Travel Tour France
France stands as the ultimate travel paradise on the earth. It is the most popular and most visited destination in Europe. France is located towards the Western Europe. Being a popular destination, France offers an array of accommodation options that range from cheap hotels, holiday villas, self catering apartments, and discount hotels. This country of fashion, art, music, cinemas and food, has got a different climate in every region. The northern and North West regions of France have got a temperate climate. The south east region offers Mediterranean climate. The inland places of France face harsh climate with less rain, stormy and hot summers and colder winters. The mountain areas remain covered with snow for most of the year. Hotels in France offer comfortable accommodations. Although the prices could be high, visitors can go in for budget accommodations like cheap hotels and discount hotels.
France caters to all types of visitors who come for leisure trip, adventure holiday, romantic getaway, and business visits. The glamorous capital city of Paris is the most popular fashion destination in the whole world. The Alphs and lush green countryside reflect a contrasting view from Paris. If Paris stands for its hustle-bustle and night life, then the countryside offers calm and composed serene feel. France was once the luxury of rich and famous from America and Britain. This is no longer the scene as now-a-days most of the people visiting France are on low budgets. With a lot of travel tour packages offering budget accommodations, visitors don’t have to pay tons of money at hotels.
France looks beautiful with its green countryside that spread across all the directions. The country offers a range of eye-catching attractions for the visitors. Some of the most visited attractions in France are Paris, Atlantic beaches, the Alps and assorted castles. In France, there are thousands of hotels catering to all kind of travelers. Paris being the hottest place in France offers a wide variety of hotels to stay at during your trip to France. Paris is the most visited city in the world. It is known as the city of lights. With a lot of attractive activities, tourists get to enjoy their best in Paris. This beautiful and romantic city is also a popular spot for couples on their honeymoon. Being the most romantic city, it offers a range of accommodation options from luxury self catering apartments and holiday villas to cheap hotels and discount hostels.
Family Holidays in France
Just a hop over the channel, France is the ideal destination for a family holiday for Brits. Even with the poor exchange rate we are currently suffering from, a short trip to France is infinitely more affordable than a couple of weeks in the Maldives and you won’t need any of the painful and costly vaccinations.
France has lots to offer the family. Children are catered for just as much as the adults. Many resorts offer kids clubs to keep children occupied, allowing you and your partner time to enjoy each others company in peace for a few hours.
Kids clubs allow your children to meet other kids, play sports and games, even get a bit of education with many of the French speaking staff. You never know, your son could come back as the next Gerard Depardieu.
There are kids clubs in France specialising in all age groups so no matter what age your kids are they are sure to find a club that is right for them and other kids to socialise with.
If you would rather not palm them off and want to spend your time on holiday with the kids in tow, then France is even better. Why not rent a car and explore the French coast line, mountains or countryside. Take a spin around some of the wineries dotted throughout the country, rent some bikes and take in the fresh air while getting some much needed exercise, rent a boat for a spot of waterskiing or banana boating. The list is endless. If you’ve thought it, then you can probably do it in France. Except maybe for that one thing that meatloaf sang about.
There is a wide spectrum of accommodation for family holidays in France so no matter what your budget there is a holiday out there for you. You could stay in one of the luxurious and cheap campsites. These campsites are hugely popular with British, German, French and other European families making them friendly and safe. On site there are usually Restaurants, Bars, Pools, games rooms and sports facilities, such as tennis courts, volleyball courts, football pitches, table tennis tables and much more, offering entertainment for the whole family.
If you don’t fancy camping, then you may want to check out one of the many country club resorts scattered across the country. These operate much the same as the campsites, with the notable difference being that you stay in bungalows or houses rather than tents. There tend to be 3 or 4 houses to a pool so you don’t end up shoulder to shoulder with other holiday makers trying to cool off from the hot summer sun.
A number of these country club resorts feature golf clubs, perfect for a relaxing round of golf. The kids and wife don’t like golf? Well the kids can go into the kids club and the wife can relax by the pool. Problem fixed.
What are you waiting for? Go and book your French family holiday! Have you done it yet? Yes? I thought so!
Living in France – is it One Long Holiday?
Anyone who is considering upping sticks and moving abroad, has probably at least considered France as their new home. But what are the plusses and minusses?
The popular subjects which come up for discussion amongst the people I meet are generally: Lifestyle, food and wine, cost of living, health service, transport infrastructure and work.
So lets look at the fors and againsts:
Lifestyle
We all have our own ideal for a wished for lifestyle, but what is that appeals with regard to France? I would say it is the feeling one gets when living here that nothing matters too much if it’s a bit late! (Except maybe your income tax payments). For example, many shops don’t open until 9.30am – then they close again at mid-day! So, you set out at 11.50am after your laid back breakfast of coffee and croissants, and after you have finished reading your newspaper, to go get some supplies for your planned evening meal with your delightful new french neighbours – only to arrive at “les magasins” just as the shutters go down for the lunch break.
Never mind, you can hang around a bit, maybe play a game of Petanque or Boules with the locals, whilst sipping a cold beer fom “le bar” – the shops will soon be open again, won’t they. The prompt ones maybe, but around our way the smaller village shops don’t bother to open again until the kids come out of school at about 3.30pm. By this time you are so laid back that you’ve completely forgotten what you came out for.
But at least you met a useful guy while you were waiting, Monsieur Artisan, who says he will come round tomorrow, “pas de probleme” and fix your falling down wall, and clear out your blocked “fosse septique” (septic tank). Except of course, you don’t see him for days, and the next time you do, it’s outside the bar having “pastis” while you wait for the bloody shop to oen again, because you got up leat again. But he says he’ll come tomorrow.
Food and Wine
We’ve already touched on this above briefly above, in so far as it is really insperable from “Lifestyle” in France. The first thing you notice is that the plonk is cheap. And not only is it cheaper than the UK for recognisable brands, but there are even cheaper substance on sale, that are still quite drinkable. In fact if you study the supemarket shelves in France, you will notice that the largest are is taken with “vin de table” often at around 75centimes a litre!
I certainly wouldn’t call myself an expert, but some of this stuff ain’t half bad. In fact one evening last summer, we had a couple of gusets staying in our Chambre d’Hote, who nexpectedly asked if could provide a meal We don’t do this routinely, but agreed to rustle up something for them. Now, we are not “great” drinkers ourselves, and barely know our Bordeaux from our Bourgogne, but this particular evening all we had in the house was a couple of bottles of “Pays d’Ardeche” which cost less than a one and half Euros for a 1ltr bottle! We quickly decanted some to a carrafe and proudly served it up. Halfway through the meal, the guests call for more wine, “what is it” they ask, “it’s very good.” I told them it was Pays d’Ardeche, and hoped that sounded impressive enough and they that they hadn’t sen it in the supermarket. Anyway they certainly liked it, and next time we went to the supermarket we picked up another 6 bottles.
As for food, personally I cannot really comment on whether French food is better than that of other countries, as I haven’t travelled that much – but the French certainly seem to think so! What one does notice is that the French place a lot of importance on fresh food – you only have to take a look at their markets. Fresh produce abounds, from small stall holders with a couple of boxes of spuds (sorry, pommes de terre, or indeed, “potates” as they are known in the local patois) to magnifique spreads of all the fruit and veg, in all possible colours you could imagine. But, don’t think that you will be buying cheap at the markets. Oh no, the french spen a large propertion of their household budget on food and you can see why when you see the market prices.
Some say it that, in comparison, your weekly shopping costs much more in France, but we soon learnt that if you buy what the French buy, and don’t try to use your UK shopping list, then in fact, you should save considerably. (Appologies to readers from other than the UK).
As for eating out, I try not to recommend particular restaurants, as one never knows when the regular chef might be on his holidays and his mother has been propped up in the cuisine with her zimmer frame and slippers to cover for him – it has been known – really! But a quick tour around any reasonable centre will reveal a host of establishments offering pretty good fare, from around just 10 Euros a head upwards and, as with the wine, don’t asume cheap means poor quality. Certainly for 15 euros you can eat a very good three course meal with a glass of wine.
Cost of living
Oops, think we just covered most of this, although arguments continue to rage over the level of utility bills which can vary considerably between areas, notably for your water supply. As for heating bills, it is said that a large majority of French houses (in rural France anyway) are heated using wood stoves fed with wood which doesn’t appear on any invoices or busines accounts anywhere! Ask the locals and watch out for trees being felled, you won’t need to look far!
Health service
Touchy subject this one in light of recent changes to French rules on state health cover. What I believe is not in doubt, is that France offers one of the best healthcare services in the world. However, what is also pretty obvious if one follows the press here, is that France can’t afford it! As for comparing costs to the individual, it is pretty near impossible to make a comparison, as every ones case is different, with a diverse set of social security contribution calculation methods, for differing categories of individual. Then there is the optional “top up” private insurance which covers the differece between the amount paid by the state, and the actual cost of treatment or medication. These policies however, are nothing like conventional medical insurance, requiring no medical examination, and in fact being pretty reasonably priced. As with all insurance the catch is in knowing which level of cover to buy.
Transport Infrastructure.
Again, here I would say that France has much of the world and certainly the UK (where I hail from, in case you hadn’t guessed) comletely beaten. The roads are first class and mainly empty. Fuel is still significantly cheaper than the UK (at time of writing March 2008). Car users only have to pay a “road licence fee” when they buy or change a car, not annually. And before enyone mentions the cost of autoroute tolls, they are not compulsory, are they? We only pay motorway tolls when we have along distance to cover ie when taking our holidays, and on the whole the non motorway major routes are so good
that one can still travel great distances with few, if any, delays and arrive at the planned time.
The rail links for most of the country are excellent, especially the TGV routes, and although I don’t use them much, I believe that they pretty much run on time. Only buses come in for a bit of stick. Because if you happen to be in a rural location, as many French houses, or indeed, holiday properties are, there are no buses! If you see a bus shelter, don’t bother to wait in it, unles you are prepared to wait for the “l’autobus de l’ecole” or school bus – which is the only time you are likely to see one!
Work / Jobs
Tricky one, this. The French employment situation is pretty poor really. So if you are thinking o coming to France to live and work – think hard and do your homework. There are jobs for skilled workers, particularly, I gather, in I.T. In fact I heard somewhere recently that if you have rally good computer skils you can get a job o the “Airbus” project in Toulouse, even if you don’t speak French!
Speaking reasonable French is a must if you expect to get anywhere in the jobs market, it goes without saying, but in spite of the notoriously dense maze
of rules and beuracracy one has too wade through, there are many posiblities for non-French to set up in business on their own. Probably the most popular occupation for incomers is to run some sort of holiday accommodation, such as self catering cottages, or “gites” as they are known in France, wit Bed and Breakfast, or “Chambre d’Hotes”, coming close behind.
Anyone with good language skills shouldn’t have too much problem setting up some sort of advisory/translation type business, as there are plenty of non-French residents here that don’t speak the lingo very well, if at all!
Finally, my advice is, if you are thinking of moving to France – and having done it myself rather on impulse – spend some time here looking at all the aspects first. Maybe take a couple of weeks at least on “research” holidays (vacations to you US guys!) or even better spend a couple of months by taking a long winter let somewhere. There are plenty of English speakers and ex-pats renting out cottages, appartements or even farmhouses who, will be only too glad to give you the benefit of their experiences at the same time.