Our French Holiday

Last month, I made a commitment to blog more consistently.  I even concocted a plan to keep me on track.  But the end of summer is a lousy time for new undertakings.  The day after I decided to spend more time on A Libertarian Yogi, my wife and I woke up with a travel bug that could not be ignored. 

Since we met in Oxford, the Old World holds a special place in our hearts.  Living in California for the past few years, we had mostly dedicated ourselves to local travel, but now that we were settled in Montreal, we felt powerless to Europe’s magnetic pull.  The trip was conceived of at 8am, and by 11pm that evening, we were cruising at 30,000ft toward Paris.

Before we left, we frantically sent e-mails to some of Fannie’s friends half-way across the world.  Despite our haste, we were greeted with the utmost hospitality.  We stayed in Paris for a few days before flying down to Nice.  We made arrangements for a rental car using Rentalcars.com.  DO NOT USE RENTALCARS.COM!  After some grief, we received our “vehicle”* and our journey began.

It will come as no surprise that we had precious little time to plan our road trip.  Most of the route and destinations were settled upon less than 12 hours before we set out.  In general, we would drive, stop at places of interest, make it to some destination, explore, sight-see, feast, and then figure out where we wanted to go the next day as we fought off sleep.  For the most part, it worked out well.  

As it were, we set out northwest from Nice up through the Gorges du Verdon, staying overnight in Moustiers-Sainte-Marie.  From there, we made our one ill-planned stop near Cassis.  We recovered and forged back up north through Les Baux-des-Provence before reaching Avignon.  We did some more exploring in the Provence region, with stops in several gorgeous little communes like L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, Rousillon and Gordes.  After that we made the long trek to our westernmost destination, Carcassonne, a (controversially and strikingly) renovated medieval town.  A little luxury was waiting for us back at the coast in St-Aygulf.  We found great beaches and delicious food in this beach-y village, often overshadowed by nearby St-Tropez and St-Rafael.  From there we hugged the coast all the way to Villefranche-sur-Mer, just east of Nice.  At this point, we said goodbye to the Mediterranean, but not before stopping at the highest littoral town in France, St-Agnes.  Only 4km from the sea (as the bird flies), this small village towers above Menton and the rest of the Cote-d’Azur, giving the visitor a truly remarkable view.  Our next destination was the Alps.  We spent nights in Casterino and Briancon, and we were rewarded with captivating scenery as we hiked (and picnicked) all day long.  From there, we made one last stop in the charming town of Annecy.  A beautiful morning kept us in Annecy longer than we had expected, and we paid for it with stormy weather on the final drive back to Paris.  We spent some more time with our courteous Parisian host before hopping on our flight back to Montreal. 

It was an amazing vacation, enjoyable and rewarding.  We embraced the whirlwind circumstances, just being so grateful that we could make it there on such short notice.  Anybody who has travelled outside the world of all-inclusive resorts understands the potential stress and pitfalls that lurk beneath an otherwise pleasant trip. 

We had some things working in our favor.  My wife was born of French tongue and has lived and traveled a fair amount in France.  And I happen to have quite a knack for navigating the Internet and finding the best places to stay.  There was also a priceless little independent association that made our rambling route quite a bit more delightful.

For a while, I had been captivated by this project, “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France.”  It lists around 150 little French communes—the criteria being that they must have less than 2,000 inhabitants and contain at least two historical or picturesque protected areas.  As I gazed at the pictures and descriptions, I longed to feel what is was like to walk through these quaint little villages.  And I was not disappointed!  The history pulsated through the cobbled streets.  I often fantasized about retreating to a little apartment in Gordes or Ménerbes for a book assignment….one day!   

Still, as North Americans, there were some less enchanting aspects of our trip.  The notable one being the customer service at some lodgings and restaurants.  My wife is a francophone Canadian, but the cultural barriers became obvious when we had to make some customer request.  The familiar notion that the customer is always right is truly foreign in this foreign land.

I recalled a book on French culture, history, and life that I had read a couple years ago, Sixty Million Frenchman Can’t Be Wrong.  In the introduction, the authors note that when an Anglo-American visits a place in Asia, they have no problem accepting the major differences in culture.  But when it comes to France, we forget that their culture has grown up around their own distinct foundation, their own historical conditions and assumptions.  This isn’t some post-modern relativist observation.  You can judge another culture’s practices, but you should remember you are judging a whole new beast. 

On that note, I observed our Parisian friend and how he was always able to receive perfect customer service.  A reminder that there is more than one way to skin a cat. 

Overall, the trip was everything I wanted it to be.  It was fast-paced,  especially compared to our fellow travelers, who were mostly French (sometimes Italian or Spanish depending on where we were).  August equals holiday for the French, and many take this time to travel in country.  We seldom bumped into North Americans, even in the more popular tourist destinations.  One thing we noticed about the French vacationers:  children of any age stayed with the family until the adults felt like heading home.  As we were throwing in the towel, sometimes near midnight, parents would stroll past with their 4-year olds in tow, pushing their sleeping infant in a stroller.  We approved.

We were also surprised by the stark changes in topography.  France is a truly a diverse and gorgeous country.  Also, the culture is very salient; the visitor always has something novel to experience.  It has left reinvigorated.  And though the travel bug may not be sated, it has definitely been appeased.  

*Rentalcars.com is a car rental aggregator.  My wife told them on the phone that we would be landing in Nice at 2pm and needed a car.  They said: no problem, we gotcha! and we booked.  When the cab dropped us off at the car rental place, the place was locked up as they had closed at 1pm (yes, 1pm on a Monday).  We had already made plans to leave town and stay near the Gorges du Verdon that night.  We called Rentalcars.com and they basically said:  quelle dommage, there's nothing we can do.  Luckily, we were able to make arrangements to stay in Nice for the night.  We went to the rental place the next day and, as we had feared, they had rented our car.  The only automatic they had left was....a Smart car!  In the end, the Smart car turned out to be a far more useful than our friends at Rentalcars.com.  We are currently trying to receive some compensation for our wasted expenses, but it is not looking good.