When I think of France I don’t immediately think of beautiful beaches, I think of Paris. But I stand corrected because southern France has some of the most beautiful beaches on the world. There are actually a variety of beaches to please every kind of taste. France is surrounded by water, the English Channel, Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea.
The French Riviera is located on the eastern Mediterranean coast from Cannes to Menton. This is the France holiday you want to take if you are looking for upscale adult vacationing. The Côte d’Azur is the coast to the south and is the ideal spot for “alone time” although it can get a little crowded in some spots. It is also a great spot for surfing. Brittany on the north Atlantic coast and the surrounding area has beaches with family attractions.
Cannes
While the world famous film festival may keep tourists busy, there is no denying the beach here is fun. This is a lighthearted beach town, steeped in the arts and film. Check out the sand castles while you are on the beach. If you hunt for bargains, this can be a reasonable beach vacation.
Beach at Nice
This beach is enormously popular on the French Riviera. The actual beach is comprised of pebbles instead of sand. It is very crowded in the summer.
Menton Beach
Menton is a quaint little beach town and of all the beaches on the French Riviera, Menton’s beaches are the most family friendly. The atmosphere is much more relaxed and it isn’t the wild partying beach town that its neighbors are.
Monaco
The beaches in Monaco are upscale and are adjacent to opulent high-rise hotels and casinos. This is an adult environment and there is plenty of fun to be had sun bathing during the day and gambling at night.
Arcachon Beaches
The small town of Arcachon sits next to the Atlantic Ocean. This beach area is free of crowds except at peak time of summer vacation. If you visit this beach you must walk along the Dune du Pyla, which lies between the ocean and the largest forest in France, Les Landes. This is huge dune elevated and overlooks the Atlantic.
Biarritz Beaches
While the Biarritz beachfront was once wildly popular, in the last forty or fifty years tourists have migrated to the French Riviera to empty their wallets. While these may not the most ideal beaches, they are less crowded, have less traffic, and have less expensive accommodations. Beaches are free to visit.
Garoupe Beach – Cap d’Antibes
This is a very exclusive beach that is split off into sections some of which are free to the public. This beach faces the east so when you are on the beach the sun is not in your face. It is also sheltered from the wind and this makes it pleasant.
St. Jean de Luz St.
Jean de Luz beach is located just south of Biarritz in the town of St. Jean de Luz. This is a clean well-kept beach with a nice sea wall separating the beach from the town. The architecture of the town has been carefully preserved and the old 17th and 18th century structures are just gorgeous. This is a quiet and peaceful beach experience.
Cap d’Agde
Located next to Montpellier, Cap d’Agde is famous for their nude beaches. But apparently the tendency to divest one’s clothes may extend to the entire city. Maybe we should leave the kiddies at home.
La Rochelle
This is a quaint port town located on the Atlantic coast. The beach has shallow waters and is great for families with young children.
By: Travel Guru
Archive for August, 2009
A Family Driving Holiday in France
August 29th, 2009When going on your first driving holiday through France, travelling at your own pace, stopping in quaint villages and historic towns to experience the local French food and staying in family run guest houses or hotels can just add more excitement to the whole holiday experience.
When touring by car obviously means that you will need places to stay and there are so many different options to choose from, but this can be a great way of getting into the heart of the country and experiencing the true traditional France whilst on your driving holiday.
The roads are very well maintained, especially on the toll roads that have fantastic lay-bys and the service areas are also of excellent quality, which makes the experience when travelling through a lot easier. And even when entering the local villages, the roads are still very good quality, far better than some other countries we have been in, yet just remember that you will be driving on the right hand side of the road!
But when you are driving through France there are a few things you need to be aware of.
Did you know that the legal age to drive in France is 18 years of age and even if you have a full licence from another country and you are under that age, then you are still not allowed to drive in France? And every passenger must wear a seatbelt and it is illegal for a child under the age of 10 to be in the front seat.
You must always stop at a zebra crossing, which is enforced by law and when going through a town you will find a lot of them, but you should be very careful when you are the pedestrian, as the French do not seem to obey this rule as much as they should!
Watch your speed! If you are stopped for speeding you can be fined on the spot and the fines have to be paid in cash there and then, which can be quite expensive. If you cannot pay or you are travelling more than 25km/h above the speed limit, then your car can be impounded and you could end up with a very hefty fine or even lose your licence, so be careful, especially when on the toll roads, as you do not want your driving holiday to come to an abrupt end!
The motorways are 130km per hour, but this is reduced in bad weather down to 110km per hour and on duel carriageways and main roads the same rules apply where the speed limit is reduced in bad weather. A duel carriageway is 110km per hour and main roads are 90km per hour, with the periphery being 80km per hour and towns or minor roads being a maximum of 50km per hour.
The French Government do publish information on exactly where speed traps are located and this is one of the reasons why it is illegal to have a radar detector fitted to your vehicle. Also, with the amount of satellite navigation systems available such as TomTom, you will find that many have a warning system for speed cameras, but it is also illegal to have this facility on, otherwise you could end up with a hefty fine if you are caught out!
In bad weather, fog etc, even during the day, it is compulsory to use your lights but you do not have to keep your lights on during the day at any other time.
Obviously you must have deflectors fitted to your headlights if you have a right-hand drive vehicle and by law you must have a set of replacement bulbs and a warning triangle with you at all times. But it is always advisable to check the regulations prior to your holiday in France, as they do change from time to time and a good place to access this information is the AA website.
You also need to have a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher with you and because in France the law states that if you are the first on a scene of an accident, you must stop and provide assistance, these may well be required! And in the event of an accident you would need to call the police, which is accomplished by dialling 17 and they will also despatch an ambulance or the fire brigade if these are also needed.
You will no doubt come across the term La Priorité à Droite, which basically means that the vehicle coming onto a road has priority from the right. This is even the case when a minor road is entering a main road, so do be careful, especially when in the towns and villages as you would need to give way, even if it is you on the main road.
Officially this rule no longer applies unless clearly sign posted yet it still causes confusion and in Paris it is still widely practised. So you could end up feeling like you are being cut up, even though this may have been how the French were taught to drive when the Priorité à Droite rule was still widely used!
Yet by generally planning your holiday prior to travelling, this will give you more peace of mind and will help you to locate all the tourist attractions that you want to visit whilst on your holiday in France. Also, when it comes to shopping, most places shut for at least two hours each day and most hypermarkets, etc are not open on a Sunday, whereas museums and other attractions are, so you can make general plans for your whole trip.
Plus if you use a route planner such as Microsoft AutoRoute, it can provide you with lots of other information as well, like being able to calculate how long it will take you to travel between one place and another, and you can also find numerous different hotels, petrol stations, restaurants and even cash points to name but a few!
The other good thing about using a route planner, is that if you do not have a sat nav system, you can get fantastically indepth maps that will take you directly to your desired destination without getting lost, and yes, getting lost can be fun, but it can also be daunting if you do not know the area.
But with these few general rules out of the way, just enjoy the experience, the beautiful scenery, the French wine and food and have a great family vacation, whilst on your driving holiday in France.
By: Marty Davis
History and Travel Destinations in France
August 29th, 2009Travellers on their way to France can witness many exotic monuments. It is barely surprising that the city, which is renowned to the world for being home to the spectacular Eiffel Tower, will also give to its tourists a peek at some of the best monuments in the world. For a Paris visitor, the city of monuments, history is not a theme that is destined to be read in books it is authentic, almost as real as the present.
The chapter of France travel can be read and visualized in forms of monuments. The city itself, though intended as early as 1853, is based on a kind of pattern that positions streets and boulevards in such a way that almost all of them lead easily to the countless monuments that reveal both the Parisian culture as well as the city’s abounding history. The long and impressive inventory of Parisian monuments, mandatory to France travel, includes some of the best known examples of the architecture of the world of all ages and all periods like the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame Cathedral. Many of these monuments ask for a nominal rate for visiting them, a charge that can appear quite large to students and travellers on limited funds. In order to solve this setback, a number of organizations, both governmental as well as private offer a kind of system, which involves a card that can be availed at a special price. For any one interested in France travel, obtaining this card from locations smearing all around the city as well as the Paris Tourist Office at 127, avenue des Champs-Elyses is simple. The tourist can tour a number of monuments located in and around Paris.
Amazingly the architectural masterpiece to which Paris owes today a large part of its fame as a world-renowned tourist destination and a glory of France travel, faced a large portion of critique at the time of its foundation. A large number of the Parisian intellectuals protested against the extreme misuse of national funds that were required for building the monument. This trait of mass protest was also seen during the building of the more contemporary Pompidou Centre, another milestone of France travel that was begun in 1968. Whether it is an example of modernistic architectural patterns or a kind of tryst with the vast historical wealth of the country, Paris has it all to make France travel significant and one of its kind. A good example of the amalgamation of the different kinds of architectural patterns is the monument Notre Dame, which showcases gothic architectural styles to perfection. Besides this, ornamental styles of designing can also be found in the French city of Versailles that is home to the legendary or perhaps, even the notorious Palace Of Versailles.
The palace, prominent in history as the mark of the unfair and wasteful expenditure of the French monarchy that was of major root of the French revolution, is a must see for all tourists heading to travel to Paris. Besides these, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile, Arc de Triomphe de la Porte St-Denis are important monuments that have witnessed historical events in French history and have played their part in shaping the chronicle of the world as a whole.
By: Julien Raynal
