visiting France

This site should give you an idea of biking in the Loire Valley (which is wonderful!) (the valley, that is, dunno about the biking!)
click -Loire Valley Biking

These trips don't start until April, but they give you some idea of the places you can get to and the time required. I think Anjou is at the other end of the Loire Valley to Blois (don't have map handy!) You may be able to hire bikes at the railway station in Blois (you can at some stations)

click -Chenonceau cycling tours - this should give you other ideas.

I googled "bike rental Blois" and got a variety of interesting hits.

Can you tell I'm a big time vicarious traveller?

This is a nice itinerary for biking the Loire Valley.
http://users.ids.net/~tandem/loire.htm

There are maps for «La Loire à vélo » , which show some hundred kilometers out of the 600 km long "Loire cycle route" - in French and printed only, as far as I could find out. (Thought they to be a great help, when I cycled there.)

Hope this isn't too late. My daughter was an au pair in France between high school and college, about 8 years ago. I visited her for 10 days which turned into 11 when I missed my flight home.

Some ideas:

I was writing a thesis in Celtic Studies at the time and wanted to see Celtic France, which means Brittany. since we did not have enough money for a car, we went by train. wonderful! I highly recommend train travel -- no getting lost, no arguing over which way to go.

I wanted to see Mt. Ste. Michel which is wonderful and even cheap off season. A magical place. My daughter was glad I made the suggestion.

I also wanted to see Quimper because I love ceramics and this town survived the impact of English ceramics on France by creating the then patriotic peasant design, with a man and woman performing every day tasks. Quimper is also a beautiful town, with great shopping and a nice historic museum. Worth three days on its own.

The final place I wanted to see were the Bronze Age standing rocks at Carnac, now a modern sea resort.


As for the Louvre, remember that it is a massive museum and it is better, if you have limited time, to pick two or three galleries to explore intimately and not to attempt to see the whole thing. I loved seeing some of the 'stars,' like the Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo, which is far more breath taking in person than photos allow.

A walk on the Champs is nice and will make you feel old.

There is a lovely street in Paris called the Street of the Iron Pot that is lined with restaurants. Find it.

Just walking in a great city like Paris -- and it is my favorite of the handfull of cities I have visited -- is a treat, but to miss the countryside would be a shame.

My daughter always regrets not having made it Deauville, the 19th C seaside resort. She and friends were planning to go but the domineering boyfriend of another au pair blocked the trip.

I believe a loop from Giverny to Mt. Ste Michel to Deauville would be possible . . . and unforgettable!

If you are more interested in interior France, head for Gian or ..... other ceramics center.

If I ever return to France, I want to visit Uzes in the south and go on a literary and historic pilgrimage to Dhuodha's haunts, then on to see where Eleanor of Aquitaine lived.

But not in one day or even two! (Besides, I ever wonder, what peole like in Deauville, since there are really a couple of nicer places/towns just a few miles away! :wink: )

While in Paris, use the Metro.

Labrat should be there, round about now!

Hope he's having a drink for us!

There is a wonderful book on walking tours of France -- it's soft bound, yellow and about the size of a small phone book.

I've kept a ceramics file for a while as I once envisioned a tv program combining crafts with a slight bit of 'geography/travel'... and worked it up conceptually for years' worth of 13 half hour or hour episodes per season. Ah, another pipe dream sailing away.

I have a friend who is an anchor and a very good interviewer, very personable since she really is interested in the answers, and she loves travel and ferreting about in alabaster fattorie, for example. She or someone like her would be good for such a program. I never worked things out in precise episode form, though I had ideas, as suddenly divorce and survival and moving happened. Still, I am always listening about advanced craft from all over.

osso, On my first trip to Egypt in 1998, and our visit to the Valley of the Kings in Aswan, they also took us to a alabaster factory where we saw workers making statues and lanterns. For the amount of work they put into making one piece, the prices were very good - back then. I don't know now, because when my sister and I went to Egypt in 2002, the silk rug I bought for $400 back in 1998 were selling for $1,000.

Hi everyone,
Here's the promised "trip report":
Special thanks to Walter--one of his recommended links led us to "La Croix d'Etain", a lovely bed and breakfast in Grez-Neuville, France (on the Mayenne River, about 25 km from Angers), and our favorite lodging place during our stay. The host and hostess were wonderful, and the town was a charming center for our exploration of the French countryside. The weather prevented us from biking, but we explored some of the surrounding villages by car & on foot. We toured the castle at Plessis-Bourre and tasted some wines at Domaine des Rochelles (vineyard operated by the LeBreton family). They have a wonderful dessert wine there, "Coteaux du Layon", that we brought home as souvenirs for family. We took some beautiful pictures of the Loire Valley (178 of them!).
Our visit to Paris was also nice, although if we go back I think we'll spend most of our time back in the countryside. In Paris we saw the usual touristy sites--the Eiffel Tower, Arc d'Triomphe, Notre Dame, . . . We loved the open-air markets at Rue Cler and Marais. The Seine is beautiful throughout the city, and we also enjoyed Montmartre, where we bought some watercolors from an artist at Place du Tertre.
Public transportation was great--I wish our American culture would wise up and develop equally efficient public transit. The TGV was particularly impressive--140 mph and smoother and quieter than a plane ride. The French people were in general very kind, and thanks to my wife's limited French and the local populace's English we had very little trouble communicating.
Thank you everyone for your helpful input for our trip. Overall we had a delightful vacation and certainly hope to go back some day.

Good that A2K could help you, lab rat.

And even better that your wife and you had obviously such a nice time/stay there!

Thanks for responding/reporting as well!

Lab rat

Welcome back! Glad you've had a great time.

Where to next??? Start planning - so we can all enjoy it!