Could use some help please…

Hi, Sandra. Hopefully, the French on the forum will answer your wedding questions. We’ve been to weddings at city halls and churches. I think they have to do the city hall wedding and the church is optional.

Regarding lodging, may I suggest checking the Logis de France hotels. These are small, family owned hotels, often in small villages and towns. They nearly all have decent restaurants and often gardens. They are very French! You can book on http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/

We’ve stayed in them for years. Their web site can be searched by location . . . just click on the map. They have photos, rates and often a web link. Another possibility is to check the hotel search function on theis web site. Click on the blue and red visitfrance.travel at the top of this page and then click on the hotel search button either on the right side of your screen or immediately under the search window. We’ve booked through visitfrance.travel for years too and they are very reliable. This site has photos and it also has reviews written by people who have stayed at the hotels. They publish all the reviews, not just the good ones.

If you are going for 21 days, it would be cheaper to lease a car. You can click the "auto rental" button on the visitfrance.travel home page or visit the Peugeot web site at http://www.peugeot.com/sodexa/en/html/index_ns.html. We’ve leased from them for years too and they are great. Peugeot and Renault both have excellent leasing plans. It is much cheaper to lease before you go rather than after you arrive.

As far as the trip over, check "flights" on the visitfrance.travel web site and see what you can find. You might be able to get a flight to London and then go to Stansted Airport and get a really cheap flight to Paris. Check all the web sites, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, http://www.airvisitfrance.travel/ and all your favorite airlines. It really pays to do a lot of research on this because prices vary wildly. We got a great price on France.com recently and before that we found two excellent priceson GoToday.com. You sign up there for a "tour" that really isn’t a tour. They get you a flight and a hotel and you can extend if you want to. I really don’t recommend GoToday unless you are just doing a city for a week or two. If you want to travel around, it’s not very practical.

You might also want to check the web site http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/x/ and type "Guyon" into their search window. He’s a Frenchman who has built a home page there with all kinds of hints about traveling in France. Some of the prices are unbelievable. It’s definitely worth checking.

One last suggestion: If you want to rent a house, check Gites de France at http://www.gites-de-france.fr/fr/index.htm These are houses, often in rural areas or small towns. You could pick one that is centrally located and use it as a base for touring. They are completely reliable.

Good luck. I hope you have a wonderful wedding and I sure hope some of the French people on this forum answer your questions about the actual wedding.

Janesheis: You will love Paris. Having said that, I could not think of a better place to get married than Vancouver! 21 days in LaFrance is more than I have done on a trip. I will be going to Normandy in November but I have not been there before. If you don’t get married in Vancouver, try the Rhone-Alpes. Absolutely beautiful and not as expensive as you would think if you are going in May. We went in April this year and it was fantastic. If you can’t get married there, try the Burgundy region. History and wine and cheese. With other couples in your entourage, I think you might enjoy driving as well as rail. Go to RailEurope.com to review their packages. Since you will probably only be doing this once (getting married in LaFrance), go all out. Do as SalB says, plan, plan, plan, plan. It will pay off for you. Best of luck. Donerail

Hello Janesheislease check with the Embassy in France before you get married there! I got married in Paris in 2000 (to a sexy frenchman) but it took literally 3 months, going to the Embassy every Monday to get the correct paperwork, hire a lawyer to prove I wasn’t already married in the States, show my last 3 years of tax info.,and then the doctors complete physical before they would approve the marriage at the Maire (town hall) and issue a marriage certificate.
Better to research all the requirements and all original paperwork needed before getting over there. Hoepfully it will be different for you since you’re not bringing home a french souvenir. But it was all worth it in the end. Best of luck!

Janestheis: Almost forgot. If possible get married at Mt.Saint Michel.Absolutely incredible!!! It’s not to bad for a honey moon either-

cricket…where do I meet a sexy french man? I would love to get married in Paris if I ever do it again!…Sandra, I was in Paris recently and it was awesome! But, Lyon has a special place in my heart and it is the second largest city in France! Good luck to you!
By the way, my names is Sandra also.

Myfarsidehilippe and I were incredibly blessed to meet and fall in love the way we did! I still can’t believe it happened TO ME! I wish I could help you out but I’ve given all my hot leads to my mom.
I just have to brag that after 4 years, he still chooses to put my toothpaste on my toothbrush EVERY morning. Je l’aime trop forte!

Now tell us exactly also just how very good French lovers are ?

CRC

CRC: regardless of your age, you’re still too young to hear that!

Typical American puritanic attitude towards S.E.X. .

CRC

crc95: I think it was the word "exactly" that raised the caution flag.

cricket: You didn’t say, but after putting your toothpaste on your toothbrush, I presume Phillipe proceeded to brush his teeth. But why did he wait for four years? crc95 suggested that I ask you.

Donerail

Thank you all so much for your help. It is quite overwhelming on how much there is to learn. I’m not much of a planner so it’s hard for me to do this. I’m a gemini and I get bored easy. That’s why I’ve been engaged for 4 years now cause I hate planning the wedding!!! I just went to the library and got a few books on France and a DVD! I will send out for the free booklets as well. I have looked into the legal aspects of getting married in France and you have to reside there for 40 days first. That’s ok though, we will get married by the JP here and then have the ceremony in France. I’m hoping it’ll be a beautiful video for everyone to watch back home. Someone asked about our budget…let’s just say that we are going to have to take out a loan for it, so the cheaper the better, but I also don’t want to backpack! I’ll look into all your suggestions and if you think of any more, please let me know. Thanks all! Sandra

oops!

We will be there for aprox. 21 days. We are still researching but so far this is what we’ve come up with, please give me some feed back and your ideas of places not to miss. We will be starting in Paris of course. We will spend 5-6 days there and we don’t expect to rent a car. Then off to Normandy, by car or train? We will spend 3-4 days there exploring WWII sites and then have our wedding in Mont-Saint-Michel. From what I’ve heard it’s a perfect setting for a romantic wedding.? Then our guests (aprox. 4 others) will go home and we have the rest of our time (about a week) for the honeymoon!! We haven’t decided where we should go for that rest of the time. Any ideas? We’d like to get to a few more places. Thanks

sandradee: I would have a hard time suggesting improvements to the first part of your itenerary. I am planning on driving to Normandy from Paris next month. It seems more convenient. For your last week, tour the Burgundy region or the Rhone Alpes. Gorgeous and the food and people are fantastic. When you rent a car, try to get a diesel. You can’t tell the difference in performance and you will save about 33% in fuel costs. And fuel is expensive over there. Donerail

Hello!
I’m Veronika. I’m from Russia. In October I’m going to visit Paris. Will you help me to find a guide in Paris who speaks Russian to meet us and to show the city. I’d be glad to learn his/her tel. number.

Best regards.
Veronika.