France This Way...the blog!!

I spend a lot of time looking at pictures of holiday destinations in France, and visiting them or researching them in search of holiday ideas, so like to think I have a reasonable idea about the country as a whole. Of course there are whole swathes of France that I have never visited, and perhaps never will, but I can dream.

Every area has its own attractions, of course, and we all look for something different on a holiday. Which is why we tend to disagree about where to go. And when to go, since we are here looking after the gites at any time when a normal person might go on holiday.

Youngest daughter likes the sea, eldest daughter likes shopping, Mrs B likes art galleries and streetside cafes and I like gawping at mountains and claiming that if I had brought my bike I’d cycle up them. Of course I wouldn’t, I’d get half way up and then either collapse in a heap on the floor, being more accustomed to the relatively gentle hills of the Dordogne, or else cycle off the edge and into a bottomless precipice. Which is why I don’t actually take my bike.

But anyway, just occasionally I let my mind wander outside of France’s frontiers and remember that there is a big wide world outside. In truth I can hardly forget, because a day doesn’t go buy without Mrs B reminding me that a fortnight in Morocco or Valentine’s Day in New York might be more exciting than a day trip to Limoges. But as I tell her, just as soon as every town, village, beach and attraction in France has been reviewed in France This Way we can go where she wants.

However, I did come across a cool ‘holiday suggestion’ tool where you can enter your requirements – temperature, how long you want to fly for, whether you are looking for culture or beaches etc and it suggests a couple of perfect holidays. OK so I was recommended a short break to Barcelona or Vilnius – perhaps I overdid the culture thing – but it was a great way to get some good ideas. Have a go – find your own perfect holiday HERE

One thing I’ve never done, but almost everyone in France does, is skiing. Helpfully everyone has suggestions about how to do it on the cheap, so there is no element of it being an expensive luxury sport, so I can’t blame poverty.

Unfortunately as I’ve probably said before I’m completely useless on fast descents – I blame genetics, but everyone else just says I’m useless, I wonder who’s right – so I’m not quite sure whether I’d end up still crawling around helplessly at the top of the mountain while everyone else is back enjoying a cocktail in the hotel bar. But I have a nasty feeling that within a year or two I’ll find out.