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France is easy to travel around. Restaurants and hotels proliferate,
the lower-budget ones being much cheaper than is most other
developed western European countries.
 Train services are admirably
efficient, as is the road network - especially the (toll-paying)
autoroutes - and cyclists are much admired and encouraged.
Information is highly organized and available from
tourist offices across the country, as well as from specialist
organizations for walkers, cyclists, campers and so on.
There are all kinds of pegs on which to hang a holiday in France: a
city, a region, a river or a mountain range, physical activities,
cathedrals, châteaux. And in many cases your choice will determine the
best time of years
to go.
Unless you're a skier, for example, you wouldn't choose the mountains
between November
and May;
nor at this time would you head for the seaside - except for the
Mediterranean coast which is at its most attractive in spring.
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 Climate, otherwise, need not be a major
consideration in planning when to go.
 Northern France, like nearby
Britain, is wet and unpredictable. Paris perhaps has a marginally better
climate than New York, rarely reaching the extremes of heat and cold of
that city, but only south of the Loire does the weather become
significantly warmer.
West coast weather, even in the south, is tempered
by the proximity of the Atlantic, subject to violent storms and close thundery
days even in summer.
The centre and east, as you leave the coasts behind, have a more
continental climate, with colder winters and hotter summers.
The
most reliable weather is along and behind the Mediterranean
coastline and on Corsica, where winter is short and summer long and
hot.
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The
single most important factor in deciding when to visit France is tourism
itself. As most French people take their holidays in their own country,
it's as well to avoid the main French holiday periods - mid-July to the
end of August, with August being particularly bad.
You can easily walk a
kilometer and more in Paris, for example, in search of an open boulangerie, and the city seems deserted by all except fellow tourists.
Prices in the resorts rise to take full advantage and often you can't
find a room for love nor money, and not even a space in the campsites on
the Côte d'Azur.
The
seaside is the worst, but the mountains and popular regions like the
Dordogne are not far behind. Easter, too, is a bad time for Paris; half
Europe's schoolchildren seem to descend on the city.
For the same reasons, ski buffs should keep in mind the February school
ski break. |
France
guide
France
When to go and where
Getting
there
Airfares
Red tapes & visas
French embassies
overseas
Customs
Costs, money,
banks
Transport
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Getting around
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Best of France
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