting off about anyone.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: France Travel Appreciation/Celebration Thread Very true. And it sounds so horribly corny but seeing these places, particularly the large ones actually gave a sense of 'togetherness' - I very nearly puked up at that phrase. The reason being that the large cemeteries often had a number of people visiting, often of all nationalities. It was particularly noticeable for me whilst visiting the German cemeteries - to see and hear different nationalities wandering through the thousands of tombstones gave one a sense that wars really are shit. I'd love to be able to describe it better but other than saying that it's places like those that should make people realise (at least here in Europe) that this European comradeship really is a good thing - well other than that, I'm a bit lost.
normandy cemetaries i could not agree more. we arrived at the d-day beaches quite early on a sunday morning...we made it to pointe du hoc as the sun was rising above the horizon and the mist was coming off of the english channel. it was really moving, that and the fact we were the only people there for the hour and a half we visited that undisturbed site. i think we were lucky b/c i have heard people tell me when they visited there were literally hundreds of people there... after that we drove down to the american cemetary and spent about an hour strolling around, paying our respects and the like. i knew my great uncle was burried there and after an hour of trying to look for myself i headed to the 'office' building and a older gentleman <who i later found out, actually flew bmobers in the pacific theater with my grandfather> helped me find his grave. he was very helpful and it took us about 15 minutes to find his name in the database, and where in the cemetary he was buried. before i left the office he took me aside from my friends and back to a side room, he went in and brought out two small flags, one american and one french. he told me they were flown every d-day at each individual grave and he wanted to give them to me on behalf of himself and the fellow veterans. at this point i started to tear up...the feeling inside was something i have never, ever felt before in my entire life. seriously a chill went up my spine... it is a time like this when i truly realize what was sacrificed for me to live the life i do, we should all be grateful...every single day of the year.
I've never been to Normandy. However, I have been to the military cemetaries in Luxembough and Belgium. Seeing those sites was incredibly moving.
i lived in paris for 6 months and visited many times, and it's hands down the funnest, coolest, most colorful city i've been to. i think what a lot of people don't expect is that it has a real rough edge too. like any big city, you have to get away from the touristy center to get the real flavor. the music scene is brilliant. i'm really into jazz, soul/jazz, and there was hardly a night without something going on. the food was amazing, and i'm not just talking french food. had the best indian food outside of london. middle eastern food, african food, eastern european food...if you get homesick, there is over a hundred english speaking pubs, and a huge anglophone population. if you can cook, paris is also incredibly inexpensive. the wine...goes without saying, and you're splurging if you're spending $5. i love the french people, and really, really love french girls. here's an amusing story. i lived in a predominately algerian neighborhood. there was a metro stop underneath my window, and there was usually a group of pimply, teenage, "home-boy" types hanging out in front of it. one time there were these two HOT 20- something year old french girls walking by, and one of the kids was giving them the old "hey baby" line. one of the girls runs up to him and lands a big wet one, right on his lips. the guy was totally dumbfounded. that to me are the french- fun, witty, and without hang-ups. i can only imagine how i butchered the language, but was never looked at funny, and always encouraged. class city! as far as the rest of france goes, i like lyon. a nice, mellow contrast to paris. provance is cool, if you want to get out to the sticks for a while. i've stayed in a town called orange for a while. nice, sleepy place, with a center of town where you can get out at night. the only drawback is provance is a pretty coservative region. le pen got a lot of support over there.