General: France

I'm disabled and I wanted to go to Paris to see the sights. Easy ? Not as easy as I thought ! Since ending up in a wheelchair a few years ago, things have been a little bit trickier in just getting around. Not enough drop pavements, doors not wide enough, stuff left in the way in the isles in shops - it all adds up to a bit of a frustrating time. Beverly (my wife) & I had managed a few good holidays recently, including Barcelona, Jersey and a few UK city breaks, but since my son gave us such a glowing report of Paris, I decided that would be our next short break. I did some internet research ... more

South of Poitiers, near Limoges, stands the martyred WWII town of Oradour-sur-Glane. Whilst visiting my parents, my girlfriend and I took the hours drive from Rufec to see first hand the terrible work of the Nazis. On 10th June 1944, over two-hundred soldiers of the 2nd Waffen SS Panzar division were retreating East through France, when they encircled the small rural town of Oradour-sur-Glane. They rounded up all the residents, regardless of ethnic background, age or gender, and segregated the adult males from the women & children. The men were divided into groups and forced into various ... more

(For the more pedantic reader, please be aware that this review is for Paris only and not all of France. 'Paris in General' section refused to allow me to add this review, so here it is in this section!) February 2005 The OldGoth wanted to mark Valentine's weekend with a special treat having had an unexpected windfall some weeks ago. As he is now in possession of a passport, it seemed a very good opportunity for using the wonderful Eurostar and gliding down to Paris. Paris can easily be seen in a long weekend, so makes the perfect weekend break. **** Eurostar **** I have used the Eurostar once ... more

This year, we spent two weeks of our summer vacation in France, in a club village of Pierre et Vacances. Pierre et Vacances is the largest company offering holiday apartments and holiday homes in France (if not in the whole of Europe) with more than 60 locations (residences, hotels and club villages). Most of the locations can be found at the French south coast (Provence, Côte d'Azur, Languedoc-Roussillon), but there is a large choice available at the Atlantic coast, in Normandy and Brittany, as well as a few locations in Paris and in the French Alps. There are studios for two, apartments for ... more

For our second camping trip abroad we used Carefree Camping from the Camping and Caravanning Club to book our stay as they offer good discounts on both ferry travel and pitch prices and it takes the hassle out of contacting the sites yourself if you're not a seasoned traveller. Having said that, every e-mail query I sent to Patrice (the site owner) was answered within a few hours in perfect English so it wouldn’t be a problem to organise your own ferry and book direct. We stayed at this site briefly last summer on our way further south, but liked it so much we took our main holiday there this ... more