About-France.com A visitor's guide to France
   
About France.com - the France travel portal .   A website about France and life in France
   
Photo Steve Cadman - licence CC

Map of France
Map of France

Accommodation in France
Gites and holiday cottages
Bed and breakfast in France
Rural campsites in France
Independent hotels in France
La Baguette

  Baguettes - France's emblematic bread

Old Nice

   The old town at Nice



France for Dutch visitors:

Ga naar Frankrijk TopList en stem voor deze site!!!

Home page: a general introduction to France

 Site index: About-France.com - accueil en français
France in general Travel Living and leisure Other chapters.
About-France.com - home Travel in France (road / rail) Living in France Hotels in France
The regions of France Travel to France (air / sea) Tourist attractions in France Holiday cottages in France
France facts and figures Maps of France Guide to French wines France online resources
Studying in France Visiting Paris Guide to French cheese Shopping in France


Paris is Paris... Staying in a hotel in Paris for a couple of nights is a great way to make a first acquaintance with France; but, as they say in the rest of France, Paris is Paris, it is not the whole of France. So what about the rest of France? One of the larger countries in Western Europe, France is also the most varied in terms of scenery and climate. From Brittany to Provence, the Auvergne , the Dordogne or the Alps, Burgundy to the Languedoc and the Pyrenees, each region is special, each is a holiday in itself. So what are you waiting for? Click the regions tab above for more information about the different regions of Fance.

   Of course, some things like the "baguette", the famous French bread stick, change little from one region to another; you'll find baguettes of all qualities in all regions, varying from the absolutely delicious, to the hard and tasteless. It really is a matter of seeking out the good little bakery, or getting to know the town you're staying in well. There's no sure way of knowing where that delectable baguette is going to come from - except that it probably won't be from a supermarket. Indeed, the pre-frozen "fresh-baked" bread counters in supermarkets are not even allowed, by law, to call themselves "boulangeries". But anyway, where bread is concerned, don't forget that France has a wonderful range of delicious breads to offer, from the baguette to the batard, via a whole range of wholemeal breads (pain complet), rye bread (pain de seigle), sourdough bread (pain au levain), and breads spiced up with nuts, olives, bacon, cheese and a variety of other natural additives. The real "boulangeries" are waiting for you.

If you're travelling through France, and want to stop and buy Fresh bread for a picnic, don't forget that many small shops close for up to two hours in the middle of the day. Boulangeries often stay open beyond the traditional midday closing hour, but after 12.30 you may well find a locked door if you stop off at a village bakery. Be warned.

NORMAL SERVICE IS SUSPENDED.........  don't be caught out.

    Public holidays in France,
 when everything is closed
The following days are public holidays  ("jours fériés") in France, when all or most shops tend to be shut.
January 1st, Easter Monday (though not Good Friday except in Alsace), May 1st,  May 8th, Ascension Thursday,  July 14th, August 15th, November 1st,  November 11th,  Christmas. Unlike in the UK, when a public holiday falls during a weekend, there is no extra compensating holiday on the following Monday.
   Note also that most public museums are closed on TUESDAYS.

   For information about travelling in France, and avoiding problems and traffic jams, see the Driving in France page. 

    Sundays in France,  when most shops are closed
Don't expect to find shops open in France on Sundays. Sunday in France is still for most people a day of rest, and most shops are not allowed to open, except in specific locations at at certain times of year. Sunday is a day for window shopping in French towns, for most of the year. Large shops are only allowed to open on Sundays in tourist resorts in the holiday period; elsewhere, in the cities, Sunday opening is only allowed on a limited number of Sundays in the run-up to Christmas.
     Nonetheless, small corner shops and essential services (such as boulangeries) can open on Sundays if they want to, and indeed Sunday is the busiest days of the week for many patisseries. So in any town, it is usually possible to buy fresh bread and groceries on a Sunday, particularly on Sunday morning. More information on the Shopping in France page.

   Strikes and barricades
   
France has the reputation of being a country prone to strikes. In actual fact, it is not a country where strikes are particularly commonplace; it is just that they tend to occur in high-profile sectors, in places where they are very visible and affect the lives of millions of ordinary men and women; i.e. in public services and in the transport sector.

    Public transport is a sector frequently affected by strikes, that can bring rail services or airports to a halt nationally or regionally; and all kinds of workers in France have a habit of blocking roads, ports and railway lines in defence of their objective. Foreign tourists often find it hard to understand why blockades are not quickly dispersed by the police; but this is part of the French way of life, a legacy of the Revolution and the spirit of the "barricades". Increasingly, police are brought in to disperse blockades, but generally not until after the striking workers or students have had time to make their point.

    Under President Sarkozy, there is likely to be much less tolerance of blockading and barricading, and the new President has pledged to introduce a minum service requirement in the event of strikes in public services. However, it is unlikely that these reforms, approved by most people in France, will go through without a  fight back from the unions and the strikers. Things are likely to improve in the coming years, but as is often the case, they may get worse before the improvements set in.


To contact this website, send an email to info "at"  about-france.com (Replace "at" by the standard symbol, and remove all spaces. This coding is a simple anti-spam measure)


Copyright notice: Website and text © About-France.com 2008   except where otherwise indicated.

Other useful pages:
Paris tourist attractions
Coach travel in France
Scenic railways in France
***