France travel planner
I don’t often mention here what I’ve been up to on the ‘main’ francethisway site but today I’m so excited I can’t stop myself. If you have no interest in France travel please leave the building now. If you are, I might just be able to make your life a tiny bit easier or give you 10 minutes of entertainment.
I’ve been locked away for a good while creating a shiny new ‘personal France travel planner’, just for you. ‘What’s that then?’, I imagine you are asking. Well it’s a way for you to organise all the places that you would like to see during your visit to France in one ‘easy to use’ place.
Your very own website page for your visit, if you like, to refer to when you want or to share with friends and family.
Still clear as mud? Take a look at a little example I prepared earlier here.
The general idea is that after you have decided to visit France (again…) you can build up a list of all the places that you want to visit during your stay – your own little ‘aide memoire’ if you’ll excuse my French.
Want to visit places not yet included on francethisway? No problem, you can still add them to your plan. Need something to remind you why you want to visit a particular place? No problem again, there’s plenty of space for you to add your own comments. Some places more important to you than others? Just set the places in your ‘personal travel plan’ to have different priorities and the most important will go hurtling to the top of your plan, while the ‘well, we might go there if we are really bored’ places will drift to the bottom of the heap – until you hit the delete button and they are postponed for another year.
All this and more mixed in with suggestions for places to visit nearby that you might not have thought of yourself. How grooooovy is that!
Still not convinced?
How about this – if you don’t know where you want to go this year, get each member of your family to come up with a separate travel plan showing the highlights and reasons to go to a particular region, then all vote on each others plans.
Or perhaps for those of you buying a house in France – make a plan showing all the possible places where you might buy and add their pros and cons as comments when you think of them.
The possibilities might not be endless but they are quite numerous, which is a good start, and I’ve got a few more little enhancements up my sleeve.
OK I know you are thinking about Christmas at the moment, not summer holidays in France, but I couldn’t wait to spread the word. Just try and remember in January, when you are miserably heading back to work after a week of excesses, that the answer to all your troubles might just be waiting right here for you…
…or you could of course start making a travel plan now, and come back to it in a month or two when you can’t think where else to go.
Happy planning – take a little peek at France travel planner if you’re interested, and please do let me know any feedback so I can make it ever ‘bigger and better’ (and apologies in advance for any tiny teething problems you might encounter…).
Very well bone Boris. I am sure it will be very handy for people unfamilier with an area.Better than looking at a dog eared guest comments book. I never take a lap top on holiday only a mobile phone that is switched off and is for our true emergancies only.
Ah but there is a ‘printer friendly version’ for people who don’t take a PC with them…
I just knew there would be. Boris strikes again.
Off topic we had some localy shot venison today. It was the loin and it was superb. Do you have it easily available in France. We are over run by wild deer in Norfolk, mostly the small munkjack. So there is an increased shooting policy and its for sale all over the place.
I was able to find it in D but I dont recall seeing it in F. I only ask as we were talking about it over lunch. with a faboulous wine from your part of the world (loosly) Corbiers, Grande Cuvee, Castelmaure, 2005 it really was exceptional.
It is hunted here, and there is also a problem with too many deer, but the hunters seem to keep it for themselves!
Perhaps those places with too many hunters should be added to a travel plan – ‘if walking in the woods here watch out for old men with bright orange hats’!
I have had this warning before in france. You wander through the woods at your peril in the hunting season, but then that can be true of anywhere. Britain is a country of fishermen who do not like fish. and hunters and shooters who do not like game. Unlike the French who still eat most anything. It suits me as thats why its all available in rural !!! Britain.
Yes, yes, but about the Travel Planner (!)
This is quite a brilliant idea; we’re enthusiastically using it.
It would be nice if the sites/places/towns could be re-ordered, by interest i.e., vineyards sites, caves sites, etc. Or by geographic proximity-”all interesting spots north of Sarlat”, “possible stops between Bordeaux & Bergerac” etc.
Re; game in America–or Vermont at least–we eat it. We got our first deer 2 years ago when a stag ran into our car on the evening before the season officially began. Luckily a friend was available to come out within 15 minutes, pick it up, dress and share it.
Hi, thanks for stopping by and glad you find the travel planner useful. It has had lots of people signup to use it in the last few days and I’m keping on eye on whether it gets used ‘as expected’ – or not before I make changes. Meanwhile all suggestions are very welcome and I’ll give some thought how best to group things in the way you describe – I need to avoid it looking too complicated or it will scare people off!
Good luck with your visit
After I commented, I realized I could have set up several smaller “trips” by area or interest, which would be one way of sorting. You’re quite right about not letting it be too daunting. We continue to enjoy your site/blog immensely. Cheers!