Live From France: Our London, Paris & Cote d'Azur Trip Report
Jul 17th, 2008, 02:26 PM
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[Note to the reader: We are back home. Sadly, my reporting from France is no longer live. If fact we are so back home - DH toiling away at work, DW multi-tasking at home, and the kids in the midst of summer jobs (yes!) - that it is hard to believe we ever left. I hope this final installment of our trip report finds you in good health and may your trip planning go smoothly.]
The Grand Finale
Most of our previous European trips start with big cities and end in the countryside. A little R & R at the end of a vacation seems to bring a relaxing close to a long, sometimes hectic sightseeing expedition. This trip was no exception. London and Paris were great, but everyone wanted to hit the famous beaches of the Cote d’Azur and chill.
Cassis
For our first beach experience we day-tripped from Aix to the lovely seaside village of Cassis. We couldn’t find parking in the center of town and ended up on the outskirts at a public parking lot near the restaurant La Villa Madie (Has anyone eaten there?). There is a small beach below the parking lot, but most of the nearby shore is made up of large boulders. Don’t try to walk along the shore to the main beach in town like we did unless you are part mountain goat; it’s much quicker and far safer to walk on the street back into the centre ville (who knew!). Once at La Page de la Grande Mer, we were rewarded with nice sand/gravel beach with easy access to the marina and shops in Cassis. After soaking up the sun we took a boat tour to the famed Calanques of Cassis, a series of towering shoreline rock formations and caves. There are three tours available depending on how many Calanques you want to see (we did the one hour, five Calanque tour).
Le Lavandou
On the costal route to St. Topez (D559) lies the town of Le Lavandou where we enjoyed one of our better beach experiences. The beach here is large, with wonderfully soft sand and free adjacent parking. It’s an easy swim out to the sand bar just past the surf (if you can call it surf in the Mediterranean). This is a perfectly nice, simple community that is reminiscent of the small Pacific Coast Highway towns of Southern California. If you find yourself in this part of the Cote, Le Lavandou is well worth the stopover on the way to St. Tropez.
St. Tropez
The drive from Le Lavandou to St. Tropez along the costal road and through the vineyards looked very windy on our Globetrotter travel map, but in reality it was quite pleasant (the boys slept the entire way). We arrived at our destination, the twelve-room Hotel Le Mouillage (www.hotelmouillage.fr), located across street from the water in the Port du Pilon area (a 5-minute walk to the main town). The boys had the Giraglia room with a view the boats anchored in the Golfe de St. Topez; we were in Medina, which is on the ground floor with a private patio. I thought the grounds were impeccably maintained and each of our rooms had that casually elegant “St. Topez style” (the owner Jean Claude lives on the property). My only criticism would be with the hotel breakfast, which was quite minimal in relation to the 15E price tag. We did find a great boulangerie a few blocks away (a green building on a corner). Of course I don’t remember the name, but it is the only one in the area that has solely walk-up service. Further into town is the more elegant La Tarte Tropezienne.
Simply put, we loved St. Tropez. We couldn’t get over the similarities in geography to our Sausalito/Tiburon/Mt. Tam area of Marin County (CA). It is true that excessive displays of wealth abound in the form of luxury cars and mega-yachts; yet with the exception of our chance encounter with Ivana Trump, very little in the way of tackiness can be found. For our family, St. Tropez had the best combination of food, shops, scenery, and recreation of all the Cote d’Azur towns we visited.
We had one of our better meals of the trip in St. Tropez at La Nouvelle Boheme. After passing yet another overpriced restaurant ($38 for penne pasta!), we stumbled upon this tiny, family run gem. There are about five or six tables inside a plain dinning room and a couple more outside in the alley (one comes here for the food not the ambiance). Miraculously, the chef pumps out a delicious 25E prix-fixe menu using a four burner, conventional stove. In sharp contrast, we also had a very good meal at Salama, the casually elegant (one can use this term everywhere in St. Trop) Moroccan restaurant on Rue des Tisserands. We consumed mounds of couscous, grilled meats and tanjines.
The famous beaches on the Baie de Pampelonne are a short drive up and over the hill from St. Tropez town on the Route des Plages (D-93). The long, sandy Plage de Pampelonne is divided into well over a dozen private (i.e. pay to sit at the beach) clubs. There are many to choose from: Bora Bora, Le Club 55, Coco Beach, Les Palmiers etc. For no particular reason we ended up at Pago Pago – 4E for covered parking and a negotiated 46E for four chaise lounges, table and umbrella. We quickly discovered that Pago Pago happens to be right next door to the Plage Naturistes, the nudist beach. You can imagine how our teenagers felt about seeing couples as old as their grandparents, tanned to a dark mahogany, posing butt naked in the surf. My feeble justification of nudism from a libertarian standpoint fell with a thud. Enough said.
Cannes and Antibes
We left St. Tropez in the morning so that we would have time to stop in Cannes and Antibes before checking into our hotel in St. Paul-de-Vence. The drive along the coast on N-98 is very scenic, with many turnouts to admire the mountain and seaside vistas. If time allowed, we would have stopped along the way at either St. Aygulf or Agay, as their beaches looked pristine and uncrowded. From a distance, Cannes looked intriguing with its miles of beaches along the Croisette, however, a closer inspection revealed a city of concrete akin to Miami Beach (sorry Florida). I’m sure Cannes is a happening place during the film festival, but I fail to see a reason to be there in the summer.
Our quick cruise through Cannes left more time for our No. 1 favorite beach town on the Cote d’Azur (drum roll please): Antibes. Not only are the beaches great, but the town itself has much to offer in the way of restaurants, shops, and its Market Hall. Parking for a leisurely stroll around town is plentiful, just outside the old city walls. When you are ready for the perfect South of France beach experience drive just past the “downtown” and look for the last obvious public parking lot for the beach (I believe it’s called plage du Ponteil, drive past place Albert 1er).
The beach at Antibes has a great atmosphere with many amenities to choose from. On the far end of the beach (towards town) we rented a ski boat that tows various water contraptions that only teenagers could fully appreciate. The main beach has soft sand, a rock outcropping to swim out to, and showers right on the shoreline. Various food vendors are on the beach, or across the street. The mostly younger crowd (high school/college age) appealed to our kids and needless to say they had no problem with the topless situation on this beach. At the end of the day we briefly explored a beautiful neighborhood of beach mansions on the Cap d’Antibes and checked out the stunning Hotel du Cap Eden Roc. (Note: A local recommended to us a private beach on the Cap called Plage Garoupe. We found that it was extremely small, snobby and dull compared to the public beach).
St. Paul-de-Vence
Our final destination was Hotel Le Hameau (http://www.le-hameau.com), perched on a hilltop next to the village of St. Paul-de-Vence. This hotel fit perfectly into our model for this trip of being cost effective yet well maintained and full of charm. We had rooms 11 and 15 which are both large and uniquely decorated (11 has a small second bedroom, 15 has a kitchen area). DW tried the 15E breakfast that was served in a beautiful garden setting. Even though it was better than average, the rest of us made our own breakfast (there is a good supermarket in Vence) and ate outside of room 15 near the pool. The views from the property are reminiscent of Tuscany with the Mediterranean Sea thrown in for good measure.
St. Paul-de-Vence is charming and historic just like Le Baux in Provence, or San Gimignano in Italy. They are all well-preserved examples of ancient perched villages that are today basically functioning as shopping malls (not that there is anything wrong with that). When the day crowds departed, St. Paul was a very relaxing place to go for an evening stroll. We didn’t eat at the famous La Colombe d’Or (remember this was a family trip), but did enjoy a traditional French bistro meal overlooking the valley at the nearby La Petite Chapelle (a few steps from the petanque courts). Foundation Maeght is a minute up the hill from Hotel Le Hameau and is well worth a visit. St. Paul de Vence served us well as peaceful place to sleep and a base for exploring Nice and the surrounding environs.
Monaco
Well worth the half-hour drive from St. Paul-de-Vence. We followed signs to the Palais parking structure, which has convenient escalators connecting with the cliff-hanging Oceanographic Museum & Aquarium. Despite my childhood fascination with anything related to Jacque Cousteau (never missed an TV episode), we skipped the aquarium and headed for the Place du Palais. I must say that we thoroughly enjoyed our audio-guided tour of Prince Albert’s Palace and the Napoleon Museum next door.
What trip to Monte-Carlo would be complete without seeing the Casino and Hotel de Paris? We moved the car to the Metropole shopping mall, which is adjacent to the lovely park that fronts the Casino. Our newly minted 18 year-old was glad he brought his passport since every young adult we saw was carded by the attentive security guards. Although he relished being inside his first casino, the real scene is out in front observing the comings and goings of “celebrities” in their Ferraris and high end Porches. The only thing missing from our experience in Monaco was an appearance by a tuxedo-clad James Bond.
Nice
Although we initially pegged Nice as being too big and too crowded for our taste, I am glad we spent our last day of the trip there. Nice has so much to offer; the flower market on Cours Saleya, the Matisse Museum, Roman ruins, and the grand Promenade des Anglais, just to name a few of the sights. We easily found underground parking next to the Palais de Justice and began wondering through Old Nice looking for last minute gifts to take home (you know that drill). Many of the shops are of the tourist-junk type, but we did find one, and I mean only one, pottery shop that had quality pieces representing local artists (darn, I can’t think of name right now, but if you are methodical shopper you will find it). There is a cluster of galleries in the neighborhood that had some nice work.
Our last family photo of trip was taken hurriedly on our way to the Nice airport on the Promenade des Anglais. We thankfully arrived in plenty of time to drop off the rental car and check-in for our 7 pm departure. Our first ever EasyJet flight went smoothly (we paid the extra $ for Speedy Boarding) and we were glad that we flew instead of taking the long train ride back to Paris. We always spend the last night in Paris at the Sheraton CDG, which is by far the easiest and most stress free method of making a morning flight back to the US. The rooms are modern and spacious and I still can’t get over how one can watch planes take off and land without hearing a sound. The late supper and early breakfast on the Club Floor really came in handy this time around.
The American Airlines flight to the West Coast through JFK was just ok. IMO business class on AA does not compare favorably with British Air on food or comfort (I missed my flat-bed sleeping pod), although the service on AA is fine. We got home late thanks to a mechanical problem and good ole JFK air traffic, but I can’t really complain since this was the only transportation snafu on the entire trip
Parting Thoughts/Shots
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat is well worth the visit. Although I didn’t so much care for the building itself (maybe because it was hot and stuffy with no AC), the gardens and view to the sea are wonderful. If you missed the fountains with music at Versailles, a second chance awaits you here.
In hindsight we should have allowed for more days in the South of France. We never made it to Menton, Eze, Biot, Vallauris, or Mougins. During the trip planning process I was concerned that our experience would be similar to the Costa del Sol, which we didn’t care for at all. Who knew?
When driving in the South of France, be sure to have a fistful of euro coins in the car at all times for toll roads, parking lot machines, and the occasional bathroom. We must have spent at least 25 euros on toll roads (in our case from 0.6 to 3.4 a shot). There was even a 1E toll on the little road down to Cassis. For some you grab a ticket and pay later, others require coins to be thrown in a basket, and if you are lucky a real person will pick the required amount out of you hand (no, we don’t have toll roads in CA).
One of the smartest purchases we made in France was a cheap set of beach paddleball racquets (6E) and a beach umbrella (9 to 16E depending on the size). You can buy them at one of the little trinket shops across the street from almost any beach on the Cote. The boys and Dad spent hours playing paddleball, and the umbrella will save you serious rental dollars at the private beaches.
Dumb American at the supermarche: As impatient locals looked on, it took me a while to figure out that the shopping cart wouldn’t release unless a euro coin is strategically placed into a certain slot. To get the coin back, calmly insert attached tool into said slot. Hope this doesn’t catch on in the USA.
How serious are the French about their Bonjour and Au Revoir? I think it’s great that in virtually every shop customers are greeted so nicely. But I had to chuckle when a policeman in Monaco says to my DW in a slow, repeat after me, or I won’t help you tone, “Bon-jour- Ma-dame” (We stopped to ask directions, but failed to preface our question with a Bonjour Monsieur. Our Bad.)
What type of headgear do you bring to France? Much has been said on Fodors regarding the simple act of men protecting their skin from the sun while on vacation. While I agree it is easy to pick out an American male on vacation: Cubs baseball cap and backpack with water bottle attachment. I blended in well enough with my khaki Lacoste cap (tiny alligator on the side) and Eagle Creek “man purse”. (lol)
Au Revoir…
The Grand Finale
Most of our previous European trips start with big cities and end in the countryside. A little R & R at the end of a vacation seems to bring a relaxing close to a long, sometimes hectic sightseeing expedition. This trip was no exception. London and Paris were great, but everyone wanted to hit the famous beaches of the Cote d’Azur and chill.
Cassis
For our first beach experience we day-tripped from Aix to the lovely seaside village of Cassis. We couldn’t find parking in the center of town and ended up on the outskirts at a public parking lot near the restaurant La Villa Madie (Has anyone eaten there?). There is a small beach below the parking lot, but most of the nearby shore is made up of large boulders. Don’t try to walk along the shore to the main beach in town like we did unless you are part mountain goat; it’s much quicker and far safer to walk on the street back into the centre ville (who knew!). Once at La Page de la Grande Mer, we were rewarded with nice sand/gravel beach with easy access to the marina and shops in Cassis. After soaking up the sun we took a boat tour to the famed Calanques of Cassis, a series of towering shoreline rock formations and caves. There are three tours available depending on how many Calanques you want to see (we did the one hour, five Calanque tour).
Le Lavandou
On the costal route to St. Topez (D559) lies the town of Le Lavandou where we enjoyed one of our better beach experiences. The beach here is large, with wonderfully soft sand and free adjacent parking. It’s an easy swim out to the sand bar just past the surf (if you can call it surf in the Mediterranean). This is a perfectly nice, simple community that is reminiscent of the small Pacific Coast Highway towns of Southern California. If you find yourself in this part of the Cote, Le Lavandou is well worth the stopover on the way to St. Tropez.
St. Tropez
The drive from Le Lavandou to St. Tropez along the costal road and through the vineyards looked very windy on our Globetrotter travel map, but in reality it was quite pleasant (the boys slept the entire way). We arrived at our destination, the twelve-room Hotel Le Mouillage (www.hotelmouillage.fr), located across street from the water in the Port du Pilon area (a 5-minute walk to the main town). The boys had the Giraglia room with a view the boats anchored in the Golfe de St. Topez; we were in Medina, which is on the ground floor with a private patio. I thought the grounds were impeccably maintained and each of our rooms had that casually elegant “St. Topez style” (the owner Jean Claude lives on the property). My only criticism would be with the hotel breakfast, which was quite minimal in relation to the 15E price tag. We did find a great boulangerie a few blocks away (a green building on a corner). Of course I don’t remember the name, but it is the only one in the area that has solely walk-up service. Further into town is the more elegant La Tarte Tropezienne.
Simply put, we loved St. Tropez. We couldn’t get over the similarities in geography to our Sausalito/Tiburon/Mt. Tam area of Marin County (CA). It is true that excessive displays of wealth abound in the form of luxury cars and mega-yachts; yet with the exception of our chance encounter with Ivana Trump, very little in the way of tackiness can be found. For our family, St. Tropez had the best combination of food, shops, scenery, and recreation of all the Cote d’Azur towns we visited.
We had one of our better meals of the trip in St. Tropez at La Nouvelle Boheme. After passing yet another overpriced restaurant ($38 for penne pasta!), we stumbled upon this tiny, family run gem. There are about five or six tables inside a plain dinning room and a couple more outside in the alley (one comes here for the food not the ambiance). Miraculously, the chef pumps out a delicious 25E prix-fixe menu using a four burner, conventional stove. In sharp contrast, we also had a very good meal at Salama, the casually elegant (one can use this term everywhere in St. Trop) Moroccan restaurant on Rue des Tisserands. We consumed mounds of couscous, grilled meats and tanjines.
The famous beaches on the Baie de Pampelonne are a short drive up and over the hill from St. Tropez town on the Route des Plages (D-93). The long, sandy Plage de Pampelonne is divided into well over a dozen private (i.e. pay to sit at the beach) clubs. There are many to choose from: Bora Bora, Le Club 55, Coco Beach, Les Palmiers etc. For no particular reason we ended up at Pago Pago – 4E for covered parking and a negotiated 46E for four chaise lounges, table and umbrella. We quickly discovered that Pago Pago happens to be right next door to the Plage Naturistes, the nudist beach. You can imagine how our teenagers felt about seeing couples as old as their grandparents, tanned to a dark mahogany, posing butt naked in the surf. My feeble justification of nudism from a libertarian standpoint fell with a thud. Enough said.
Cannes and Antibes
We left St. Tropez in the morning so that we would have time to stop in Cannes and Antibes before checking into our hotel in St. Paul-de-Vence. The drive along the coast on N-98 is very scenic, with many turnouts to admire the mountain and seaside vistas. If time allowed, we would have stopped along the way at either St. Aygulf or Agay, as their beaches looked pristine and uncrowded. From a distance, Cannes looked intriguing with its miles of beaches along the Croisette, however, a closer inspection revealed a city of concrete akin to Miami Beach (sorry Florida). I’m sure Cannes is a happening place during the film festival, but I fail to see a reason to be there in the summer.
Our quick cruise through Cannes left more time for our No. 1 favorite beach town on the Cote d’Azur (drum roll please): Antibes. Not only are the beaches great, but the town itself has much to offer in the way of restaurants, shops, and its Market Hall. Parking for a leisurely stroll around town is plentiful, just outside the old city walls. When you are ready for the perfect South of France beach experience drive just past the “downtown” and look for the last obvious public parking lot for the beach (I believe it’s called plage du Ponteil, drive past place Albert 1er).
The beach at Antibes has a great atmosphere with many amenities to choose from. On the far end of the beach (towards town) we rented a ski boat that tows various water contraptions that only teenagers could fully appreciate. The main beach has soft sand, a rock outcropping to swim out to, and showers right on the shoreline. Various food vendors are on the beach, or across the street. The mostly younger crowd (high school/college age) appealed to our kids and needless to say they had no problem with the topless situation on this beach. At the end of the day we briefly explored a beautiful neighborhood of beach mansions on the Cap d’Antibes and checked out the stunning Hotel du Cap Eden Roc. (Note: A local recommended to us a private beach on the Cap called Plage Garoupe. We found that it was extremely small, snobby and dull compared to the public beach).
St. Paul-de-Vence
Our final destination was Hotel Le Hameau (http://www.le-hameau.com), perched on a hilltop next to the village of St. Paul-de-Vence. This hotel fit perfectly into our model for this trip of being cost effective yet well maintained and full of charm. We had rooms 11 and 15 which are both large and uniquely decorated (11 has a small second bedroom, 15 has a kitchen area). DW tried the 15E breakfast that was served in a beautiful garden setting. Even though it was better than average, the rest of us made our own breakfast (there is a good supermarket in Vence) and ate outside of room 15 near the pool. The views from the property are reminiscent of Tuscany with the Mediterranean Sea thrown in for good measure.
St. Paul-de-Vence is charming and historic just like Le Baux in Provence, or San Gimignano in Italy. They are all well-preserved examples of ancient perched villages that are today basically functioning as shopping malls (not that there is anything wrong with that). When the day crowds departed, St. Paul was a very relaxing place to go for an evening stroll. We didn’t eat at the famous La Colombe d’Or (remember this was a family trip), but did enjoy a traditional French bistro meal overlooking the valley at the nearby La Petite Chapelle (a few steps from the petanque courts). Foundation Maeght is a minute up the hill from Hotel Le Hameau and is well worth a visit. St. Paul de Vence served us well as peaceful place to sleep and a base for exploring Nice and the surrounding environs.
Monaco
Well worth the half-hour drive from St. Paul-de-Vence. We followed signs to the Palais parking structure, which has convenient escalators connecting with the cliff-hanging Oceanographic Museum & Aquarium. Despite my childhood fascination with anything related to Jacque Cousteau (never missed an TV episode), we skipped the aquarium and headed for the Place du Palais. I must say that we thoroughly enjoyed our audio-guided tour of Prince Albert’s Palace and the Napoleon Museum next door.
What trip to Monte-Carlo would be complete without seeing the Casino and Hotel de Paris? We moved the car to the Metropole shopping mall, which is adjacent to the lovely park that fronts the Casino. Our newly minted 18 year-old was glad he brought his passport since every young adult we saw was carded by the attentive security guards. Although he relished being inside his first casino, the real scene is out in front observing the comings and goings of “celebrities” in their Ferraris and high end Porches. The only thing missing from our experience in Monaco was an appearance by a tuxedo-clad James Bond.
Nice
Although we initially pegged Nice as being too big and too crowded for our taste, I am glad we spent our last day of the trip there. Nice has so much to offer; the flower market on Cours Saleya, the Matisse Museum, Roman ruins, and the grand Promenade des Anglais, just to name a few of the sights. We easily found underground parking next to the Palais de Justice and began wondering through Old Nice looking for last minute gifts to take home (you know that drill). Many of the shops are of the tourist-junk type, but we did find one, and I mean only one, pottery shop that had quality pieces representing local artists (darn, I can’t think of name right now, but if you are methodical shopper you will find it). There is a cluster of galleries in the neighborhood that had some nice work.
Our last family photo of trip was taken hurriedly on our way to the Nice airport on the Promenade des Anglais. We thankfully arrived in plenty of time to drop off the rental car and check-in for our 7 pm departure. Our first ever EasyJet flight went smoothly (we paid the extra $ for Speedy Boarding) and we were glad that we flew instead of taking the long train ride back to Paris. We always spend the last night in Paris at the Sheraton CDG, which is by far the easiest and most stress free method of making a morning flight back to the US. The rooms are modern and spacious and I still can’t get over how one can watch planes take off and land without hearing a sound. The late supper and early breakfast on the Club Floor really came in handy this time around.
The American Airlines flight to the West Coast through JFK was just ok. IMO business class on AA does not compare favorably with British Air on food or comfort (I missed my flat-bed sleeping pod), although the service on AA is fine. We got home late thanks to a mechanical problem and good ole JFK air traffic, but I can’t really complain since this was the only transportation snafu on the entire trip
Parting Thoughts/Shots
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat is well worth the visit. Although I didn’t so much care for the building itself (maybe because it was hot and stuffy with no AC), the gardens and view to the sea are wonderful. If you missed the fountains with music at Versailles, a second chance awaits you here.
In hindsight we should have allowed for more days in the South of France. We never made it to Menton, Eze, Biot, Vallauris, or Mougins. During the trip planning process I was concerned that our experience would be similar to the Costa del Sol, which we didn’t care for at all. Who knew?
When driving in the South of France, be sure to have a fistful of euro coins in the car at all times for toll roads, parking lot machines, and the occasional bathroom. We must have spent at least 25 euros on toll roads (in our case from 0.6 to 3.4 a shot). There was even a 1E toll on the little road down to Cassis. For some you grab a ticket and pay later, others require coins to be thrown in a basket, and if you are lucky a real person will pick the required amount out of you hand (no, we don’t have toll roads in CA).
One of the smartest purchases we made in France was a cheap set of beach paddleball racquets (6E) and a beach umbrella (9 to 16E depending on the size). You can buy them at one of the little trinket shops across the street from almost any beach on the Cote. The boys and Dad spent hours playing paddleball, and the umbrella will save you serious rental dollars at the private beaches.
Dumb American at the supermarche: As impatient locals looked on, it took me a while to figure out that the shopping cart wouldn’t release unless a euro coin is strategically placed into a certain slot. To get the coin back, calmly insert attached tool into said slot. Hope this doesn’t catch on in the USA.
How serious are the French about their Bonjour and Au Revoir? I think it’s great that in virtually every shop customers are greeted so nicely. But I had to chuckle when a policeman in Monaco says to my DW in a slow, repeat after me, or I won’t help you tone, “Bon-jour- Ma-dame” (We stopped to ask directions, but failed to preface our question with a Bonjour Monsieur. Our Bad.)
What type of headgear do you bring to France? Much has been said on Fodors regarding the simple act of men protecting their skin from the sun while on vacation. While I agree it is easy to pick out an American male on vacation: Cubs baseball cap and backpack with water bottle attachment. I blended in well enough with my khaki Lacoste cap (tiny alligator on the side) and Eagle Creek “man purse”. (lol)
Au Revoir…
Jul 18th, 2008, 02:54 AM
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You are definitely not the dumbest American!! That's an easy mistake to make with the shopping trolley - we have some here in Australia, and while it's a bit of a nuisance it stops people from leaving trolleys from one end of the carpark to the other.
Loved your report, we were in Paris at the same time and came across the volleyball tournament. My HB is very proud of a photo he took (don't be offended everyone), mostly of a female volleyballer's very pert behind, with the Tour as an afterthough in the background!!
The dumbest American I've come across while travelling was one who was trying to choose an audio guide (I think at St Peter's) she was told all the language options, including English, then turned to her HB and said "honey, they don't have one in American"!!
Thanks for a great report, I'm still trying to find time to write mine. Cathie
Loved your report, we were in Paris at the same time and came across the volleyball tournament. My HB is very proud of a photo he took (don't be offended everyone), mostly of a female volleyballer's very pert behind, with the Tour as an afterthough in the background!!
The dumbest American I've come across while travelling was one who was trying to choose an audio guide (I think at St Peter's) she was told all the language options, including English, then turned to her HB and said "honey, they don't have one in American"!!
Thanks for a great report, I'm still trying to find time to write mine. Cathie
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