What do you want?

So back to the beginning, when a France trip was just an idea.  How did we plan the trip, decide on a route, make reservations?

We're lucky to have access to Rick Steves and his company in our local area.  We've used his books before and gone to presentations at his office in Edmonds, Washington, given by people who help write his guide books and guide his tours.  And even if he wasn't a local boy, we like his travel philosophy.  He visits the big cities but also seeks out small towns and stays in small hotels.  We feel like we get to experience the local culture better that way.  He doesn't speak any foreign language fluently, so he knows we can all have a good time wherever he's had a good time.  He espouses affordable travel.  He says the more you spend, the farther away you get from the local folks and culture. 

So we do some reading, watch some travel videos, go to some lectures, and get an idea of what we'd like to see.  Sometimes one little article in a paper or magazine will make me determined to visit a certain place.  This time we decided we wanted to travel in the fall, so we know we'll miss the lavender in bloom in Provence, but we're willing to miss it to avoid the heat of summer in a place that doesn't have much air-conditioning.  Our priorities were Paris, Normandy and Provence.  We decided to fly into London, take the train to Paris, and fly out of Nice at the end of the trip.  We met a few times to determine how we'd hook the regions together, and what we'd like to see in between.  (I've made this sound so businesslike, haven't I?  We actually mostly eat and drink a lot when we get together, but try to have French wine and food, if possible!)  We really like renting houses or apartments.  We like having a home base and being able to cook our own meals if we want to.  It's nice not to have to pack up every day or so and move to another place.  The issue is that we need to stay in one place for several days to do this, so the length of the trip dictates whether this is possible.

By now my head is spinning with ideas from all of the blogs, books, articles and travel shows I've seen.  There's never enough time to see it all!

As for accommodations, we reference Rick Steves' books, online agencies like VRBO, Home Away, Trip Advisor, and anything else we stumble upon while researching a particular area on the web.  We'll report back at the end to let you know about cost, value and location. 

Departure is 4 days away, and I know we have everything we need, but it isn't packed yet!  I find myself compelled to blog, probably as a diversionary tactic.  The pattern is familiar to me.

What a mess!  Like Lucy would say to Charlie Brown "ARGH!"  I hate this part!

I know one of my goals in France will be to use some of the French sentences I've learned recently.  Watch for "Je voudrais diner chez vous."  (I would like to have dinner at YOUR place.), "Malheureusement, je droit partir maintenant."  (Unfortunately, I must leave now.)  and  "Les chiens ne font pas des chats." (The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.)  The last one is a favorite, literally translated as "The dogs do not make some cats."  I can't wait.  
Until next time...

France 2012

We're off to France next week, for 6 weeks, and my plan is to blog about it.  I love following the blogs other people write.   Usually I keep a pretty extensive travel journal that I type up in a Publisher newsletter format when we get home.  So I'm thinking it might be easier to just type onto my computer at the end of the day and share as we go.

A little background is in order.

The travel group this time consists of me, my husband Rick, his sister Linda, and her husband Tim.  We spent a month together in Italy a few years ago, and had a great time, so decided to see France together.

This will be my 8th time to France, so obviously I love it!  Rick has been there with me once before.  This will be the first visit for Tim and Linda.

We started planning our trip over a year ago.  We start the trip with a few nights in London, just for the heck of it, and ride the Eurostar train through the Chunnel to Paris.  We'll be staying in an apartment in Paris, a house in Provence, and two different apartments in Nice and Villefranche-sur-mer.  In between Paris and Provence we'll stay in small hotels or B&Bs for a few nights in each of these areas:  Normandy, the Loire valley, the Dordogne, and Carcassonne.   We'll be renting a car for two weeks while we traverse the western side of the country.  Otherwise, in Paris, Nice and Villefranche we'll rely on trains, buses and the Metro.

I've been warned by another blogger (son Andrew, of the Build blog) to have some kind of interesting angle as I write so as not to be "same old, same old".  My journals are filled with entries about food and foibles.  Hey, I love reading about those things on everyone else's blogs.  But, if we haven't seen or done anything interesting, you can bet I'll be interviewing other travelers as we go along to get something to write about.  And I have learned how to say, "I speak French like an infant", so we'll see how that goes over with the locals!

So this entry is a test, just to make sure I know how to let you know there's something posted.  

Tim and Linda, Rick and Kathy in Italy in 2008