UKC

Just got back from 10 days in France, mostly cycling in the Alps. What a fantastic country! I know I've only scratched the surface but I loved it.

The roads were a joy to drive and cycle on (250 miles without a single close pass), everyone was friendly and chilled-out, even though my French is crap. Nice food, glorious diverse scenery. Can't wait to go back.

Any other Francophiles on here?

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

I got back very recently from a week or cycle touring in Brittany! Awesome trip....great places, good roads, friendly people and good food/drink! Weather could have been better but it was a great trip!

In reply to Yanis Nayu:




Yes, lovely country and generally nice people. My gf is French, so I am probably prejudiced!

Quite nice wine too.......

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

yes! he's my favourite military dictator


I love France, very beautiful. But unfortunately for me, all my recent visits have been to Paris via Gare Du Nord, not quite as pleasant to say the least.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

...great surf too all the way down the Atlantic coast. Basically got everything and for my generation crap French works a lot better than phrasebook Spanish or whatever.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

Yes, go cycling there in the mountains every year and climbing, the food, the wine the nice people. We've been going on twinning trips since hosting a french family a few years ago and that's wonderful too.

Cheers

Toby

In reply to Yanis Nayu:
Another vote here for France and les Francaises who in my experience (narrow but with a lot of trying - I once spoke fluent French) not only manage to be both gamine and soignée but also endearingly méchante

Scenery is pretty good too with a huge range of landscapes.

In reply to BnB:


One of the best things about France. Everything from tropical forest, through near-desert, to glaciers, and pretty much everything in between.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:
Off to Font bouldering tomorrow, expecting the fridge in our rented air bnb house to be bursting with welcome snacks and wine from the owners. Situated just outside Milly la Forete, there'll be after climb beers in the market square cafes. All that and the best climbing area in the world just isn't fair.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

Not a bad country I guess but the best about it is the people. Surprised nobody mentioned it yet. Start a nice conversation about the merits of English cheese, Californian wine or Italian food culture and you will be rewarded with a constructive and balanced discussion where the positive aspects of foreign food and the drawbacks of French products will be carefully weigthed. Similarly a comparison of climbing scenes between France and the UK will be very educating for them. The Scottish hills and Welsh mounds will draw a lot of interest, even if they don't compare favourably to the Alps (but then even the Himalayas are fairly tame compared to the mighty Alps). Exporting the interesting debate about the bolting of Stanage ("Never heard of it. On a scale from 1 to 3 and Bleau being 10, how good is it ?") will be another interesting topic.

Effing French people.

In reply to drolex:
It's not Yorkshire though, is it?

In reply to johnjohn:

Never heard of it. Is it somewhere in the Swiss Alps?

In reply to johnjohn:

Thankfully !

In reply to drolex:

And don't even get them started on cars. They'll spend hour after hour going on about how much more reliable south-east Asian cars are compared to Citroen & Peugeot.....

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

Love France. Lovely chilled out people (except when it comes to paperwork and strange rules)

In reply to Trangia:


Hard to get a decent pint though (unless you're in the far north-east that is - les 3 monts is a great beer)

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

Agree with many of the things written re the country, food etc being positive but overall it's a NO from me. This is due to the unforgivable sin of being overly enthusiastic about budgie smugglers ! These things are apparently more hygienic than a pair of shorts as you will be less tempted to wear these around and then get in the pool. But En route to carre four I saw a bloke cycling to the campsite swimming pool in these and only these, from about 4 miles away, in 35C+ weather. Talk about Betty Swollocks.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

Love the place, looking forward to being able to pop over there when I can.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

Cheap houses too.

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

But its easy to fall in love 'at a distance' - which is the holiday experience. Deeper engagement tends to reveal problems which leave you rather less light-hearted. But its not all doom and gloom - I'm still enjoying discovery of new climbing sites here 15yrs deep.

In reply to LeeWood:


Good point. We moved to France six years ago and still love where we live (we're in the southern Vercors part of the Alps) but there's a lot of bad with the good but that's the same anywhere I think.

All in all the though the quality of life is at the right balance between affluence and social security. That's not to say there aren't a lot of problems, but if you're moderately successful then life is good here. They love to think otherwise though and love a good moan.

It's like anywhere in the world, some people are great, some people are dicks, and often you get treated how you deserve to be.

I agree its hard to get a good pint but I'm lucky as there's a microbrewery in our village that does fantastic ales