I’ve been to France on only a few occasions and it’s been a long time since I last visited. My first journey there was a day trip from school at the age of about 11, we went from Folkstone to Boulogne-sur-Mer. I remember we were let loose on the unsuspecting French public with our extremely fledgling French language skills which I used to attempt to purchase gifts for the family. We wandered around looking at all the things that were different about France (this was the very first time I had ever been overseas) and taking photos of the things that were most striking. I still have some of those photos and I looked back on them recently; they include things like lampposts and traffic lights which were different in design and the houses and shops which seemed architecturally to be quite grand compared to the buildings in my home town. How strange to look back now at what I thought was significant then!
My next visit was when I was 17 and doing “A” levels. It was a long weekend in Paris and I went with my first boyfriend who was on the same course as me. We stayed in Paris and spent the whole weekend drinking French wine, eating baguette and brie and wandering around. I don’t think I made the most of that visit; I was just pleased to be off the leash, having only recently left home. Back in the day, there existed a one-year passport and I remember applying for it at the post office in order to travel. Hard to imagine that such a situation was ever possible.
A great many years passed before I went to France again. I was about 34 and my boyfriend, now my husband, and I went to Lille for our first weekend away together. It was Bastille Day, July 14, that weekend and I’d somehow managed to get some discounted travel on the Eurostar, I can’t remember how, but we went for next to nothing. The boyfriend booked the hotel and off we went. It was an absolutely roasting hot weekend and he caught a dreadful cold on the first day, but he didn’t let that stop us having a lovely time. Bastille Day was wonderful, the fireworks being a colourful ending to the celebrations.
A few months later, just before our first Christmas, he suggested a day over the Channel together, so we sailed to Calais, drove into the near countryside to look around and have lunch and a walk, stopping on the way back to stock up on French wine, baguettes and brie. I also bought my first coffee maker there, a little machine that frothed the milk as well as brewed the espressos, a feature which my previous machines had all lacked. We also bought two or three Camembert cheeses which didn’t last until Christmas. They were so delicious they were devoured almost as soon as we got home. Frankly I’m surprised they made it that far.
Then began my love affair with Italy, which meant that France became somewhat neglected. When our little chap was two we went to Brussels on the Eurostar, Belgium of course, not France, but French speaking. And that was our last visit, until a couple of weeks ago when we went to Disneyland Paris. Although it’s an American concept, French was heard everywhere, the staff were French, in the main, and we conversed happily in French in the shops, to the limited extent that shopping requires. It was a delight to listen to the language being spoken all around us.
I’m hoping that we will be able to make more frequent visits across the Channel in the future. Whilst Eurostar will get you to the glamorous places quickly (Paris, Brussels, Lille), it can be quite expensive. Ferry is the cheaper way to go but it’s more difficult (although not impossible) to go further afield in the space of a weekend. I’m sure there are many undiscovered treasures along the north coast just waiting to be found!
To someone living in the midwest USA talk of going to France on a lark is exotic & delightful. You have such an opportunity to put your language skills into practical use, not to mention going somewhere that instantly lifts your spirits. I just know that I’m going to love your renewed interest in all things French.
Ally, we are indeed blessed to have the whole of Europe right on our doorstep and just stepping into another country does indeed instantly lift my spirits. I’m hoping we will be able to put it all into practice on a regular basis; as you say, it’s such an opportunity!
I’m so jealous! My British friends seem to take it for granted that you can travel to all these amazing places relatively easily. That’s the worst part of living in the US – everything is so far away! I hope you get to do a lot of traveling – and of course practice that French.
Zazzy, we are very, very fortunate. Several of my New Zealand / Australian friends say they came to live here because everything is so far away from their part of the world too. I imagine the good thing about the US, though, is that because it’s so vast, it’s so varied.
How fascinating to look back at those photos you took all those years ago as a student. Ally’s comment is also very interesting, makes me realise how lucky we are to have Europe on our doorstep for weekends away at the drop of a hat.
When I was working in the deepest darkest depths of Kent, I had two retailers who used to shut up shop one day a week and go to France for the day as foot passengers. £1 each was what it cost them back then. They’d have lunch in Calais somewhere and then come back later. Every week they did it. Now that’s what you call a day out! Looking forward more to finding out more about France. How did you find the food in DL ? Was it terribly American? x
Claire, £2 return really is an extremely cheap day out and when you live practically on the Kent coast why would you not take advantage of that. That’s a great story, what a delightful way to live, I’d love it. We are only just over an hour away from the ports and only 20 minutes from the Eurostar so very well connected nonetheless. Regarding Disneyland, we overheard some people on the return train saying that if they ever had to eat another cheese and ham baguette it would be too soon. I laughed because we’d more or less lived on them (for lunches) too. There were lots of pizza and burger places but you could also get a very decent pasta in most places. We found a lovely buffet place one day which had many tasty salads and an array of taster bite sized desserts (so you could try three and not feel like a complete hog) and a delightful sandwich place with proper coffee. There was also a Starbucks so decent mozzerella and tomato paninis with pesto were also available. We went to a wild west show one evening which served “Texan Chilli” which also came in a delicious veggie version too. I don’t eat meat, so burgers were not an option for me (I took the ham out of the cheese and ham baguettes), but to be fair, I can see why the food was very much “takeaway”, designed to be eaten fairly quickly. We didn’t want to spend a lot of time over lunch (as the French do) when there are all those rides just waiting to be enjoyed!
By the way, David Lebovitz does tours of “his” Paris and, I think you have to plan well ahead to get a spot, I think it would be so interesting (cool, she says, really really cool!) to do one of his tours.
More info: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/tours/
Ooh, I would LOVE to do that, Zazzy! I’ll look into this a bit further. Thanks for the recommendation. I recognise his name – he’s written a book, I believe, called The Sweet Life, which is on my list of French-related reading.