Saint-Marcel d'Ardeche

Hi. We haven’t stayed near St. Marcel d’Ardeche but have stayed south of there near Cavaillon many times. It is beautiful country. You will be quite close to the A-7 that you can take to Orange. There is a Roman Theater and a magnificent Roman Arch in Orange. They are also famous for their meringues if you like those.

You can head south on the A-9 past Avignong (well worth a stop) toward Nimes where the Roman Maison Carre is and it’s worth a visit. You might want to detour slightly to the east to visit Arles. It is the quintessential Provencal town and another Roman coloseum that is quite spectacular in still in use today. If you are at all interested, the Camargue south of Arles is one of my favorite places. There is a Parc Ornithologique with several marked trails where you can see all kinds of wildlife including the famous flamingoes (flaments).

You can continue wet through Montpellier, perhaps stopping in Sete west of Montpellier. This is still the A-9. Narbonne is a small city and very friendly. It is worth a stop as is Perpignan.

Get off the Autoroute (A-9) for a while and follow the N-114 along the Mediterranean. There is a nature reserve with an old fishing village and a marvelous free sand beach with free parking between Canet Plage and St. Cyprien Plage. Don’t miss Collioure along this stretch of road. It is an artists colony and has a chateau, church, double harbor (with beaches), and Old Town and lots of colorful fishing boats. You can’t take a bad picture in Collioure. It was the home of the Fauvist movement.

Cerbere is the border with Spain and you may want to go over to the A-7 on down to Barcelona. The coast road is winding and narrow . . . and extremely beautiful if you have the time.

You can get driving times and directions at http://www.mappy.com/

We lease a Peugeot 206 through AutoFrance and have always been happy with the car and their service. They have 24-hour roadside assistance and the one time we needed it, the were there and had the car fixed within 30 minutes. Pretty good! You prepay so there are no unpleasant surprises when you turn in the car. No extra charges ever. The same Peugeot Open Europe Plan is also available through Kemwel and AutoEurope. We used Kemwel once and they were also fine but a bit more expensive than AutoFrance.

Don’t know if this is any help, but it’s a start.

Have a great trip.

SalB,

Thanks for your useful and top-notch expertise in your answers to my queries. Your replies to others are also helpful and interesting and obviously from a great deal of experience.

Can you tell me the best maps or guides to help me find my way around? I speak little to no French whatsoever and will be driving alone for the most part. I will be in no hurry to get anywhere as I will be in France primarily, and in Spain and Portugal for a few weeks until the end of the year.

As ever thanks for any suggestions you may have.

Kind regards,

Anicab

Thank you for your kind comments.

As it turns out, we are getting ready to leave for a month in France in eight days. We always pack our trusty big yellow Michelin "France Tourist and Motoring Atlas." It has saved us so many times. Get the spiral bound edition, and we prefer the 9 X 12 inch over the larger one just because it fits in our backpacks. Obviously, it’s your choice. If you are popping it in a suitcase, size doesn’t make much difference.

This atlas has every city, town, village and commune on the map and in the index, and over the years we have found very few mistakes. There are also some city maps in the back, pretty much alphabetical unless they won’t fit and then they’re on the next page.

Many people get a Michelin detailed map for each area they plan to visit, but we’ve discovered that with the Atlas, we simply don’t need any other maps. When you visit a larger town or a city, just stop at the tourist office and ask for a free map. They are happy to give you one . . . and tell you everything interesting in their town including good restaurants.

The Michelin Tourist and Motoring Atlas is available at Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes and Noble.com and often at your local book store if you have one (or all) of these nearby.

If you will be in Paris at all, the other necessity is "Paris Pratique Par Arrondissement" for Paris. It is a completely detailed map of the city of Paris arranged so each arrondissement is on a separate page (or two pages for large arrondissements). It’s easy to turn to page 5 for the Latin Quarter, page 6 for St. Germain, etc. Again, this booklet is extremely detailed and has every street, alley, boulevard, place and port listed in the index and visible on the map. It also has an excellent map of the Paris Metro system and the RER and bus system along with the larger parks. If you have it, you can’t get lost in Paris.

Many people recommend the "Paris Map Guide" but I don’t find it nearly as easy to use and it doesn’t have the RER map or the buses in it. The page arrangment is cumbersome and it doesn’t fit in a pocket the way the Paris Pratique does. On the other hand, it does have larger print if you need that.

Occasionally, I’ve seen the "Paris Par Arrondissement" at a Borders, but it’s easy enough to get at any Paris newspaper vendor, bookstore or tabac. Don’t let the name "tabac" set you off. They do sell tobacco products, but they are sort of little general stores and have all sorts of things from newspapers and magazines, bus and train tickets, food items and even postage stamps. Small towns have more general items because they need someone to sell this stuff, but in Paris you will find the little 5 x 7 inch map book that will keep you from getting lost. There are newstands and tabacs all over the place.

As far as guides, that is a very personal thing. We always take a Michelin Green Guide to the area or areas we plan to visit. Some people think they are stuffy; we like the history. We also pick up freebies at local tourist offices. We’ve taken EyeWitness Guides and enjoyed them. My suggestion would be to go to your local bookstore or library and look at several of the hundreds of guidebooks out there. Once you’ve looked through a few, you’ll get an idea of the ones that highlight the things that interest you. You don’t want a lot of guidebooks because they are heavy!

If you like history, you might enjoy Ina Caro’s "The Road from the Past: Traveling through History in France." It’s available from Amazon.com and probably other bookstores. Ina Caro takes a road trip through France following the Roman occupation and works her way from south (Provence) up to Paris. She has a very readable style and is also solid in her history. We did the trip backwards once and had a lot of fun finding some out-of-the-way places mentioned in the book. I know we never would have visited Cinq Mars la Pile if we hadn’t read the book! Just a thought. You may not be interested in history at all. )

BTW, not speaking French won’t be too much problem. Be sure you know bon jour, s’il vous plait and merci and use them often. You will be forgiven for not knowing anything else. The French are extremely polite and expect others to be also. When you enter a shop, you are expected to say bon jour. When you leave, you are expected to say merci. Everyone does it and you will find it funny to hear everyone addressing you and the room in general but it’s nice when you get used to it. If you are part of a couple, the greeting is "Bon jour, messydam." This, of course is supposed to be "bon jour monsieur et mesdame" but somehow it doesn’t come out that way! LOL

Oh yes, you will not get the bill (cheque) in a restaurant until you ask for it. "L’addition, s’il vous plait." People sit there all day and get angry about poor service, but they haven’t asked for the bill and they won’t get it until they do. If there is something wrong with your meal, call the waiter over and explain the problem. Don’t expect him to ask if everything is okay. They don’t do that; it’s considered impolite. It is also okay to ask for a pitcher of tap water if you are driving and don’t want wine (or if you just want water). "Une carafe d’eau, s’il vous plait." will get you free water.

Hope this answers your questions and I hope you have a very enjoyable trip.

This is all such good information! I’m heading over to the local bookseller where I will hopefully find the Michelin Tourist and Motoring Atlas. Good maps make all the difference in the world. Thanks for the recommendation.

Fortunately my parents raised me to always be polite and respectful so it will be a pleasure to be treated the same way. Something Americans can certainly learn from the French. It’s so much easier to be polite than to be indifferent don’t you think?

I got a great lease-rate on a Peugeot 206 with europebycar.com. They answered all my email questions quickly and thoroughly and made the experience rather painless.

Thanks to your advice I feel more confident about traveling on my own.
I hope you have a lovely trip also and I hope you don’t mind if I have more questions for you at a later date.

Kindly yours,

Ani

You’ll love the Peugeot 206. That’s what we use. We used to get the 307 when we had someone with us, but decided this time to use the 206 anyway. They get great gas mileage and with the gas prices in France, that is a good thing to have.

I’m happy to answer questions until Sept. 14 and then we’re off. I have no idea about e-mail access in our gite. We spend a lot more time outdoors in France too . . . nicer weather!

Have a terrific trip.