Best Practices When Preparing a Trip to France, Episode 317

<p>In this short episode of the podcast, Annie reviews best practices when preparing a trip to France. There are simple things that many visitors never think to look into but would nevertheless insure that you have a wonderful experience on your vacation.</p> <h2>What sort of traveler are you?</h2> <p>Because you're always inside your head, it can be hard to see what sort of traveler you are. It is vital to understand that or you may not pick your destination accordingly.</p> <ol> <li>If you like to sleep in the same bed for a while go to a city that has plenty to offer (the biggest 5 or 6 cities in France) or an area where you can take a lot of daytrips. On joinusinfrance.com we share lots of day trips you can take from Toulouse and Paris, but any city has great day trips you can take by googling them. In French you’d search for <em>que faire autour de...</em></li> <li>If you’re not in a big city, you will spend time in the car. It shouldn’t be a problem for most Americans, but even in a city like Toulouse, once you’ve been here for 2 or 3 nights, you’ll run out of things to do unless you hop in a car and explore. This is also true of Bordeaux, Lyon, etc. However, if you go to the French Riviera you’ll be able to do all that by train. It’s worth looking at regional trains.</li> <li>There are also fairly rural places in France where it’s possible to do day trips and go sleep in the same bed every night: Normandy and the Dordogne come to mind. French roads are pretty easy to navigate, especially with a GPS.</li> <li>Now that electric assist bikes are so common, I wonder if more people will use those explore 20-50 kilometers around without breaking too much of a sweat. French people have sure taken to electric bikes! Well, French people like all sorts of bikes, really.</li> <li>Listen to podcast episodes about different parts of France to pick the one that fits your needs best.</li> </ol> <h2>Check out the Calendar</h2> <p>Some of us don’t have a choice when we travel while others can pick whichever date is best. O