Table of Contents for this Episode
Introduction and Greetings
[00:00:15] Annie: This is Join Us in France, episode 534, cinq cent trente quatre.
Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent and Join us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational journey through the beauty, culture and flavors of France.
Today on the podcastx
[00:00:32] Annie: Today, I bring you a conversation with Theresa Watkins about her extensive experiences traveling through France. From her adventures in Paris to the picturesque regions of Provence and Normandy, Theresa shares valuable insights and practical tips for anyone planning a trip to France.
Whether you’re curious about the best local markets, ways to explore historical sites, or how to navigate travel logistics, this episode is packed with useful information, and delightful anecdotes. What makes her an expert is that she did it, she was there, feet on the ground.
And you’ll also find out why France remains a top destination for travelers.
Podcast supporters
[00:01:17] Annie: This podcast is supported by donors and listeners who buy my tours and services, including my Itinerary Consult Service, my GPS self-guided tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app, or take a day trip with me around the Southwest of France in my electric car. You can browse all of that at my boutique: joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
And remember, Patreon supporters get the episode ad-free, and as soon as it’s ready, click on the link in the show notes to enjoy this Patreon reward for as little as $3 a month.
The Magazine segment
[00:01:52] Annie: For the magazine part of the podcast, after my chat with Theresa today, I’ll discuss something unusual, pink flamingos in the Camargue. Because they are awesome, of course. And I’ll also talk about the future of the Paris Metro.
Annie and Theresa Watkins
[00:02:18] Annie: Bonjour, Theresa Watkins, and welcome to Join Us in France.
[00:02:22] Theresa: Thank you. Bonjour, Annie.
[00:02:23] Annie: How are you?
[00:02:24] Theresa: I am good. I’m very good.
[00:02:26] Annie: Lovely to talk to you.
Planning Trips to France: Tips and Insights
[00:02:28] Annie: Okay, so you had a couple of trips to France, and we are going to talk about both, but perhaps one of the first things we should discuss is the fact that there is so much to do in France and that perhaps people don’t realize.
So how do you feel about that topic?
[00:02:48] Theresa: I totally agree with that. In fact, so much that we had to leave out. One thing that I am learning as I go to Europe more is that like the first time we went, I think we did three countries, maybe four in three weeks, too much. And so I’m trying to lessen every time I go. And even this last time, I thought, Oh, I’m doing great.
I’m going to spend two weeks in Provence. There should be plenty. No, I had to cut out so much that I wanted to do just by even limiting to that small, I thought it was small, section. It’s incredible the amount of things that you can do.
Yeah, you could spend a month in one area easily, I think.
[00:03:25] Annie: As a rule of thumb, I like to tell people that for Paris and for Provence, they should never stay less than seven days, and for most other regions of France, five days. They might make do with five days, but they probably would wish that they had more.
So like, if you went to the Dordogne for five days, you would get a feel for it, but you would leave out a lot of very exciting things to do as well. Same with the Basque country, same with Normandy, same with Strasbourg area. But if you have at least five days, if you stay put at least five days, you might get to see quite a few things. And it’s very hard, I mean I do this every day, I talk to people, as a matter of fact, I had done an itinerary planning with you, a Bonjour planning.
[00:04:16] Theresa: For both trips, actually.
[00:04:17] Annie: Okay. And it’s, one of my biggest thing is to tell people, slow down, slow down, but the message doesn’t always come across.
[00:04:27] Theresa: No, it’s because I think we all have limited vacation, and the flight over there is so long, so you want to try to cram in as much as you can, but I would caution against it.
Experiences in Paris and Provence
[00:04:38] Theresa: Even 12 days in Provence, we did get a good feel for it, but had to leave out so much. And I would say that your advice about staying on the coast for like seven days would be great because then you wouldn’t have to rent a car.
Going up into the Provence area, I think you really need a car, but I could have probably spent 10 days in that whole area. There was so much we didn’t get to do just in that section of France.
[00:05:04] Annie: Yep. All right. So let’s start. So we need to make it very clear, the things we’re going to talk about today, you did over two trips. So it’s a total of how much time you spent over the two trips?
[00:05:15] Theresa: We did probably
[00:05:17] Annie: seven nights in between Paris, we did five nights in Paris and a few nights over in the out of Paris. And five nights was not enough. I don’t think in Paris, even though I thought it would be plenty. And then we did 12 nights in Provence, which also was not enough. And that was two different trips.
[00:05:36] Theresa: And I’ll have to tell you the funny thing, the whole reason why we did the Provence trip. I don’t know if this is a good time to say it, but it was all because of you and your podcast. So what happened was we went to Paris. And we went to Mont Saint Michel, and we loved it, and we can talk about that later.
But, we got home, and I’m listening to your podcast that Joe did on Provence. And then, like two days later, it came up a flight from Kansas City to Nice for an amazing airfare, like 500 roundtrip. I’m like, well, I think it seems like destiny. So I immediately booked that, and booked the same hotel that Joe booked.
Done. And then when we arrived at the hotel that Joe had recommended in your podcast, we meet who he was talking about as we’re checking in. So it was just incredible. It was amazing. It was, it all seemed like destiny and it was, and we had a great time. So it was good.
[00:06:28] Annie: Yeah. So, yes, the podcast does inspire people to do things. But if you find a great airfare, I mean, come on, how often are you going to be able to do that? Like, so where is it that, where’s home for you in the US?
[00:06:40] Theresa: Kansas City.
[00:06:41] Annie: Kansas City. Okay. So Kansas, you were able to do Kansas to Nice, return for $500?
[00:06:46] Theresa: Yes.
[00:06:47] Annie: Oh.
[00:06:48] Theresa: Economy, but still, I mean, fantastic in September, which is an amazing time to go to Provence. I would probably say it was, it was perfect.
[00:06:57] Annie: That’s the other thing that you have to consider is the time of year. Because there are better times and worse times for all of these areas. September is great just about anywhere, really, I mean, you know. But if it’s January or February that you find a really good fare, you probably should go south.
You know, I mean, it’s the weather is better in the south. There’s no guarantee that it won’t rain on you or whatever, but it’s going to be nicer generally, the Basque country or something like this. So, excellent.
Mont Saint Michel
[00:07:30] Annie: Okay, so let’s go through all the places that you enjoyed the most. And the one you put at the top is the Mont Saint Michel.
[00:07:37] Theresa: Yes, mainly because we did decide, and I know this is maybe a little against what most people say, but we did decide to stay on the Mont site in the Hotel Le Mouton Blanc.
[00:07:51] Annie: Yeah, Le Mouton Blanc.
[00:07:53] Theresa: Yes, and I will not say it is a fancy hotel. Go in there with appropriate expectations. You know, it is not a fancy hotel.
It is in one of these very, very old stone places, so it is not fancy. But, the amazing experience we had there, and we all agreed, it was my husband, my daughter, and my sister that were all there, and it is just a different place at night. There was probably 50 people there. It was deserted streets that you walk through.
It was just, you got the feeling of how it felt so many years in the past and we all love history and it was just gorgeous. It was, we left at 11 o’clock the next morning, we checked out and you would not, well you would believe because I’m sure you’ve been there, the amount of crowds, you could hardly move. But when we went, no one there. We were the first ones in, in the morning to get into the Abbey area.
Because we were staying overnight there. It was great.
[00:08:42] Annie: Yeah. Now, you can have a similar experience if you stay at a hotel off the Mont and you do take the shuttle back and forth, to and from your hotel after dark, after the abbey has closed, when there are very few people. You can get the same experience if you’re not on the Mont. The reason why I tend to recommend people don’t stay on the Mont is because of the cobblestone and dragging your luggage up those cobblestone. It’s steep.
[00:09:09] Theresa: We did allow for that. We took in your advice about that. We just picked an overnight bag and we left the rest in the car. And so we just had our backpacks with our overnight bag and that was it.
[00:09:19] Annie: Okay. Yeah, that’s a good way to do it because dragging suitcases of that thing is not my idea of a good time. And the car park is perfectly safe. I mean, if you’re reasonable, you don’t leave anything super valuable, you know, but if you’re reasonable, it’s doable.
[00:09:34] Theresa: Yes. And I, the reason why we thought it was nice is because we wandered, my husband wandered around really late that night. Probably 11 o’clock at night. He really, really enjoyed it. It was very nice.
[00:09:43] Annie: Yeah, and sometimes people have, like, their imagination runs wild in places like that. They start imagining, you know, their action games, or their action novels or, because you’re in the setting, you’re right in it.
Travel Logistics and Car Rentals
[00:09:57] Theresa: And one thing I will say after talking to you, one of my biggest things I deliberated on was whether to rent a car or take the train. You would not believe how much I obsessed over this. But I ended up going with renting the car and I’m glad we did that because we ended up being able to stop at several different places.
One of the places we didn’t get to go is the Bayeux Tapestry, so that’s on the list for next time. But we did get to stop at several places around there, which was nice. We went to Normandy beach and things. Yeah.
[00:10:24] Annie: So did you go directly to Bayeux or did you stay somewhere else?
[00:10:29] Theresa: No. So we left Paris, we rented the car at CDG. I thought I would tell people that because we were going to go and take the train to Amsterdam when we got back. So that just made sense to me. The apartment, Du Louvre where we were staying in Paris had free transportation if you book directly through them, to give you one transportation back and forth that they would pay for.
And so we used it to go to CDG and rented the car there. And then I thought that was easier because we didn’t have to drive in Paris. And then also because we could return the car there and then just take the train right from CDG, which I thought was nice.
[00:11:05] Annie: Yes, if you’re taking a train and you can do that directly from CDG, if you have no reason to go into Paris, then avoid going into Paris completely. Take the train, if available, from CDG to wherever you’re going. Now, this is something you should plan in adVence because they don’t have trains every hour from CDG to, say, Bordeaux or from CDG to Strasbourg or places like that.
But, there are plenty. You just need to know what time they are and see if you can make it work with your, the time you land in CDG or the time you arrive. Whatever, however you’re going to do it.
[00:11:43] Theresa: I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to take the regional trains out. That’s why we ended up renting the car just at CDG, but I put an alert on my phone for the train to go to Amsterdam and that worked great. I got notified the first day, bought great tickets for a very reasonable price and that worked out.
[00:11:59] Annie: And you were good. Yeah.
Exploring Normandy and Beyond
[00:12:00] Annie: And driving from CDG to…
[00:12:04] Theresa: So we went directly to Monet Gardens, which was fantastic, as everyone has said, and it wasn’t really that crazy crowded there, and we had lunch there, which was also fantastic.
It’s a little cafe, Giverny Cafe, and then we went on to Le Havre on the coast, mainly because we got a good deal of Hilton. It was very windy and cold, but nice, nice view of the ocean. That was good. And then the next day, we went to Normandy Beach, and then we stopped at a little town, which I cannot, it’s escaping me the name of it.
I want to say it was like, anyway, I guess it doesn’t matter, but it was a little town on the way down there. And did some shopping and then went on to Mont Saint Michel, and then on the way back we stopped at Rouen. But we really didn’t get to experience Rouen. We didn’t have enough time by the time we got back.
So that was, I would not say we visited Rouen. We’d have to go back there again.
[00:12:53] Annie: Sometimes what works is if you need to stop somewhere for a meal, you go to the near, you get off the freeway at the biggest nearest town and you park in the city center. You normally have to pay for parking, but you pay for parking, you get off, you walk around the city center, find a place to eat and go back.
Usually if you do that, it’s going to take you two, two and a half hours, but you’ve seen the city center of Rouen, which you wouldn’t have seen otherwise, you know, so why not?
[00:13:21] Theresa: Yes. We probably didn’t do that one as well there, but that’s okay. We left the next morning to go to CGD and return the car. It was confusing returning the car, I will say, at CDG, much different than returning the car at Nice, but, you know, we found it and we did.
[00:13:36] Annie: It’s a big airport.
[00:13:37] Theresa: Yes, it’s big airport.
[00:13:39] Annie: It’s a big airport. Sometimes they give you the coordinates, the GPS coordinates, and if you know how to enter that into your phone, into Google maps, then it’s easier, you know, sometimes they are more helpful than others.
[00:13:52] Theresa: Yeah, it was not helping us very much. And even the signs weren’t that helpful, but we made it. So it was good.
We did it.
[00:13:58] Annie: Yeah, when you return a car and get on an airplane or a train, don’t make it too, don’t try to do this at the last minute, give it plenty of time.
[00:14:07] Theresa: Agreed. Agreed, yeah.
[00:14:09] Annie: So you really enjoyed your stay at the Mont Saint Michel was just one night, right?
[00:14:15] Theresa: And I thought that was fine. I thought that was fine to get the experience.
[00:14:19] Annie: Yeah, I really think one night at the Mont Saint Michel is enough unless you want to go on a hike the next day and, you know, you can hike the, on the beach, low tide. If you’re going to do that, do it with a guide because there are some complications that people are not aware of. But really, you just need one night at Le Mont Saint Michel, for most people.
[00:14:41] Theresa: I agree with that.
[00:14:42] Annie: Very good. Then your second favorite thing was your apartment. It was called Du Louvre, appartementdulouvre.com
[00:14:51] Theresa: Well, that is where we stayed. I would say my second favorite thing was Monet Gardens, but it was, that was where we stayed in Paris. I really liked it. I thought it was a great location. It was right next to the Louvre and it was very close to your food walk.
[00:15:04] Annie: That’s good. So that was nice. The people there were great.
[00:15:07] Theresa: So I would recommend that one.
[00:15:09] Annie: Right, right, I was looking at the wrong thing. Yes, the second thing you listed is Monet’s Garden.
[00:15:13] Theresa: And the other thing i would say we did buy the Monuments Pass when we were in Paris, and that helped us get into Mont Saint Michel, the Sainte Chapelle, the Conciergerie, I can’t even say that word, Conciergerie, thank you, and then we used it again when we went back, because it’s good for a year, so, I thought that was a good value.
[00:15:34] Annie: Right, so the Monument Pass is a pass you can buy, where did you buy it? Because I bought mine online, it got shipped to my house.
[00:15:41] Theresa: I bought it online, and they just send it to me online.
[00:15:44] Annie: Okay, so it’s called the Pass Monument and it includes maybe 30 or 40 monuments all through France, not just in Paris, several, a dozen in Paris, but also…
[00:15:55] Theresa: I think Arc de Triomphe is also on it, I believe. So it was quite a few. It was a very good value, I thought.
[00:16:01] Annie: Yeah. And I’ve had mine for a while and I’ve used it mostly in Paris and in Provence as a matter of fact. But yeah, if you have that it’s helpful. I’ll put the link in the show notes for people who want to look at that. Yep.
[00:16:13] Theresa: Okay.
[00:16:14] Annie: So you went to Monet Garden in April. That was on your April trip. And so it had not been reopened for very long, I assume, because it opens late March.
[00:16:25] Theresa: Yes, that’s true. It had only been open for like a week, which is probably why it was not super crowded. And we went, I would agree with that. And the only other thing I would say, as far as the, I might as well jump down on my list to number six, just to keep all of it together. But in Paris was the Seine River cruise. I thought that was my other favorite thing in Paris. It was really good.
I would recommend anyone do that.
[00:16:48] Annie: Was this a regular Canauxrama? I have never done the one in Canauxrama. Was it a normal one hour river cruise?
[00:16:54] Theresa: I think it was longer than that. It felt longer than that. And we got see, we booked it in time to see the Eiffel Tower twinkling. They offer like a charcuterie board and some macarons and champagne. Probably could have skipped all that, but the cruise itself was very inexpensive and very good, and we all loved it.
So that was really good. And do it when, book it, and they tell you when to book it to see the Eiffel Tower twinkling, so that was nice.
[00:17:18] Annie: And it started from where?
[00:17:20] Theresa: That is a great question. It was hard to get to, I know that, because we took an Uber, and the Uber driver tried to, he really, it was one of those ones that ripped you off, he tried to pretend like he didn’t know where we were and kept moving, so we kept moving to try to find him. So he wanted us just to say, you know, we couldn’t find him, so he could get his money either, anyway.
But he ended up taking us and delaying it. That was not good. We ended up just telling him we have to get out right now. So, that was not good. But the Uber on the way back, I think you just run into that every once in a while, you know, a bad Uber driver. But I cannot remember the, where was that?
[00:17:55] Annie: So, I think these are the folks that do, because we had talked about it on the podcast, but about my friend who had done a Canal Saint Martin cruise. So one of the ones that they offer is the one on Canal Saint Martin. Then they do another one called Bistro sur la Seine, Croisière Bistro sur la Seine.
Oh, I can, I can look at it in English. Then it won’t be so awkward. Bistro Cruise on the Seine.So this one is a two hour cruise, and it does include, it’s from 30 Euros, and it does include the charcuterie, the cheese platter blah blah blah. So that’s probably the one you did.
[00:18:32] Theresa: That is the one I did.
Yes, and it goes from let’s see…. The very cool thing was you got to see the locks going, like when you came back in, they lowered the locks and everything while you’re on the boat. I thought that was cool.
[00:18:43] Annie: Oh, so it starts from the Port de L’arsenal which is close to the Canal Saint Martin. It’s, as close as you can get without going to it. So it goes from the Porte d’Arsenal. So it’s a little bit out of the way. The starting point is not where, it’s not a place where most people will be.
Yeah.
[00:19:01] Theresa: I would agree with that. It was a little bit hard to get to, but I thought it was a good value and we really did enjoy it.
[00:19:05] Annie: Very good. Okay. All right. So let’s see.
Saint Rémy Bull Races and Festivals
[00:19:09] Annie: That was, we skipped to number six, now we have to go back to number three, the bull races and running of the bulls in Saint Rémy. So this was on your September trip where you went to Provence. Do tell!.
[00:19:22] Theresa: Yeah, we talked about this when I met with you. Because I told you this is something I’d heard on your podcast and it sounded so interesting. I didn’t want to do the ones where the bulls were killed. I wanted to do the ones where they take the things off their horns. And I don’t, I think you advised or on your podcast, to maybe look for what was available a year from now, because they only announced these festivals like a few months in adVence.
So it’s hard to know when you’re booking in adVence where to be for the festival. But through googling and figuring things out, I think we figured out that St. Remy had a festival that was in conjunction with these bull races. So that’s why we picked there. And the apartment that we stayed in, which I think I put a link to on there, overlooked where they did the bull race through town, which was very cool.
The running of the bulls through town, which was very cool. Yes. And then, the drawback of that, I will say, is that because it was so great located and you could just look out your window and see the running of the bulls through the streets, they do block off the streets. So wanting to get your car, or putting your car back is a little bit problematic, when they’re having festivals.
So I will note that, if you’re right in the middle of the thing, so keep that in mind. It was a very good place that we stayed and we absolutely love the running of the bulls. My husband went down where the bulls went rogue while we were there. Very, very fun. It was adrenaline rush. And then we did the bull races as well while we were there.
And loved it. And it was probably where we regretted the most we didn’t speak French. Because no one that we encountered spoke English at these bull races. And so, this older gentleman wanted to talk to us so much and tell us who his favorite people were and how much he enjoyed the bull races.
And I speak some Spanish. I do not speak French. So that was regrettable.
[00:21:12] Annie: Yeah. That’s, that’s…
Finding Out About Festivals
[00:21:13] Annie: Okay. So I want to expound a little bit on something you said that was very interesting, how to find out about festivals. If you know about a festival that you are really interested in, you have to know the name, the exact same name, knowing the exact name if possible. And then you look at when did they have it last year. Because the way Google works, Google ranks things by, one of the things is how long has this website been up, or this page been up. And so it’s more likely to show you the page from last year than the page from next year, even if that page exists, sometimes the page hasn’t been put up yet.
So if you see when it was last year, probably it’s going to be the same time of year and if it’s on a weekend, say the third weekend of April, it’s probably going to be the third weekend of April next year. So that’s one good way to figure it out before there’s much information online about this, because that’s how locals know about it.
They know that, you know, the third weekend of April is when we do this.
[00:22:13] Theresa: Yes. And then I also think this was in your podcast or maybe from you directly that, I emailed once I found out when it kind of was held last year, I emailed the tourism office in St. Remy and they were super helpful. And then I even emailed the lady as we got closer and she sent back from our apartment, our Airbnb.
And said, Hey, I’ve got the program now for this. If you want to plan on it, it was all in French, I will say. And so one thing, regrettably, that I didn’t understand was they start the running of the bulls at a lake outside of town and they had a free breakfast and it was all, but I didn’t understand that’s what it was in French, when I do translation it made no sense to me. But when we got there, that’s what we understood. So, if I would have understood that I would have went there at 9 in the morning planned on being there at this lake. We just enjoyed the festival so much. We like festivals.
We did, we just happened upon one when we went to Barcelona. Amazing. Amazing. So I just think that that’s worth Googling to try to find out if you’re going to be in the area.
[00:23:18] Annie: Yes. If there’s one that you’ve heard of that you really want to go to, figure it out and then call the tourist office. They always speak English. They can help you. They can even point you to the brochure, perhaps. Maybe it’s not in English because, I mean, honestly, you know… they don’t try to promote these things to English speaking visitors.
These are for locals.
[00:23:39] Theresa: Totally understandable. That’s why it’s good. Even the person in our Airbnb really didn’t speak English very well, which is fine. We did Google Translate. It was fine. But some of those things don’t translate word for word very well, and it’s hard to understand what it is, but now going back, I would go to Saint Remy again just for that.
It was cool. We saw the fireworks while we were there. The closest I’ve ever been to fireworks. Ash rained down on us. It was crazy.
[00:24:03] Annie: So this Running of the Bulls in Saint Rémy was in September. So if people want to look it up, that’s what they should look up for.
Okay.
Pétanque on the Beach and Pizza in Italy
[00:24:11] Annie: Number four with learning Pétanque on the beach and dinner with hosts in Italy, Menton. Oh, okay. Do tell. What was that about?
[00:24:20] Theresa: Yes. So I found, I think I did this one through booking.com, but she and her husband, the host, when we checked in, she said, Oh, we’re getting ready to go play pétanque on the beach with my inlaws. And I was like, Oh, I’ve always wanted to do it, like everywhere I go, we see them playing pétanque and I just want to play.
We like games like that. So I went to play. She’s like, come on down to the beach, we’ll show you. So we spent like three hours on the beach with them learning to play pétanque . Had the best time. She was from Toulouse originally, married an American, sounds very familiar. And they were amazing.
So then she had recommended a pizza place for us to go to, but we thought it was closed, so we were going to go to a different one. But she ended up texting me and said, Hey, I just saw that place was closed. We are going to eat pizza in Italy, if you want to just jump in the car and go with us. I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is amazing. So we went with them.
Very, very reasonableto go to Italy to eat. So that was amazing. And I just think it was in Ventimiglia it’s the name in Italy.
[00:25:22] Annie: Ventimiglia, yeah.
[00:25:24] Theresa: Okay, just right across the border from Menton.
[00:25:26] Annie: It’s right on the other side.
[00:25:28] Theresa: Yes, and so that was just so amazing. I think part of what makes vacation special, besides, we like history and, you know, my husband really likes art and we love beautiful scenery and nature and stuff, but just getting to meet the people and finding people that you can talk to, that welcome you in and include you was just so amazing.
So that, playing pétanque on the beach was so amazing. Getting to go to dinner with them was amazing. If we could have spoken French with this gentleman at the bull races, I would have loved that. I love just even not being able to talk to him. He was so fun.
[00:26:02] Annie: This is the great thing about… when you’re friendly, when you have a friendly attitude towards life in general and open, then all sorts of wonderful things can happen. If you’re dour and like, oh, want to speak to the manager, blah, blah, blah. Nothing good.
Not in France, not in France.
And I have to say, I have never played pétanque on the beach. I mean, isn’t it too, isn’t the sand too soft?
[00:26:24] Theresa: Well, you know, a lot of times on that, those beaches are a little pebbly rock, kind of. So it was, it was good, it was… I mean, I’ve never played pétanque before, but it seems good.
[00:26:34] Annie: Oh, that’s good. And they probably had enough sets that they could loan you some.
[00:26:40] Theresa: Yeah, we all played together. We took turns playing teams. It was great. It was absolutely fantastic. Yes, I would totally recommend that. And I think I put the link to her so you can book directly with her, if you want, because she has several. (AirBnBs)
[00:26:52] Annie: And she was the owner of the Airbnb. Yes, I will put that in the show notes as well. Fantastic.
Ventimiglia Market
[00:26:58] Theresa: And the only thing I would say is, if we were going again, we left on Friday, wished we would have left on Saturday, even tried to change my tickets, but I couldn’t, because I found out once I got there, they have a huge market in Ventimiglia…
[00:27:10] Annie: Ventimiglia. Yeah.
[00:27:12] Theresa: …on Friday, yeah.
It’s like one of the largest ones in Italy, I guess, and it goes all day long, so I love markets, and wished I could have stayed for that, so I will be going back to Menton, just to go to that.
[00:27:23] Annie: And that’s on a Friday. On a Friday or Saturday?
On Fridays.
[00:27:27] Theresa: So I think I’ll go back to the Lemon Festival, I’ve already talked to green who owns it. I think we’ll probably go back next year and plan on going there.
[00:27:35] Annie: Yeah, I would like to go to the Lemon Festival. I should plan on that. Because that’s just a fun event that I haven’t gone to, but knowing about the market in Ventimiglia is good. Yeah. But you need a car to get, well, maybe there’s a train that would go from Menton to Ventimiglia, yeah, probably there’s trains.
[00:27:51] Theresa: Yeah, I would probably ask her if I need to do that, but we did rent a car there. I will say the parking was very expensive in Menton. So, do plan on that.
[00:28:00] Annie: Yeah, yeah, parking is not cheap on the Riviera, or in Paris, or in big cities in general, you know, it’s just a fact of life. (Mid-roll Ad Spot)
Charming Markets of Provence
[00:28:10] Annie: Number five is market in Lourmarin.
[00:28:13] Theresa: We love that. So we went to several markets. The one in Roussillon was pretty small, cute Roussillon, though, loved it, but small.
[00:28:20] Annie: Yeah, It’s a teeny town, like, there’s 500 people full time, perhaps not even that many.
[00:28:24] Theresa: Very cute. But yeah, a small market.
[00:28:26] Annie: Yeah.
[00:28:27] Theresa: Then, Bonnieu was small, but Lourmarin was huge.
And it took us quite a while just to walk through it, but we, I loved it. In fact, this jacket I’m wearing is from there.
I bought so many clothes there and don’t regret one thing. I loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Yes.
[00:28:45] Annie: So Lourmarin is not a huge city, but you really enjoyed the market. Do you remember what day of the week it was?
[00:28:51] Theresa: It was the day after we got there. I can tell you because I made a note of it.
[00:28:55] Annie: Well, I can find it and put it in the show notes as well.
[00:28:57] Theresa: I think it was on a Wednesday, but I can, because we went to Roussillon’s market, which I think was on Tuesday, and then maybe that went on Wednesday. I would have to look it to make sure, but I think that’s right.
[00:29:08] Annie: Right. So these markets in Provence, they’re not all created equal. Some of them attract a lot of vendors and some don’t. It just depends. I mean, the one, they will want to go to the places where they sell, you know, that’s like business. Nobody wants to be in a teeny market where five people come an hour.
It’s not a good use of your time, so…
[00:29:28] Theresa: Yeah, Vence, we went to Vence, and it was very small market, but Lourmarin was amazingly big, and I guess Apt is even bigger.
[00:29:35] Annie: Yes, Apt for a big market, yes. Lourmarin, I didn’t realize the market was big, so that’s good to know. That’s very good to know.
[00:29:43] Theresa: It was good.
[00:29:44] Annie: So number six is Canauxrama, which we already mentioned.
Rothschild Gardens and Villa
[00:29:47] Annie: Number seven, the Rothschild Gardens and Villa near Nice. And that was in your September visit.
[00:29:55] Theresa: Which I know many people have mentioned before, but I will just say ditto to that because it was amazing. My husband really did not enjoy driving there from Vence. That was not a pleasant experience. It was on our 1st day after, I think, no sleep. So, no, it was the 2nd day, but he, he said that was probably the worst driving experience he had, because it was very busy. But I knew that going in, and he did okay, he was fine, and we really enjoyed everything about the Villa Rothschild. It was good.
[00:30:23] Annie: Yeah, was parking difficult there?
[00:30:25] Theresa: The parking was fine.We’re in September. Yeah, it was just the driving.
[00:30:30] Annie: Yeah, but this was in September. He had already driven in France in April.
[00:30:36] Theresa: Well, you know, my daughter drove in April. He drove in Amsterdam though, so he was a little used to it, but he had not driven in France before, but he did fine. He did fine.
Navigating French Roads and Tolls
[00:30:48] Theresa: He said it was, I will say they, people had said how many tolls there were on your podcast. I’m going to say it was a lot more than I was expecting, like annoying amount of tolls.
Like, can’t we just buy something so we can just go through these? That would be nice, which I’m sure you can. I don’t know how expensive it would be, but yeah, it’s an annoying amount of starting and stopping.
[00:31:08] Annie: Yeah. Yeah, so yes, so every time you change freeway company you have to pay and get a ticket for the next one. So it’s a bit annoying. I have, I don’t know what you call it, it’s a little box that gets, it just gets charged my credit card once a month.
[00:31:27] Theresa:
[00:31:27] Annie: I can just go anywhere.
[00:31:29] Theresa: Like a fast pass. So I will say, just to give people an idea, for the two weeks or 12 days we stayed in Provence, I would say we spent about 800 between the car, which I got through Costco or Sam’s, and then the parking and the tolls, so if they want to plan on something like that.
[00:31:47] Annie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you’re including the rental, the price for the rental.
[00:31:51] Theresa: Yeah, which was about 350, I think, for 12 nights, which I didn’t think was bad.
[00:31:55] Annie: No, that’s not too bad. That’s not bad. So you paid a lot of tolls. You must have gone back and forth, back and forth a few times. And parking. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s expensive. I mean, the Riviera is expensive.
[00:32:06] Theresa: Right. But we had a great time, so it was worth it, I think.
[00:32:09] Annie: Yeah, you’re worth it.
[00:32:13] Theresa: It was good.
Discovering Roman Ruins
[00:32:13] Annie: Number eight is Roman Ruins. The Pont du Gard and Glanum. Yeah.
[00:32:17] Theresa: Yes, you know, I heard Elyse talk about these, At least Glanum and Les Bories and I really didn’t know what to expect because she always downplays it. She’s like, well, you know, some people don’t like this, but my husband and I, we really enjoyed it. I guess we could envision it. We really liked the history of it.
I thought it was very cool. We really enjoyed Glanum. Pont du Gard is gorgeous. The only thing I regret about that is that we didn’t get there in time to do the tour, because we went to the… the luminary thing. How do you? Carrières de Lumiéres. We went to that first and because it made sense, but 2020 hindsight probably would have went to Pont to Guard first and then came back through there because…
[00:32:54] Annie: I didn’t even realize there were tours at the Pont du Gard.
[00:32:57] Theresa: Yes, and the last one was at 2 o’clock. And so I really wished we would have made it in time for that. But we did. That was we’ll go back because I would go back to that.
[00:33:08] Annie: Oh, yeah. It’s very pleasant to go to the Pont du Gard. So if you want to see, I mean, I can put a link in the show notes to their website, they probably list the times for these tours, it’s probably the same most days.
[00:33:19] Theresa: Yeah, I bet it is too. And she did say, I asked the lady, and I guess it does depend on the days, but you know, there are two different sides, which I didn’t realize. They probably heard that in the podcast, but didn’t register that there’s one side with the museum and one side that doesn’t have the museum.
So you probably want to go to the side with the museum so you can do the tour from there.
[00:33:39] Annie: Yeah, yeah. The other side is where locals go more. But I, I go to either one. All it is is, the Pont du Gard is over a river, of course, it’s a bridge and you can arrive from one side of the river or the other side of the river. And I don’t remember off the top of my head which one is which, so I couldn’t tell you.
[00:33:58] Theresa: I do know that they did want you to pay parking at both because we realized we were on the wrong side, but they did validate it when we got to the other when they credited, so…
[00:34:06] Annie: Yes, yes, yes. You pay for parking. And there you pay for the day. So whether you stay for 10 minutes or a day, you pay the same. And it’s about, what, 9 euros or 10 euros or something?
[00:34:15] Theresa: I think that’s right.
[00:34:16] Annie: Yeah, it’s not that much.
Very good. Villa Rothschild, you said you really liked it. Roman Ruins, you liked it.
Glanum, you liked. How long did you spend at Glanum?
[00:34:25] Theresa: Probably not more than an hour. We walked through the whole thing, maybe an hour and a half. It wasn’t that long because we did that before we went to Cassis. Then we went to the Les Bories a different day and that was also, we really enjoyed that too. Totally different time periods, but very enjoyable.
[00:34:41] Annie: So, Les Bories, you mean the little hut?
[00:34:44] Theresa: Yes.
[00:34:44] Annie: Yes. Okay. Did you go to the Van Gogh, the mausoleum across the street from Glanum? There’s a hospice, the place where he was,where they took care of him after he cut his ear off.
[00:34:58] Theresa: No, we didn’t do that, so that’s been on the list for next time.
I had read about it, but we didn’t get that done. We were going to try to get to Calanque Tour in Cassis, that’s what I’m saying, there’s just way too much to do. There was so much to do, I couldn’t get it all in.
[00:35:11] Annie: Right, there’s so many, and Cassis is not that far, but it’s an hour drive, you know, again, in a different direction. So yeah. Yeah.
[00:35:19] Theresa: We made the full tour, because we did Nice, Vence, then down to Roussillon, St. Remy, and then back to Cassis, then Toulon, then up to Menton.
[00:35:29] Annie: Yeah.
[00:35:29] Theresa: We did a full tour.
[00:35:31] Annie: You went a lot of places. That’s cool.
Foodie Adventures in Paris
[00:35:34] Annie: Oh, and then you like the spice store at J’ai De Tout.
[00:35:38] Theresa: Oh, yes. So this was in Paris, too. And this we owe all to you, because this you had on your food tour and I even told the guy, I was like, you guys are going to be getting visited because she has this on her food tour and we loved it. We would go back. My daughter and I love cooking and food so much.
I think anytime we go to Paris, we will go to those two stores, the G DETOU and Dehillerin. It was, they were amazing.
[00:36:01] Annie: Yeah, Dehillerin is, it’s an exotic. So both of those are my Les Halles self-guided food tour. I say it every time because people tell me, Oh, the food part doesn’t start fast enough. But yes, at first you go to through like some history, some restaurants, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then you get to the food at the end. Because I did this on purpose, I didn’t want you to be carrying a lot of food that you bought in those places for an hour doing the rest of the tour. So I just thought, Oh, we’ll finish with the food and then it’s fresh and then they can go back and eat it. Anyway.
[00:36:35] Theresa: Which we did do it probably wrong. We had started to go, I think, on Sunday morning, I want to say. Whatever day we started, a lot of the food shops were closed because we ended up doing it on Monday and a lot of the food shops were closed, but these were open. And we just enjoyed that. I think we went back, we probably spent an hour in the G Detou.
probably that long in the other one.
[00:36:58] Annie: Yeah, so this is a spice and specialty cooking items store, but it’s, they sell food.Dehillerin sells knives and pots and pans and things like that. But G Detou sells spices, all sorts of delicious things. And if you like cooking, you will love that place because it’s like paradise for a specialty cook.
[00:37:22] Theresa: It’s like a candy store for things that you might not be able to find other places, and they were so nice. Their little meat store wasn’t even open, but I said, Oh, we’d like to see that. So we went and opened it so we could go over there and see it. I mean, they were very nice.
[00:37:37] Annie: Yes, so Sunday afternoon and Monday are not the best two days to do this. And it says that in the tour, as a matter of fact, because some things are closed. Fantastic. But overall you enjoyed the food tour?
[00:37:49] Theresa: Oh, it was good. Yes. Very good. Totally worthwhile. I would do it. I will say, I listened to almost all, well, I did listen to all of yours, even probably multiple times, all of your tours before we ever went. And I probably annoyed everyone with how much I said, Oh, Annie says, Oh, Annie says, Annie says to do this, because we went on that little tour through Tours by Locals with David Blanc that had been on your podcast, on the first day we were in Paris, and I think I must have said Annie, probably 40 times. And he is like, oh, I’m going to have to tell Annie you mentioned it.
[00:38:23] Annie: That’s funny. Did you like the rats in the food tour?
[00:38:27] Theresa: The rat?
[00:38:27] Annie: The rats, do you remember the rats?
[00:38:29] Theresa: No. What was the rat?
[00:38:31] Annie: Oh, I take you to a rat store at the beginning.
[00:38:34] Theresa: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. That’s right. That, like with the stuffed animals, and I mean, not stuffed animals. Yeah, stuffed animals, right. Taxidermy things. Yeah.
[00:38:44] Annie: Taxidermy.
[00:38:45] Theresa: I’m sorry. I was totally not on that same page. Yes. Yes.
[00:38:50] Annie: Very good. All right.
Versailles: The Queen’s Hamlet
[00:38:52] Annie: Now we’re still staying with your April visit. You went to the little village and gardens in Versailles. What do you mean the little village?
[00:39:01] Theresa: The Queen’s Hamlet.
The Hamlet. We got in at like 5:30 in the morning into Paris. So we had some time by the time we got to Versailles. They let us check in early and leave our luggage there, which was nice. But we went out immediately to Versailles. We got in before 9am and got it free. So that was nice. But we really enjoyed the gardens there and the little Queens Village. I don’t know why it was just cute. It was so cute. And we were almost the only people there. So it was just fun to wander around and pretend like we were from this time period that we were having our own little village.
[00:39:36] Annie: So Marie Antoinette was not crazy, she knew she was not a farm girl, but she just enjoyed the putting on the…, you know, just… it was just a performance for her and she enjoyed her animals and things. And it’s… it’s very cute. It’s very adorable. And they
they have animals and things today.
[00:39:54] Theresa: Yes. probably.
[00:39:55] Annie: I don’t know if they were out when you went, but…
[00:39:57] Theresa: No, I don’t think, although we did see wildlife while we were there. I know the ducks we took pictures of and things. But it was just adorable and so picturesque. If you want an Instagrammable photos. Super cute.
[00:40:09] Annie: Very very true, very true.
Calanque Cruise in Cassis
[00:40:11] Annie: And your number 11 is the Calanque cruise. So now we’re back to your September visit down in the south,did you do it from Marseille or from Cassis?
[00:40:20] Theresa: Cassis. Cassis.
[00:40:22] Annie: Okay.
[00:40:22] Theresa: And I will say, I debated on trying to buy these in advance, so I wanted to say something to let people know. That we just walked up, which did work out, because I didn’t know what time we were going to get there. And that’s always the pain with buying them in advance. Is that you don’t know if you’re going to make the right time tickets or not, you know.
So, that one worked out great. We just walked up, you can buy them 30 minutes in advance before they leave. And tell them which one you want, how many columns you want to see. And I thought it was reasonable. I think it was 30 euro or something per person.
And I think we saw eight columns. So I thought that was very reasonable. Water was beautiful. Yeah.
[00:40:57] Annie: Yeah.
[00:40:58] Theresa: It was nice.
[00:40:59] Annie: So this is another very good point that you’re making, you know, don’t expect…, sometimes some things you just buy that day.
[00:41:06] Theresa: Mm hmm.
[00:41:07] Annie: I know when you’re coming from far away, you’re probably worried that you may, maybe it’ll be sold out or something. And it is possible. When you’re visiting, and it’s a special weekend, it’s a long weekend, which we have many of those in April, May, and sometimes even in June we have some. Those weekends, yes, things will sell out. But if it’s not one of those, then probably the boat cruises will be fine. You can buy a ticket, you might not get on, I mean, maybe the boat that’s leaving right this minute is full, but you can get another one in half an hour or in an hour or whatever.
[00:41:43] Theresa: Right.
Travel Tips and Reflections
[00:41:44] Theresa: And I will say that’s part of what made, I think, the Provence trip very nice is that I had tentative plans. Every day, I probably had six things that I kind of wanted to do, but I put them in order. If we had time to do it we did it. If we didn’t have time, we cut it off the list.
Maybe moved it to the next day, or maybe we just cut it out. And I do think that was a nice way to do it. I wish we had a month, and we could have just done one thing a day, but we didn’t, My husband felt like we probably squeezed in too many things on one day a few times, but for the most part, we just cut it out if we were feeling too tired and just didn’t do it.
[00:42:19] Annie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My husband’s getting to that point too. He’s like, you want to do what next?
[00:42:25] Theresa: Right.
Well, I will say, we did on the second day we were there, I think we did the market, the Matisse Chapel, ate lunch, went to Nice, did Villa Rothschild, went to Eze, and then back to the place to have dinner at the hotel. That was probably a little much.
[00:42:42] Annie: That’s too much.
[00:42:44] Theresa: Yeah, that was, that was one of those days that my husband said, yeah, that was too much.
[00:42:47] Annie: Don’t do that again.
[00:42:48] Theresa: But, we enjoyed everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:42:52] Annie: So we’re going to hook it back to where we started. There is lots to do, lots to do in France. You will not run out. You will not get bored. The only place that people talk about where you can get bored is the Plus Beau Village de France, because those only have lots of things to do on specific days of the year. The rest of the time, they are dead. If your plan is to go through all the Plus beau Village de France, then you could run out of things to do. But if you are in a major area, the major touristy areas of France, and touristy in my opinion is not a bad word, it’s actually a compliment.
It means that people go a lot because it’s lovely. But if you’re in Provence, in Paris, in the Dordogne,in Strasbourg, inthe Normandy beaches places, if you’re in the Basque country, there is a lot to do. There’s probably more to do than you have time for. If you’re in the middle of the Aveyron, which, I love the Aveyron, but… but it’s not as, it’s not a happening place.
We mentioned that on the podcast frequently, like just time it right, go to the right places at the right time. And I think both April and September are really, really good times to visit France, really.
Going to Arles
[00:44:19] Theresa: Right. Yeah, we got good prices and it was good weather and, you know, a little bit of rain in April, but not bad. And, I will say, I didn’t even talk about Arles. We went to Arles and we happened to be at Arles from St. Remy. That it was ended up being a free day of historic passes. So even though I had the Monument Pass, which would’ve got us in free most places, I think we went to the Coliseum, the Amphitheater, and the Cloister all for free anyway.
That was nice.
[00:44:45] Annie: Nice. Yeah.
[00:44:46] Theresa: That worked out well.
[00:44:47] Annie: Yeah, and because it’s a free day, there were probably quite a few people there just enjoying it as well.
What they Learned from the Trips
[00:44:53] Annie: So you mentioned that you had great food, is there anything specific that you learned that you didn’t like, or that you particularly like, that you want to mention?
[00:45:05] Theresa: One thing that my husband, he’s had a few good steaks, especially in Paris, that I mentioned a couple of the restaurants where he had steaks. But a lot of them when we were in Provence, they were not very good. We had much better luck with pork or Italian food, actually, to tell you the truth than steak.
We finally just geared totally away from steak.
[00:45:22] Annie: Yeah, don’t have steak in France. It’s not good.
[00:45:24] Theresa: No.
[00:45:25] Annie: I’ve said that a million times on the podcast. How did you miss it?
[00:45:27] Theresa: I know!
I, well, I did hear it, but I guess I didn’t absorb it. And he really liked steak, so he kept trying it. But yeah, not, not, not good. So avoid that because he had many other foods that we love.
So just don’t get that there.
[00:45:41] Annie: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Keep it in. So one thing you say that you didn’t like was the virtual experience at the Orsay Museum.
[00:45:50] Theresa: Yeah, we did not like that at all. Nobody liked that. Because it was totally different. We did one in Rome at, oh, that, it was underneath Rome, I can’t even think of the name. But anyway, we were sitting down and it was cool and there was like a cave and they just projected things around you. It was very cool.
So I was thinking it was the same thing. Well, the one in the Orsay, you put on the VR headset and then you walk around. It was super hot. You ran into people. It was very disorienting and kind of made you dizzy and feel sick. So I would not recommend that. I would guide people towards VR experiences where they’re sitting down versus walking around.
[00:46:26] Annie: The one where we walked around was the Eternelle Notre Dame, Eternal Notre Dame, but I didn’t run into anybody.
[00:46:33] Theresa: You didn’t.
[00:46:34] Annie: No, I didn’t, and it wasn’t hot. So, yeah, if it’s hot, and uncomfortable, and too crowded, it wouldn’t be fun.
[00:46:40] Theresa: That was on my list to do with that Eternal Notre Dame, and we didn’t get to do it. So that’s good to know that it is, is not that way, because it kind of turned me off.
[00:46:49] Annie: It’s not that, you don’t move that much, you take a few steps, but you don’t move that much really, it’s. And you’re just with whoever you went with, and you can see that person, you can see an avatar of that person, and you can see avatars of other people as well, but I didn’t run into anybody, which would have been creepy.
[00:47:05] Theresa: Yeah, it was probably just too crowded at the Orsay is what I’m guessing. They just had too many people in there. But, so that was something. And then my daughter didn’t really care for the water taxis in Paris. But that’s mainly because it took too long, she thought, to get from where we were going.
It wasn’t like a leisurely experience. The tide was high, so they only had three stops on it, for one thing, or the water level was too high, so they could only do three stops.
[00:47:29] Annie: By water taxi you mean theBatobus?
[00:47:31] Theresa: Yeah, and I was really looking forward to those, so I was the one that said we should do them. But they were like, no, we should have just taken a taxi.
You would have had to end up walking. And we had already done the river cruise, so they’d had that experience. So she was like, no, skip that next time. I was like, alright, fair.
[00:47:46] Annie: Because of high water and they couldn’t stop everywhere?
[00:47:49] Theresa: Yeah, and because it was such a far walk, like where it dropped us off to get back to our hotel, the closest one was such a far walk, we almost needed to take a taxi anyway to get back there. So I was like, we should have just taken a taxi to begin with, you know, but that was live and learn. Not a huge deal.
Nothing that we experienced was a huge deal anywhere. I would say that we had a great time in both places.
[00:48:10] Annie: Yeah.
Final Thoughts and Future Plans
[00:48:11] Annie: You had a good time, overall you had a good time, which is fantastic.
[00:48:15] Theresa: Yes. And the podcast did help me and was really responsible for the second trip in general.
[00:48:21] Annie: Well, I do what I can.
[00:48:22] Theresa: Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Annie.
[00:48:26] Annie: All right, Teresa, thank you so much for talking to me. This has been delightful and I hope you have many more fantastic trips to France. Do you think you will come back or are you moving on to other countries?
[00:48:38] Theresa: No, what’s so funny is my husband said, first of all, when I booked all these trips to France, he was like, we need to stop going to France so much. But then after we got back to France, he was like, ah, we could go back a couple more times. So he was sold because there’s so much more to do, you know, I mean, really.
So yes, we will definitely be back. In fact, I wanted to do bootcamp, but we already had another trip booked. So I don’t think I can make a pick.
[00:48:59] Annie: Another year.
[00:49:00] Theresa: I know another year, so…
[00:49:02] Annie: Merci beaucoup, Theresa!
[00:49:04] Theresa: Merci, Annie. Thank you!
[00:49:06] Annie: Au revoir!
Thank you Patrons!
[00:49:13] Annie: Again, I want to thank my patrons for giving back and supporting the show. Patrons get several exclusive rewards for doing that. You can see them at patreon.com/joinus.
And a special shout out this week to my new Join Us in France champions, Diana, who didn’t share her last name, and Elizabeth Keller.
And thank you also Ellen Konnert for increasing your pledge. Would you join them too? You can do it for as little as $3 a month, but if you can afford it, I would love to have you pledge more, so you have more access to more rewards.
And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/ElysArt
If you’re planning a trip to France and you need personalized advice, you can hire me as your itinerary consultant. Choose the Bonjour service for a one hour Zoom call with tailored recommendations, or go to VIP for the same call plus a detailed follow up guide. Ready to start? Visit joinusinfrance.com/boutique and follow the simple email instructions.
VoiceMap Tours
[00:50:29] Annie: Joinusinfrance.com/boutique is also where you can buy a bundle of my Voicemap tours at a discounted price or reserve your spot for the bootcamp, and there aren’t a lot of spots left by now, or you could also hire me to be your private driver on a day around the Southwest of France.
Pink Flamingos
[00:50:48] Annie: Let’s talk about the fascinating world of the pink flamingos of Camargue. When you think of the Camargue, and I hope you do, you probably picture wild horses, black bulls, and of course, the pink flamingos. These graceful pink birds are an iconic symbol of the region, and they have an incredible story to tell.
Flamingos are surprisingly long lived. Some wild flamingos in the Camargue have been tracked for over 40 years, thanks to a scientific banding program started in 1977. The oldest known wild flamingo in the region, tagged as Ann, has been regularly seen at locations like the Salins d’Aigues-Mortes and Étang d’Ingril.
In captivity, flamingos can live even longer with records reaching 83 years.
One of the most fascinating aspects of flamingos is their distinctive beak. It functions like a built in filter, much like a whale’s baleen. They use it to sift through salt water for tiny invertebrates, algae, and crustaceans.
Unlike most birds, flamingos thrive in extremely saline environments, thanks to a special gland that expels excess salt through their nostrils. Some people do that too. And what about that famous pink color? Well, flamingos aren’t born pink, they start out grey. Over time, their diet, rich in carotenoid pigments, transform their feathers into the stunning shades of pink and orange that we see today. It takes about four to seven years for a flamingo to develop its full adult coloring, so if you see the gray ones, they’re babies.
Flamingos are highly social birds. They live in large colonies that can number in the thousands. They also raise their chicks collectively, forming nursery groups that protect them from predators.
Nesting sites are carefully chosen, typically small islands surrounded by saltwater lagoons, making them difficult for predators to reach. Since 1977, the Tour du Valat Research Center has been monitoring flamingo populations, helping scientists understand migration patterns and population dynamics across the Mediterranean region.
Their work has been crucial in ensuring the survival of these birds. However, flamingos remain vulnerable. The wetlands they depend on are threatened by pollution, habitat destruction, and human activity, such as boating and tourism. Yes, tourism!
Protecting these unique birds requires active conservation efforts, not just in the Camargue, but across their entire migratory range. The flamingos of the Camargue are a true success story, proving that with scientific research and conservation, even very delicate birds and ecosystems can thrive.
So, next time you visit southern France, be sure to take a moment to appreciate these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat. And I have to say thank you to my husband, who, for Valentine’s Day, gifted me a donation to the conservation of pink flamingo.
The group that does this is called ‘Adopt un Flamant’, so adopt a flamingo, and you can visit them at MonFlamant.com. So, M O N F L A M A N T in French, of course. And it’s a wonderful initiative, I absolutely love it.
The Future of Paris Metro
[00:54:36] Annie: And now about the future of the Paris Metro. You know, a city’s public infrastructure matters a lot, and this is particularly important in Paris, which has one of the best metro systems in the world.
And it’s about to get better! The city is about to welcome the MF19, a brand new train model designed for greater comfort, accessibility and eco-friendliness. It’s manufactured by Alstom, that’s a French metro and train company, and 410 of these modern trains will gradually replace aging metro cars across 8 lines by 2033. And that includes the busy lines 8 and 13. I take the line 8 when I’m staying at Patricia’s, so, yay! So this MF19 train comes with USB ports, ergonomic seating, better ventilation, and a sleek LED lit design.
It has an open gangway or boa style. That means there are no barriers between cars so passengers can move around more freely.
Now, the problem is that they will have slightly fewer seats than the older models. They are prioritizing space for strollers, wheelchairs and luggage, which in Paris is a good idea.
One of the biggest upgrades is the new braking system, which reduces energy use by 25 percent and emits far fewer fine particles, making it a cleaner, more sustainable choice. Before full deployment, the MF19 is undergoing extensive testing on line 10, ensuring that it adapts to the network’s infrastructure.
The first batch of trains have arrived late 2024 and most will be in operation by 2029. So, exciting times for Parisian commuters and visitors alike. So let me know, do you think these upgrades will improve the Paris Metro experience?
I sure hope they do.
My thanks to podcast editors, Anne and Christian Cotovan, who produced the transcripts.
Next week on the podcast, an episode about an anniversary adventure exploring Normandy, Saint Malo and Paris with Gianna Angelillo.
Lots of wonderful things to explore in that part of France.
Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together. Au revoir!
Copyright
[00:57:06] Annie: The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent, and Copyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance. It is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.
Copyright
[00:59:11] Annie: The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent, and Copyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance. It is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.