FRANCE - Destination Spotlight
Dreaming of a holiday in France?
France is a pretty big country, in fact the largest in Western Europe. It is almost the size of Texas! So many choices of beautiful & exciting places to visit … here are only a few highlights, to start:
Paris, the City of Light
Normandy - beaches, history, countryside
Loire Valley - castles, castles, castles
South of France - the Meditterean Sea!
The French Alps - soaring mountains & villages
Alsace - wine, wine and cute villages
and many more areas with wonderful towns, villages and cities across all of France!
Below I share some fond memories & lessons learned in my travels across France from 2006 to 2023. I hope you enjoy and find inspiration for your own French adventure. Thanks for reading!
Contact me for a FREE coaching mini-session to get started… Let’s talk about your travel dreams !
Paris celebrates Bastille Day (2023)
2024 is an exciting year for France - in less than 2 months, the Summer Olympic Games will take place in Paris and many other locations all over the country! From the beach volleyball venue setting up shop in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the equestrian events set among the grand Versailles Palace gardens, all the preparations sound amazing!
Our family is excited to be visiting France again this year, specifically our stay in Nice to see a women’s football game, USA vs. Zambia !!
First picture of me in Paris (2006)
France will always be special - Paris was the very first place in Europe I visited way back in 2006. I’ve returned over 10 times since then to explore this pretty big country (The largest in Western Europe. It’s just shy of being as big as Texas!). Here are just a few of the many wonderful memories I have of my time in France.
Favorite Memories in France (2006 - 2023)
French Cuisine - from the bakeries to bistros to cute cafes, there are so many culinary delights to sample. A fan favorite in my family is the humble baguette… there is nothing like walking into a French bakery with the delicious aromas of freshly baked baguettes - a daily pilgrimage to the corner bakery is a lucky way to start each day!
A tradition for me is to bring home (yes, to the USA) baguettes from a French bakery for my father. Surprisingly if you have a flight from France, you really can get a baguette from the bakery and bring it home in your backpack to eat the following day. They fare pretty well - you can actually fold them in half! My Dad doesn’t mind the travel wear - he says they taste great. He asks me every time I go to Europe if I’m flying home from France to bring him baguettes LOL!
Canoe Trip in Dordogne- While visiting the medieval town of Sarlet-la-Canada in the southwest of France, a relaxing day was spent paddling down a river passing by cute towns and castles.
Monet’s House & Garden in Giverny- several visits in both Spring and Summer leave me dreaming of a stroll through Monet’s flower gardens. Just magical & inspiring ! (Contact me for tips on visiting this busy place!)
Normandy with my Dad - My first trip to Normandy was in 2011 with my father. He is like a walking guide book, knowing seemingly everything about all things. We visited beaches and towns. A special time!
Sleeping on Mont Saint-Michel - My first visit to this mysterious and beautiful place was in 2006. It was the best decision to spend the night on the island at Le Mere Poulard.
Alsace - Visiting this wine region with friends was a full-filled time. Even the Tour de France was in town one day in Mulhouse.
Father’s Day @ the Louvre - A treasured memory of spending the entire day at the Louvre with my father in 2011. Changing our plans because of an injured hip, we found ourselves exploring every corner of this massive museum in Paris (they have free wheelchair loans at the museum and a great cafe for lunch).
While I have many more memories of my travels in France with family and friends (and solo), I will leave it here to let you start your own dreaming. What French adventures do you want to take to make memories of your own? Or maybe you are inspired to reminisce on your own travels. What are your favorite memories in France?
Click here to learn more about how my travel services could help you get started!
LESSONS LEARNED IN FRANCE
My first trip to France in 2006 taught me some very important travel lessons. Here are a few interesting ones:
Hold Tight to your camera (today, your phone) - we watched a guy let this girl take a picture with his phone on a boat cruise. Yep, the camera is likely still today at the bottom of the Seine. That was in 2006 long before digital back up (ex. Google Photos) … ouch.
Don’t underestimate driving distances
Back in 2006, it was good ‘ole paper maps. It takes a long time to drive across France as we learned traveling by car from Mont Saint Michel down to the South of France and on to Italy. Now it’s easier to use Google Maps for an estimate (just round up to get a more realistic idea of drive times).
Don’t be afraid to re-route and change your plans
We arrived in the city of Marseilles to find a very crowded and confusing place. Without Google Maps, we found it difficult to find our accommodation. Not entirely pleased with the idea of staying in this big city, we decided to keep driving, leaving our accommodation behind. We drove along the coast until we found a very cute little town called Six-Four les Plages where we found a room right on the beach road. Here we spent our time on the beach, eating seafood and exploring the general area. It’s OK to choose to change your plan.
Sometimes a Multi-city (or “open jaw”) Flight solution is best
Being newbies to long haul travel, we booked roundtrip tickets to/from Paris CDG (a good airport IMO for a first Europe trip experience). What that ended up meaning for our trip was a very long drive from Germany back to the Paris airport - just to fly home! In hindsight, we could have maximized our travel time by taking a return flight from Frankfurt. It could have meant a little more $ for the flight and/or a one-way car rental fee, depending on the flight fares and car rental company, but it sure would have been worth it to spend that whole day doing anything else in Germany rather than driving across the countryside!
Be careful in choosing accommodations near the airport
While it is often a good choice to stay near the airport on your final night, especially before an early morning flight - this is not always the best option. We found our choice of staying at the Paris Hilton at the Paris CDG airport for our final night to be a mistake. We discovered that the Paris CDG airport is not near anything except the airport itself. Nothing to do but rest that evening. Plus, we didn’t have enough information to let us know in advance about the added fees (internet is so much better now than it was in 2005!)… parking was 30 euro! Breakfast was 32 euro per person ! Luckily we had enough time in the morning to drive our car out to the nearest town to go to a bakery for a delicious breakfast before our flight. Sometimes it may be a better experience to stay somewhere convenient for getting to the airport but somewhere that has interesting things to do the night before, restaurants, cafes, shops etc and has a comfortable place to rest your head at night.
Thank you for reading !!
Safe Travels,
Heidi
