johngerard

My holiday this year was to France as I was unable to book hotels in New York & New England whilst the airfares had been temporarily discounted.
My son is 11 & daughter is 20 so we were combining a shopping, sightseeing trip to include the Disney resort.

From my last trip to Paris I remember the endless hours of driving so to break up the trip I booked a 1 night stop near Calais arriving & departing.

We left Liverpool at 9.00am & took a break on the M5 at 11.00. Back on the road an accident held us up for over an hour thus causing us to miss the scheduled boat at 3.45. We arrived in Calais at 7.30pm local time and after 10 minutes of recalculating unknown roads on the sat nav found the road to Berck sur Mer. Arrived at the Regina where we had 2 twin rooms as all family rooms around Calais had been booked. It did us for the night & as it went dark we took a stroll down the prom. Breakfast was included in the booking & it was in a very charming room. Managed to work out what the labels meant on the drinks.

Strolled around the town in the rain. By lunch the rain had stopped & we found the Saturday market. Had lunch & set off for Paris.

The apartment we had booked was shown by mapquest as by the Moulin Rouge. Twice down the road & the apartment was definitely not there. Checked the written guide & discovered it was in the 16th arrondissement by Port D’Auteil. A hairy hours driving later including the Peripherique we arrived. The apartment was bigger than the photos showed & was really comfortable. I was shown where to park for free next to the Bois du Boulogne.

We went to all the sights. I don’t understand though why nearly all the metro stop maps I looked at had the station I was at scratched out which made it difficult to work out where I wanted to go. I was surprised that there are not many signposts to points of interest like in the UK. A few times coming out of stations I took the wrong turn & would have appreciated Notre Dame => or Tour Eiffel<= or whoevers mansion this way.

Trying to get a meal sans beurre or ne pas de vinaigrette, oil or mayo was very hard. Even when the waiter understood the problem that we would be tres mals, we still got food soaked in the stuff. Meals as a result were a problem.

We had a 1 day, 2 park pass so I decided to drive to Disney. Not too bad a trip – why does the Peripherique have a no entry sign in the middle of the slip road which makes you think it is an exit route only. USEFUL HINT - Set the satnav to mark where I left the car in the Disney car park & upon exiting in the wrong direction used it to find my car in the dark without any trouble.

Second week we were off to a house near Nantes where asking for pasteurised milk proved to be impossible. More later.

johngerard

My second week was spent at a house in Vue about 25 minutes from Nantes, St Nazaire & Pornic. It was a semi detached house with 4 bedrooms having 7 beds for 10 people – 4 beds were in the attic. It was a big house. The garden was a massive 3 acres which was shared with the owner plus a small walled garden for our use. The village had a bakery, tabac, butchers, restaurant & church. The church clock chimed the hour twice. A nice town but quiet. The surrounding fields are stocked with vines, sunflowers, maize, corn & apples. Most of the fields were not enclosed.

Nantes was a busy city with plenty of shops & enough historic features to keep you interested for a day or two. The glass roofed arcade featured in the travel books has seen better days. The cathedral was a cool place to rest for a while on a hot day.

Pornic had a flea market on the Sunday we were there & I got some bargains. The port itself was similar to many others - plenty of souvenir shops & restaurants.

Vannes was a long drive but worth it. The olde town is well suited for walking & the harbour which was in the process of being modernised will be impressive. I liked the narrow streets, church, castle walls & gardens.

D’Auray was a short drive from Vannes & we stopped there for tea. It was like a Cornish fishing village but laid out like a Disney set. A sail ship is moored by a small bridge over a river with houses leaning out over the harbour. A restaurant made us a lovely meal – sans beurre/oil – that was not on the menu. We sat outside & the place soon filled up with people looking on the menu for what we were having.

Le Croisic is a picturesque fishing village. The houses & streets are well laid out. I noticed the drain pipes were shaped like fish heads. Our meal there took over an hour to prepare – grilled salmon – and my daughter was nearly sick after it. French customers were served within half an hour. We ended our stay at the Oceanarium.

Guerande was a delight. The moat is filled with carp that come to the surface to beg for food. The town is pedestrianised within the town walls & is well worth a visit. There are 2 churches within the walls and plenty of interesting shops. We got hollyhock seeds from discarded plants. On the outskirts of the town there is a trading estate with every outlet shop possible. The supermarket there even had pasteurised milk! – it must be the only place in France that does.

Our return trip to Le Touquet was along dull fast roads which bypass all the towns on the way. It took 2 tanks of petrol, about 50 euros in tolls & 7 hours driving to reach Le Touquet. Le Touquet was our stop over before returning to the UK from Calais. The town was busy & had areas of interest. After 7 hours on the road we only had time to stroll around, find a restaurant & go to bed. There were a lot of dog walkers in the town & in the restaurant a lady had her dog in a holdall under the table. The waiter guaranteed no butter or oils on the veg but failed to tell the chef.

kerouac

Do you want Louis Pasteur to spin in his grave? I have not the slightest idea where to buy <b>non-pasteurized</b> milk in France.

johngerard

Every attempt to get pasteurised milk was to be shown the sterilised long life milk which tastes awful &amp; is nearly as bad as UHT milk.

adrienne

johngerard - I'm uncertain about why you think the regular whole or skim milk in France (the normal stuff in the supermarkets) is not pasteurized.

johngerard

pasteurised milk has a shelf life of 2 weeks, filtered pasteurised has about 4 weeks &amp; both need to be refrigerated. The stuff we were being offered had a 2 month shelf life &amp; was kept out of refrigeration in the shops. Despite trying supermarkets, dairies etc the sterilised milk was the only available option until I came across it at Le Clercs.

adrienne

Thanks. I never realized that. The next time I'm in a supermarket at home (US) I'm going to read what it says on the long lasting milk box.

kerouac

The dairy case sells fresh milk, pasteurized. Many of my friends won't touch the UHT milk, and they have no problem buying fresh milk.

http://www.candia.fr/pages_fr/produi...lait_frais.htm

analogue

We always found the fresh milk in the case near all of the fresh fruit juices. But I think that 98% of people buy the sterilised milk, so they would automatically direct you to that if you didn't see the fresh milk.