Make A Trip To France

So you've decide to go for a French vacation. You'll certainly be assured of a holiday of a lifetime, no doubt about that. France has three climates: oceanic, continental and Med. or alpine snow in the northeast, milder mid-range and Mediterranean heat in the south. Go well equipped on your French holiday. Hiring cars for a French vacation is relatively cheap and affords you superb views of the magnificent countryside. It also means french property for sale you can make regular stops to sample the different regional cuisines on your French holiday. Don't forget, the French consider themselves gourmets par excellence, so their cooking is an experience in itself. For instance, the crepes and galettes of Normandy and Brittany, bouillabaisse (fish soup) in all seaside towns especially, superb quiches everywhere and not forgetting the ever-favorite, goose-liver paste called pate de foie gras, pronounced pattay der fwar grar. That's going to be a slight problem, though, the French are extremely chauvinistic about their language and don't speak English, or pretend they don't. For instance, there's the story of the English speaker who asked a Parisian what time it was - in French - and the Parisian replied, 'I'm sorry, I don't speak English!' If your French isn't superb, they pretend not to understand, very frustrating for the French holidaymaker! Before you vacation in France, buy a good guidebook like The Lonely Planet Guide or the Michelin Guide to eating, which will tell you where all the out of the way, but superb food is to be had. That way you can at least show the book to a Frenchman, who may deign to tell you where to go. Perhaps take a crash course in French before you go, then you'll know that 'escargots' are snails and 'steak tartar' is uncooked, otherwise you're in for a rude surprise. The French scenery is superb: rolling hills in Brittany, high, snow-capped Alps, tree-lined canals and rivers in the Dordogne, picturesque villages everywhere, high mountains with chateaux (castles) at their summits as in Languedoc, broad plains in the midlands and the forests of Bordeaux. You're assured of a magnificent range of scenery, traveling in France on holiday. The roads are quite good too, not as broad as American highways, maybe, but the motorways are excellent. The French are considered reckless drivers, though, so be careful. But at least they drive on the same side of the road as Americans. Culture-wise, France is unsurpassed: Gothic cathedrals like Chartres, and Notre Dame in Paris, abbeys like Fontainebleau, chateaux everywhere, art galleries property for sale in france displaying the work of Poussin, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Gauguin, and Matisse etc. In fact, there are so many notables; you'd have though the French actually invented painting. They did invent the concept of chic - stylishly elegant - though, and it seems even the peasants are well-dressed; it puts the rest of us to shame! If you don't want to drive on your French holiday, you can use the superb French rail system. French trains are as sleek as planes and you even have to book as though you're going by air. You can even go under the Channel to England. All told, you're in for a fantastic vacation in France! Bonne chance - good luck.