Donerail's Spring Vacation to La France

A question for all of you France lovers.

Have any of you ever been to Corsica yet ? I don’t think we’ve ever talked about it. Corsica is one of the most beautiful parts of France, maybe the most beautiful. Lots of beautiful sights, whether inside the island, with impenetrable forests and tiny villages, or on the coast : it’s got amazing shores, that are unique in the Mediterranean.

The problem with Corsica might be found within the corsicans. Really weird people. Corsica is like France’s Sicily. There are bombings almost every week in Corsica, yet none talks about it. Bombings of govt. offices and buildings only, they won’t kill anybody, they have like this weird sense of honor.

Read "Asterix in Corsica" for further details.

CRC

Donerail, May I suggest you shorten the itinerary and stay longer at just a couple places. You seem to have about two weeks so why not do a week at each of two locations? If you haven’t been to Provence, especially the Alpilles, that would be a great first week. Then you could choose another area for the second week. My second choice from what you have given would be the Midi Pyrenees. It is a beautiful area and there are so many interesting things to see. Read up on the Cathars and the Knights Templar before you go and then visit all the Cathar sites. The scenery is spectacular too.

If you like the beach (admitting you will be there in April), the coast along the Midi Pyrenees from Narbonne to Spain is spectacular. There are lovely sand beaches and a charming nature park/fishing village outside of Canet near Perpignan. Collioure is easily worth a day just to visit the fortress and the town. It’s one of those charming coastal towns with two harbors and colorful fishing boats, towers in the water and art galleries all over town.

There is plenty of wine tasting in the area too!!

Just a suggestion but we like to really explore and you don’t do a lot of exploring in two or three days. The Cathar area has a special pass you can get at any of the Cathar sites that gives you admission discount at all the listed sites. We spent two weeks near Perpignan one year trying to visit all the sites on the pass. We didn’t make it, but we sure had a lot of fun and saw things we never would have otherwise seen.

If you want suggestions on Provence, let me know. We stay in the Alpilles and absolutely love the area. (Don’t go to Les Baux during the Mistral!! We did this month and it was a little more exciting than I like my sightseeing to be.)

All the areas are lovely and I think you’d enjoy any of them. Those are just my personal choices. Whatever you do, please share them with us and enjoy yourselves.

crc95, We’ve looked at lots of pictures of Corsica and it is beautiful, but we have also read about all the violence. Somehow it seemed a little too much like visiting inner city Los Angeles only with a great view. They have a lot of political problems and if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time . . .

I realize chances of this happening are next to zero, but it has never made Corsica seem very appealing.

We also like to visit museums, galleries and churches and I have no idea if there is much of that on Corsica. We’ve never given it much thought because of bad press. Have you spent much time there?

LVB : ok, Corsica looks definitely NOT like downtown L.A. . What wrong with you ?? Like I wrote the violence strikes govt. buildings and administration, and it is not a bloody violence. It becomes bloody when they start assassinating each other for mafia-related reasons, but that’s their own s… . Otherwise, tourism is a necessity for their economy, and they know it. Tourists never get bothered.

I’ve been to Corsica twice as a child, and loved it. But that new Jeunet movie have some shots in it filmed in a small Corsica village, and it reminded me how beautiful the place is. I also have many friends from Corsica, for some reason there’s always been a lot of Corsicans in the French police or homeland security agencies.

Nice pictures here http://www.objectif-corse.com/net/indexn.htm
Does it remind you of South Central LA ? Or the Bronx maybe ?

CRC

crc95: That was a nice site. Looks like a Klan meeting in the tab La Corse Ile le Tradition. Donerail

SalB: A week in Provence and a week in Midei-Pyrenees sounds interesting. I would be driving from CDG. (On our trip earlier this month, we found navigating the Hertz rental to be a snap.) I thought the Mistral was a year-round type of thing. What was the story on Les Baux? Donerail

crc95, You are confusing me with LVB. I’m the one who made the comment about Corsica and inner city Los Angeles . . . you also misinterpreted the comment. I said it appeared from what I had seen on tv and in the papers that visiting Corsica was like visiting inner city LA "only with a great view." In other words it is like LA because there is violence BUT the scenery in Corsica is great as opposed to the scenery in LA which (at least in the inner city) is not great.

I did not disagree with you about who receives the brunt of the violence; I simply stated that when bombs go off or guns are shot, people can get hurt even if they are not the intended victims. If one can go someplace peaceful, why go someplace where there is a possibility it may not be peaceful?!

I also said that I realized the possiblity of violence happening while visiting Corsica was probably negligible but the prospect didn’t make Corsica particularly appealing to me as a vacation spot.

So, there is nothing wrong with LVB since it was not her post. And if you bother to read the comment before you blow your stack, you might discover there’s not a whole lot wrong with my comment either. I’m surprised at you. I thought the French were much more rational.

donerail, The Mistral blows when it blows, but Les Baux is a fortress at the top of a mountain and when the winds are 90 km/hr, they put up high wind warnings and tell you not to go near the edges of the cliffs when you are visiting. We just happened to be there under such circumstances a couple weeks ago and it was exciting but I don’t recommend it. I couldn’t even take photos because I couldn’t hold my camera still enough in the wind to take the shots. Some of the gusts were over 100 k/h and we literally were hanging onto the information signs to keep on our feet. There were a few other people out there with us so we weren’t the only nuts on the mountain. It was beautiful and it was fun!

We had tried to visit Les Baux in the summer but the crowds were so awful they literally were not allowing any more people into the town when we were there. We drove on past and visited Daudet’s Mill and Abbaye Montmajour, both of which I highly recommend. Anyhow, we went back in November to see Les Baux and it was not crowded . . . for obvious reasons!

SalB: We had an interesting discussion about the Mistral from a Dutch couple that we met during our trip in April. They indicated the winds can blow steadily for weeks on end. I thought they said it was a constant thing but maybe they said seasonal or whenever. I can’t recall now. But its cause is the cool air coming down between two mountain ranges in funnell type effect that creates vortices. How do you think the crowds and winds will be in late April? Donerail

crc95: That didn’t take long for you to end up standing in the corner. Donerail

Donerail : my fingers still hurt.

CRC

donerail, The Mistral can blow for days on end. It can also blow for only a few hours. It can be strong and it can be weak and it can change while it’s still blowing. It was blowing most of the time we were in Provence this autumn but most of the time it was just a cold stiff breeze. (We have the Santa Ana in California.) Sometimes it went crazy though, like the day we visited Les Baux. The day we left to return to Nice, it went even more crazy and blew off roofs and ripped up giant trees by the roots. We watched it on tv in Vence that night and were glad we missed that part of it. I love the wind, but don’t enjoy having my roof blown off. We replaced ours a year ago because of a particularly nasty Santa Ana!

I don’t know if it’s seasonal or not. Our Santa Ana winds usually show up as seasons change and are usually a warm wind but they can be cold too. We’re under a high wind warning as I type this. When we’re having cold weather (relatively speaking), we love warm Santa Anas; however, when we’re having warm weather, the cold winds are not very welcome.

There is also a Tramontane (have no idea how to spell it) in Provence and I don’t know the difference between the Mistral and the Tramontane. Perhaps crc95 can nurse his fingers enough to tell us.

Crowds and winds in late April . . . I have no idea about the winds. There won’t be huge crowds like there are in July and August. If you go late in April, you’ll be okay. There were a lot of shops and galleries closed in November but they will probably be open by late April.

If ManuNice is still here, perhaps he can tell you about crowds and tourist shops being open??

SalB: I think we may have gone thru this before – but – do you have reservations at the place you plan on staying at each night? How long in advance do you place them? Can you easily go night to night without advance reservations? Donerail

donerail, Yes, we usually have reservations. My mother is legally blind and nearly deaf. She is in an assisted living facility in Ohio (which she refuses to leave), but she does occasionally need additional help. Therefore, we try to remain available for phone calls and faxes from our kids and her friends. I make reservations and then print an itinerary for family and friends and the desk where she lives. I don’t know if it helps her, but it makes us feel better.

We usually stay a week at each place so it’s easier to make reservations ahead of time. I’m trying to remember when I make the reservations . . . not ’til after we have a flight, of course. I have made them up to six months ahead of time, but have also made them only a week ahead of time.

On our last trip we didn’t have reservations for the last four days and one day in transit. We had no trouble driving up to a hotel and getting a room in November. I can’t imagine you would have trouble in April either. That’s pretty far out of season. I don’t think you’d have trouble going night to night, but it does take time if you’re picky about where you stay. If you can just go to something you can live with, like a Campanile, it wouldn’t be a problem. If you want something quaint and lovely, you might spend half a day searching. A solution might be Best Western. They are individually owned in Europe and pretty nice, although not luxurious. We would be happy with most Logis de France but there is the occasional disaster there too.

You might consider locating yourself centrally for three or four nights at a time so you don’t have to search every day. That would be an easy compromise.

SalB: Thanks, I think we will continue to reserve in advance. It will make Mrs. Donerail less apprehensive. I’m thinking about 5 days in Acquitaine or the Midi-Pyrenees and then 5 days somewhere in Provence. I found it to be great fun planning our last April trip during the cold winter nights. I wish I had bought more Euros earlier this month at $1.28. I guess I will now start the ticketing process. Donerail

SalB: I almost forgot. If you are interested, AAA has recently published a tour book on France. It is really quite good and is aimed (as you might suspect) at people who do their touring of France by car. Its free to AAA Plus members or about $15.00 to those who are non members. It is really pretty good with detailed maps of each region and suggested multi day tours. Donerail

Well, Mrs. Donerail and I have our plane tickets for the Spring trip to LaFrance. Can you believe we got seats on the same row as on our November trip (but on right wing versus left wing)? Booking direct on line with Air France turned out to be the way to go. We’re flying into Paris CDG and then will immediately set off to the South. Donerail

If you’re staying "somewhere" in Provence, may I suggest the St. Remy area, or right in town. You can visit so many really great places from there, Avignon, Aix, Les Baux, Lourmarin, Daudet’s Mill, Abbaye Montmajour, Arles, the Camargue, the Luberon . . . It is really nice. Glanum in just outside of town too. In April be sure to visit the Camargue and do the Ornithological Parc walks. It will be lovely then.

Thanks for the info about the AAA books. We are plus members so will get it and check it out. In CA you have to be plus to get towed anyplace useful!

Donerail,
I hope you do get to visit the southwest. I very much recommend Bordeaux, Arcachon, Biarritz and St. Jean Pied de Port. Besides their beauty the natural resources include some of the best culinary delights in France! Fois gras, oysters and other friuts de mer, cepes, entrecotes a la bordelaise, lamproire, maccaroons from St. Emilion, and of course the great wines…Bon voyage et bon appetite!

monorato: Thank you for those suggestions. Somehow I missed your post until tonight. So far Mrs. Donerail and I have decided to spend the first three days in Loire Chateaux country and the last three days in Paris. That leaves us with a little over a week that I think we will spend in the Bordeaux – Aveyron area. We’ve decided to save the Provence areas until next year. Your highlights of the foods are delightful. Just three and half more months. Donerail

Donerail: Happy new year!
Well, if I had the choice between Bordeaux and Toulouse, I would certainly prefer Toulouse. Bordeaux is at the extreme north of the south west, and as a "Toulousain", I don’t like Bordeaux very much.
I would visit Toulouse, Auch, Biarritz and from there, go to San Sebastian, in Spain.
If you’re in France for "Pentecote" time, you should go to Vic Fezensac. I cannot describe what you’ll see there at this time: it’s…it’s…no really, I cannot describe it ( I just hope you stand well the beer and the ricard ).

donerail,
If you want a vacation with a slight twist, there is a firm that rents boats, 25′ to 40′ in length, that you can crusie the canals of western France. The boats are fully equipped, you just buy the food.

A friend of mine did this a few years ago and had a blast. You rent the boat for a week at a time, and crusie the canals at your pace. If you are interested I will call him and get the name of the firm.

Montjoly: Thank you and Happy New Year to you as well. I am going to add Auch. When is Pentecote? It looks like I will have to do some research on Vic Fezensac. Donerail

dholland62: Thanks for that canal boat suggestion but Mrs Donerail harpooned that idea when we were in France in April last year. We were up near Vezelay and crossed some of the canal locks in the region. There was a canal boat with a vacation ad on it and I suggested it to Mrs Donerail. Her reply was along the lines of: "Sure, go ahead. Just don’t expect me to be with you." We have a prior boating history that I probably don’t need to get into here.
Donerail

crc95: I have reserved some great places to stay (I think.) How long should it take to drive from Amboise to Gramat? Donerail

crc95: (If SalB hasn’t driven you away and you are still here) I see where a good portion of LaFrance is getting hit with a lot of snow these past 24 hours or so especially the Midi-Pyrenees. A question: My Spring trip will be bringing me to the Haute Pyrenees in the first week of May. Can I assume a low probability of snow? Donerail

Hello donerail and sorry for the late answer. I believe there’s a very low probability you encounter snow in Haute-Pyrénées in May, I was in Lourdes once as a child, in June, and it was pretty warm already. More recently, I almost applied for a job in Bagnière-de-Bigorre, I heard it’s a cute little town, if you want to go and have a look.

CRC

crc95: I am actually looking at a few chambre d’hotes in the Bagneres de Biggorre area. Another area is Valcolbollere (near Bourg Madame). According to Mappy, it takes a fair amount of time to get from one place to another in the Pyrenees. They have received a lot of snow in the last week. I hope it has melted by the time we get there. I told Mrs Donerail that the temperatures will be like our South. Donerail

jasonn

Your travel itinerary sounds just fine to me, about 3 days is enough to stay in one area. As for tips, France is a great country, you'll find everything you need along the way. Have a great experience. Jason belek