FRANCE

Northerners can be quite anti-English and ignorant acting but away from areas where they have regular contact with the English the French are generally very friendly and welcoming. The only french wines I would recommend are Sauternes and for a sweet fun low alcohol drink Petillant de Listel, which can be obtained from the grower near Nimes for next to nothing.

Brittany:- For a laid back country holiday this is hard to beat. Loads of quaint villages, not too commercialised, good restaurants (have cash, not all take VISA), good supermarkets and the worlds best selection of cheap cider (sorry Somerset). St Malo and St Michael's Mount are both worth a day. Dinan and Dol de Bretagne both good on market day.
Mikes tips:- for a picnic take bottle of chilled cider, a smoked chicken, a big bag of prawns and a strawberry tart (all from any supermarket) and find the beach at Cancale. Don’t bother with Rennes.
Maryan's tips:-
Danielle's tips:- Don't go camping here. It’s a bit boring for us kids.

Calais and Boulogne:- Fairly pleasant towns to walk round but definitely geared to parting the English with their money. Buy booze by the pallet load to take back to England, where tax is much higher.
Mikes tips:- buy a pallet full of booze but remember it must be for your own consumption! Check your boot for illegal immigrants before going onto the ferry and again before driving off it. £GB2000 fine for each one found in your vehicle.

L’Orient:- Pleasant little town in far west with little to really recommend it, particularly at night. Local military airbase is strangely reminiscent of the New Forest.

Marseilles:- the harbour is quite picturesque but this in no way makes up for the fact that the rest of the city is a complete shit-hole with lots of extremely suspect people in it. Avoid.

Nimes:- Fantastic cafe culture and Vietnamese restaurants. If you come across a tiny French restaurant on 2 floors in a little back street then eat there and hope you’re in the one I ate in. It was superb and very reasonable. Operas and other productions in the Roman Amphitheatre well worth a go for the atmosphere even if you’re not really into whatever is on. Bullock running through the town streets is good too. French Foreign Legion training base is here so don’t be surprised to meet young foreign men, invariably well behaved though.
Mikes tips:- Get the train to the beach in summer. Go to Listel winery. Extoll the virtues of Pastis to the barman to guarantee good service. Chuck it in a plant pot when no-one is looking. On no account have a Nimburger.

Paris:- Mike went here when he was 11, but says it is a magical place everyone should visit once in a lifetime. If it is clear then whatever they charge to go to the very top of the tower is not too much. I’ve been up some towers but this one still tops the lot.