 |
| On a plane again...………….. |
Our twelve nights in France passed quickly. It was a great experience from beginning to end, creating lots of new memories. If France is on your radar screen for anytime in the future you might find some of this information helpful.
France is a large country. Size wise, France is the third largest European country (behind Russia and The Ukraine). That's a lot of land to cover. While we're not experts, between this recent trip and past visits, we've now spent time in Paris, the Normandy Region and the French Riviera. We've enjoyed all of them tremendously and would highly recommend them. Our time in Paris has been limited, so I'll mainly focus on Normandy and the French Riviera. One thing I will say about Paris is that it is a very walkable city and from what we saw also had a very good public transportation system. Most of Paris's main sights are located on or near the River Seine which is a great place to roam on foot.
French Hospitality is not an oxymoron. There seems to be a stereotype that the French people are uppity and don't like Americans. While I'm sure some of this exists, we've had nothing but great experiences. Everyone we've dealt with has been very friendly and helpful.
This year is the seventy fifth anniversary of the D-Day Invasion. The French people of the Normandy Region have not forgotten the tremendous sacrifice made by American, British and Canadian troops. As we were traveling about Normandy we noticed that American flags were about as common as French flags. A small restaurant that we ate in served our sandwiches will small American and French flags on the toothpicks. Another restaurant in the region had a sign engraved in their window that said "We Welcome Our Liberators".
Communication hasn't been an issue in any of the areas we've visited. They are all "tourist regions" and while everyone may not speak English, you won't have any trouble communicating.
Getting around is easy. Public transportation (bus and trains) is very good in Paris and the French Riviera. Buses are inexpensive (currently in the Riviera 1.5 euros per ride). Trains are frequent, run on time and are also fairly inexpensive. We used the trains twice during our French Riviera stay. Taking it from Villefranche-sur-Mer to Cannes one day and to Menton the next day. For no additional money you can hop off and on at any stations along the way. Don't forget to validate your tickets in the yellow machines that are usually close to where you purchase your tickets. We used Uber to get from our Airbnb to the Nice Airport without any problems. You can book tours in the Normandy region that will provide transportation to sites of interest, however driving in that area is very easy. We rented a car at the Paris airport and drove to Normandy. You could also take a plane, bus or train to the area and then rent locally. If you want a car with an automatic transmission you'll pay a little bit more.
Money. ATM's are everywhere and will dispense currency in Euro's. Credit cards (Visa and Mastercard) are widely accepted. I'm not sure about American Express and Discover.
Time of Year to Travel to France. Being retired we're fortunate that we can travel offseason when the rates and crowds are less. Now is offseason in both Normandy and the French Riviera. The "weather gods" smiled on us throughout our recent trip. The Normandy weather can be quite temperamental at this time of the year. We had mostly sunny skies with highs in the 50's to low 60's. Shortly after leaving the weather returned to what is more normal in that area for this time of year. High's in the low 50's, rainy and cloudy...…….we were incredibly lucky!
In the Riviera it was a little warmer and sunnier (high's in the mid to upper 60's) and there is less rain in this area at this time of year. The temperatures in both places would dip down into the 40's at night. Just so you know, the "weather gods" don't always smile on us. The last time we were in Paris is was for one day. We took the Chunnel from London to Paris. It was cloudy, cold and rainy all day with the high temperature hovering around 40 degrees!
 |
| The flowers were in bloom in Monaco |
We didn't explore too much in the Honfleur area but Etretat was interesting and it looks like it could be a very good base for some other sites in that area.
We loved our Airbnb in Villefranche-sur-Mer. This is a small, quiet city that is just outside Nice. It has great train and bus service to other parts of the French Riviera region. It also has a small but nice beach and plenty of shops and restaurants. If night life is your thing, this probably isn't the place for you and you'd be happier in Nice, Cannes or some of the other larger cities. We were happy to visit them in the daytime and return to our quiet, little, peaceful city at night. One thing about Villefranche-sur-Mer, that we were surprised to discover was that over 100 cruise ships came into their port last year. The first one was at the end of March and the last one was at the end of December. While most cruisers probably head to Nice, Cannes or Monaco, the city certainly would be livelier on those days.
We love sharing our adventures with anyone who is interested in following along and are always happy to assist other travelers in any way possible! Thanks for being part of the adventure!
