Table of Contents for this Episode
Category: Off the Beaten Track in France
[00:00:00]
Annie: This is Join Us in France, episode 603, six cent trois.
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 podcast: Puy du Fou, Arles Bullfighting, and Getting Pickpocketed in Paris
Annie: Today I bring you a conversation with Cas McIntyre, a well-traveled Australian who has visited France seven times and keeps coming back for more.
We talk about the Puy du Fou historical theme park, where I’m about to go visit myself in a couple of weeks, getting pickpocketed in Paris, never a good thing, but you can recover from it, stumbling into a traditional Camargue bullfight in Arles, and all the things that [00:01:00] do go wrong and wonderfully right when you travel through France on your own terms.
Support the podcast
Annie: Before we start, this show runs on listener support. If you want to work with me directly, I do itinerary consults, I have written tours of Paris on a GPS app called VoiceMap, and I do day trips around the southwest of France.
Everything is at joinusinfrance.com/boutique. And if you shop on Amazon anyway, starting at joinusinfrance.com/amazon costs you nothing, but helps the show.
Magazine segment
Annie: For the magazine part of the podcast, after my chat with Cas today, I’ll discuss the Louvre heist and something I’m all too familiar with, pollen allergies.
Welcome Cas McIntyre
Annie: Bonjour Cas McIntyre, and [00:02:00] welcome to Join Us in France .
Cas: Merci and Bonjour Annie.
Annie: Wonderful to have you all the way from Australia.
Cas: Yes.
Why France Keeps Calling
Annie: All right, so we’re going to talk about your many visits to France. I especially want to highlight also the Puy du Fou, where you’ve been and it hasn’t come up very much on the podcast. But first let’s start with just a little introduction.
You’re from Australia, you’ve come to France many times. I counted seven or so… 2004…
Cas: I think seven.
Annie: Right, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024. So, obviously we’re not going to go recapping all of those visits, but I would be interested to know what stands out to you from all of these visits. Like, what keeps bringing you back to France?
Cas: I think the package, the architecture, the history, the food, the chocolate. [00:03:00] There’s so much variety, the beauty of the countryside.
Annie: So, there’s a lot of things. You love the whole package.
Cas: Yes. Yeah, yeah. And now when I arrive, I can remember going from San Sebastian to Biarritz, and it was like, “Ah, I’m home,” you know? I can speak French. There’s the cheese shops, da, da, da, da.
Annie: Yeah.
Speaking French on Trips
Annie: So you do speak French?
Cas: You’re the opposite, aren’t you? You love Spain.
Annie: I love France as well. But you, so you do speak French
Cas: Oui, oui, oui. Oui.
Annie: That really helps.
Cas: Yes. I think when I was like 2019, I think I’d say some, one of those B standards, you know, intermediate. I don’t know which one.
Annie: All right. Well, that’s good. B, you can get around pretty well with a B level. Yeah, that’s excellent.
Cas: Yeah. So I could understand what people were saying, mostly. If they were very fast, no. And then I could, somewhat haltingly, but I could [00:04:00] add. And like I said in my discussion with you, I could have conversations with various Airbnb hostesses, you know, like about love affairs or about the food or about the history. Yes.
Annie: Wow, you can actually get around if you can talk about all of these things. That’s wonderful.
Solo or With Friends
Annie: So some of these trips you came by yourself, sometimes with other people, but would you say you mostly travel by yourself?
Cas: No, I think it’d be a… it’s a real mix. Because my friends over here know that I’m pretty competent in French, and I know where I’m going, and I know a lot of the areas, they like to come with me. So they’ll say, “Oh, can I come?”
Annie: Yeah. Yeah.
Train Travel and Packing
Annie: And how do you usually get around on these trips?
Cas: Always train. Well, sorry. Occasionally, if there is a friend who drives, I can go with them, but I will not drive. Not in it, no. No. It’s too scary [00:05:00] because, you know, you have to concentrate because it’s the wrong side of the road.
Annie: Right. It’s exactly the right side of the road, woman. But… but yes. Okay, so you take the train. So you’re very comfortable with taking the train.
Cas: Oh, yes, absolutely. I think, as I said in my notes to you, that the worst for me is that thing that it’s only about 10 minutes before the trains go that they announce at which platform and it’s like, “Ah, okay, got to run, got to go downstairs, upstairs,” you know, da, da, da, da, da.
Annie: Yeah, it’s usually 20 minutes though.
Cas: Maybe it feels like 10.
Annie: Yes, it does feel very rushed, that is true. You have to be ready. And this speaks to the need to travel light, because if you have a lot of stuff, it’s really difficult to take trains with a lot of stuff, because you really have to get there quickly.
Once they announce the platform, [00:06:00] everybody’s going to rush to that platform. You may have to take stairs. Some train stations are better than others. But just assume that you’re going to have to take stairs to go under the tracks and back on the other side. Some places will give you an elevator, but sometimes, usually actually, the elevator is reserved for people in wheelchairs. And so even if there’s an elevator, you can press the button all you want, it’s not going to come because you also have to have a card that authorizes the elevator to move. And sometimes you have, like moving sidewalks, you know, like escalators, but not always. Not always.
Traveling Heavy and Mailing Home
Annie: So travel light. How small can you manage on your trips?
Because you usually come for a long time.
Cas: I am really well known. I have a reputation amongst my friends for traveling very heavy.
Annie: Ah. So define very heavy.
Cas: Well, I know that when I came for four months, which was, mm, what was that? Autumn? No.[00:07:00]
Annie: 2024.
Cas: Almost winter. April. Yeah, yeah. April to summer. It was a pack up to my hip, so like really, really, really big.
Annie: Hmm.
Cas: Yep.
I had a big overcoat and gloves, you know, I came needing that, and then I just sent that sort of stuff back to Australia by post.
Annie: Oh, I see. That’s an interesting way to do it. You lighten the load as you go.
Cas: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, it’s one of my… It’s not even a goal to travel lighter, but it would be ideal. For other people, it’s ideal.
Annie: Yeah, I think it takes a bit of getting used to. I don’t tend to travel light very well either. But last time I went to Paris, I went just with a backpack, although I was only there for two nights. It felt really, like, naked. Like, I just had the backpack. That was it. It’s like, “Oh, where’s my stuff?
Where’s [00:08:00] my stuff?”
Cas: Well, it sounds like me. Yes, and I like a bit of variety of clothes and, you know, da, da, da, da, da. Shoes.
Annie: Yeah, I’m not like that. It’s more pillows for me. I don’t trust pillows where I go. So I like to bring my own.
Longer Stays and Corsica
Annie: It’s interesting to me that in the recap that you sent me, it looks like you, at first you came for a week or two, and the more times you came to France, the longer your visits got.
Cas: That’s true. I guess the first time it was just a week. You know, I’d never been to Europe. And then I came and I did that immersion course in Corsica, immersion school and then Corsica, and yeah. It’s just beautiful. It’s just beautiful.
And I was going to say, as my French progressed, you know, it became more and more comfortable.
You know, you could interact and with people and play with them, you know, enjoy a laugh and yeah.
Annie: That’s great. [00:09:00] And Corsica, how did you like Corsica?
Cas: I loved Corsica. It was very beautiful. Again, my friend and I didn’t have a car, so some of the best beaches and to get into the mountains we couldn’t do. And I remember, I had a little chat with a lady who actually made these earrings in Corsica, and I was asking her about the Revolution and the rebels and the, you know, the deaths and so on, and she said, “No, no, no, no, no, no.
We’re not at all like that. You know, that’s the problem.” What was it? That people, the French are selling our property and da, da, da. No, no, no. It’s nothing at all to do with independence and killing people and so on. Okay. Okay.
Annie: Yeah, as a visitor, it’s kind of hard to not stick your finger in it. I remember once I was in Russia, on a guided tour, and I had the very bad idea of asking the tour guide, [00:10:00] why were Russian tsars so intent on copying everything that they saw in France? Because a lot of the monuments look exactly the same.
They look like copy, carbon copies. And he’s like, “No, we don’t. It’s our own thing,” blah, blah. I was like, “Okay. All right.” Yeah.
Cas: Yes.
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: I think maybe tact was never my strong point, and maybe… maybe not yours either. So I don’t know.
Annie: Yeah, no, yeah, you belong, you belong.
Where to Stay in France
Annie: So when you come for a long time, what sorts of accommodations do you favor?
Cas: A mix, but probably mainly Airbnb.
Annie: Mm-hmm.
Cas: Which I think you don’t necessarily recommend, especially in Paris, I’m not sure. But for me as a solo traveler, the idea is to meet French people, to get some company.
Annie: Yeah, I think Airbnb can be good, but it’s also sometimes pretty bad. I have, in Paris I have not had very [00:11:00] good experiences with Airbnb, and I’m very lucky that I have a good friend who lives in Paris. And so when I go, I often stay with her more often than not. And I’ve done some Home Exchange in Paris as well with kind of mixed results.
I think you have to be really, really picky with Home Exchange in Paris because there are an awful lot of very small apartments owned by young people who just don’t ever upgrade them. Like, they don’t care if it’s really, really basic. And I’m at an age where I would like a bit of comfort.
So yeah, when I was younger, it would’ve been fine, but now I’m like, “Oh, geez, that bed is not comfortable.”
Cas: I had some really good luck with VRBO. I had a really beautiful, a small, beautiful apartment right overlooking the plaza in Cassis. And a couple one in Lyon. Really lovely apartments, but I think you have to be there for [00:12:00] a week, so…
Annie: Yeah. Yeah, that’s often the case.
So one of the problems with not having a car is that you probably can’t stay at any Gîtes de France, which would also be a good option if you’re going to be staying a while. You know, if you stay a week or longer, gîte are always a very nice solution. They’re usually nicer than Airbnb. They’re usually truly owned by individuals.
Usually Airbnb, especially in big city, it’s become a bit of an investment game. Like, people purchase apartments just to rent them out on Airbnb. That only works in places with high demand, but there’s plenty of high places in high demand in France. You know, Paris, Nice, big cities, Lyon, places like that have a lot of demand.
Anyway, so that’s good that you try different accommodations. I assume you stay at hotels at times as well?
Cas: Yeah, yeah. [00:13:00] Maybe big cities or, you know, the cities I might. Yeah, you know, just for mix it up a bit.
Annie: Yes, yes, yes.
(Mid-roll ad spot)
Puy du Fou Theme Park
Annie: Let’s talk about the Puy du Fou a little bit because it hasn’t come up on the podcast very much. So I’ll let you explain what it is, because it’s kind of an interesting concept.
Cas: So I wouldn’t have known about it except for my French teacher who loved it, and basically it’s a historical theme park. Yeah, it’s a historical theme park, very oriented to French history and to French culture, and in French.
Annie: Yes.
Cas: It’s huge, and it’s fantastic. So, I mean, I would strongly recommend.
So where is it? Nantes? Is it Angers? So that North-Northwest, if people can get there. It’s fun. It’s really, really fun. So I can remember there was the Vikings. Yes, the Vikings. The [00:14:00] theatrics are amazing, so the Viking boat emerged out of the lake, and there was a village.
You know, the villagers were playing happily. I guess they were the Gauls or something, playing happily and living their lives until this big boat emerged. And then there was a battle, and then there was, you know, I think a prince who rescued a princess or something. He came along on a horse. We had the Romans, and the Christians.
Yeah, so we had some… And lions and tigers. So we had a beautiful girl tied to a pillar, and lions and tigers and that. She was going to get eaten and… What do you call them? Chariots. Chariots going around a huge amphitheater.
Annie: Uh-huh.
Cas: There was the World War I. That was a small little thing, little, what would you call it?
Area. You went underground, from my memory. It was all dark, and there were letters as from a guy, a soldier writing to his fiancée. That was lovely.
The Middle Ages, and there was [00:15:00] Jeanne d’Arc, of course, you know, and people on horseback. There was, what was it? The Revolution, and there was an uprising in the Vendée.
Annie: Yes, yes. Yeah.
Cas: Which I had never heard about, so that was, mm, gruesome.
Yeah, so didn’t have the Revolution. Yeah, so there was– it covered a lot of history really, really, really well.
History Shows and Controversy
Cas: There was also, and I’m not quite sure how that fitted in, but a bird. Do you remember there was a bird display? So 200 birds, bird show.
Annie: Yeah. No, I don’t remember that.
But, you know, I mean, honestly, Puy du Fou is a bit controversial because obviously they picked a sort of historical storytelling that suits their inclinations. You know, history, the way you tell history has to do with the present as well, you know?
So, there’s some [00:16:00] politics that gets into history as well. I wouldn’t say Puy du Fou is famous for being extremely accurate.
Cas: Yeah.
Annie: It is a show. I mean, they present shows…
Cas: Exactly.
Annie: … around historical themes, and it’s much like any of these big theatrical productions that… you can see stuff like that at Disney and at Universal Studios, you know, like big stage productions.
It’s just that instead of being around Mickey Mouse or, I don’t know, some, you know, Raiders of the Last Ark or whatever, it’s going to be on…
Cas: like Harry Potter.
Annie: Or Harry Potter. It’s going to be on French history, so it’s going to be themes around French history. And I’m sure they tell it in the most favorable light.
Cas: Positive.
Annie: Yes, yes. Positive, favorable light possible.
Cas: Exactly.
Annie: I don’t think they’re going to insist much on some of the, you know, colonization that [00:17:00] France did and some… No, no, let’s not talk about those things. That would be annoying.
Cas: No, and as I say, I think the Revolution somehow or other was mainly missed out. There were…
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: …no heads and so on. Yeah.
Annie: Yeah. Now, I mean, they might change that, but…
Cas: Yeah. But it was fun. It was fun. I can’t remember how much it was. It was high quality.
Annie: You spent the whole day?
Cas: I spent two and a half days.
Annie: And a half days, wow!
Cas: Yeah. My girlfriend, she left after a day, and I wandered around for another day, or maybe we both did two days. We both. And then she left and I saw the bird show again, because it was pretty special.
Getting There and Language Tips
Annie: So, I don’t remember, is it easy to get to?
Cas: It was a bit of an effort. So we caught the train from Paris to Nantes or Angers, and then we had to catch a bus, which [00:18:00] did take you to the park.
Annie: Okay. Okay.
Cas: So if you’re going by public transport, it’s, you know, you have to want to get there.
Annie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But it’s doable. It’s doable.
Cas: It’s doable. And we actually had a beautiful chambre d’hôte about a kilometer or two away.
So, we were committed, you know, we walked from there to Puy du Fou. But you can also start… Do you remember that you can stay? They have a tent part and a early village and, you know, various- What would you call it?
Annie: Yeah, different accommodations on site if you would like.
Cas: Yeah, yeah.
Annie: It’s quite popular. A lot of French families will go. Not so many visitors because, like you said, it’s in French. I don’t think there was anything offered in English.
Cas: No, they had these things, what do you call, you know, translatey guides.
Annie: Okay, some headphones.
Cas: Yeah, which didn’t work terribly well, but that [00:19:00] was… that was a while ago. Maybe they’ve updated.
Annie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, if you’re in the area and you’re interested in French history or at least a version of French history that’s kind of romanticized a bit, that might be a fun thing.
Cas: I was going to say, I think it’d be fun, you know, if you had maybe teenage kids, maybe younger. But yeah, it’d be fun.
Annie: Yeah so long as they speak French. If you speak zero French, it might be a bit of a struggle because they don’t have rides or thrills singing.
Cas: No, no. No, no, that’s true. No, that’s true. And in fact, we did the… what do you call it? The supper, the dining thing that, at night, which was, again, very French, and my girlfriend said she didn’t enjoy it so much because she couldn’t understand any of it, and that was… There was no audio guides or anything like that.
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: And I struggled. I did struggle, you know? A little bit of bonjour and bonsoir.
Annie: That’s full immersion for you!
Cas: Yeah. Yes! [00:20:00] Yes!
Annie: Yeah. It’s like, you know, you’re walking without any rope. A tightrope without any help kind of thing. You know? You’re like, “Oh, am I going to make this or not?” Yeah.
Potato Ball Local Immersion
Cas: And that was what it was like when I went to the… Do you remember me in my notes, the potato ball at Lavoûte?
Annie: No, I don’t remember that. Tell me about it!
Cas: So, I have a friend in the middle of France, Lavoute-sur-Loire, so it’s Central Massif, I think. Near Le Puy-en-Velay.
And my friend was an, I think adjoint mayor, so deputy mayor, and little village, and they celebrate potatoes.
Annie: Okay.
Cas: So they had organized this big, big regional, you know, for the local region potato ball. I would call it a ball, dance. They had a band, and I think 200, 300, maybe more people coming, you know?
And she and her friends peeled [00:21:00] enough potatoes to feed 400 people.
Annie: Oh my…!
Cas: And she was busy, and I was trying to speak to the French people, but I think they gave up because my French was too halting, but I tried.
Annie: Good!
Cas: So that was real immersion as well.
Annie: Yeah, that’s wonderful. If you can try that, you know, in my village, I think it’s next weekend, they have a bal dansant or soirée dansant. So it’s a dinner and dance, and I know it’s mostly going to be older people going, older couples, you know, going to… I don’t think we’ll go because I really can’t dance.
I enjoy events like this, but don’t make me dance. So I go to the things when they have like a band or something. I enjoy going to those things. And it’s just you’re surrounded by local people. And if you know someone who lives in one of the, in a village in France, they probably have events like that that you could join, you know, but [00:22:00] you have to make acquaintances.
Cas: And to be honest, people, you know, even without my language, they were friendly, so they’d get me up dancing.
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: Yeah. Okay.
Bring Your Own Cutlery
Annie: And one thing that’s a bit unusual about these big events in France is that typically you have to bring your own cutlery, maybe your own plates, maybe your own cup.
Yes, they don’t… no more disposable anything in France.
Cas: Yes.
Annie: You can buy disposable bamboo cutlery. Like, if you’re buying a sandwich or a salad, it will come in a bowl that’s recyclable or that you can put in compost and the cutlery is going to be bamboo because they cannot sell any more plastic anything.
So when a caterer organizes an event like this, they typically ask you to bring your own cutlery and plates and cups and things.
Cas: Huh. Yes. I don’t remember that, but that’s… Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Annie: Yeah, that’s very different. And on the [00:23:00] invitation for this particular ball next week, in my village, they do say that at the bottom, but it’s kind of written at the bottom of the thing in small letters, and if you don’t pay attention, you might miss it and show up and like, “Well, how do I eat this?”
Cas: Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, but I found people really, really, really friendly.
Thermal Cure and Dancing Nights
Cas: I was going to say, just thinking of dancing, I went to a cure. Is it La Cure?
Annie: Ah oui, une cure.
Cas: With my girlfriend. Oui, oui, oui. In Sète.
Annie: Okay.
Cas: We stayed at some resort near the thermal, the big thermal places. Was it Sète? Anyway, big, huge, huge, huge!
Annie: I don’t know of any of them in Sète, but perhaps there is one that I don’t know about. There’s a ton of them! (It is in Belarus-les-Bains)
Cas: Yeah, yeah. Okay. So my girlfriend encouraged me to take the thermal, you know, the mud and the hot water, and the water sprinkling down your back, et cetera. But then at night, they had the [00:24:00] entertainment. So, you know, there was dancing, and after five days, you got to know the…
Annie: The people.
Cas: Other people. All older.
All older.
Annie: Yeah, yeah.
Cas: But fun. But fun. I learned how to dance Jerusalem.
Annie: Very fun. Yeah, so you do, I mean, you do get involved in the community as much as you can, which is wonderful.
Meeting French Friends
Annie: This probably happens because you have a French friend or several French friends?
Cas: Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. That was Nadege twice, and I have a friend in Paris as well who, yeah, takes me everywhere and tells me…
Annie: How did you meet these people?
Cas: Both of them in Australia. So one was a housemate years and years and years ago in my house, and the other one my friend said, “Oh, I know this French woman, you know, she’s staying with me.” I said, “Oh, bring her over for dinner. If she’s French, I want to meet her.”
And then, you know, she of course said, “When you [00:25:00] come to France, you must meet me, you must stay.”
And I said, “Oh, I’ve got nine days.
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: About I come for a while?”
Annie: Do you know, and that very often people will make offers like this, “Oh, you should come stay,” or whatever. And I think too many people are shy and will say, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,” and then never follow through with it.
Cas: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Reciprocal Hosting Friends
Annie: I think if you’re in a situation where it can be reciprocal, like this person might come stay with you at some point as well, then why not?
You know?
Cas: Exactly. Exactly. I always mean yes, reciprocal, come and stay with me. We’re friends, you know, we now have a good friendship. Yeah.
Annie: Right. That’s how you make friendships. this is probably an old person rant, but on the internet, you have to meet the people for real. You meet people online, you listen, like, for you, if you came through Toulouse someday, I would love to meet you for real, you know?
Because it’s okay. You talk to people, you get acquainted online and through podcasts and things like that, but if you can [00:26:00] meet in real life, that’s even better, I think.
Cas: Yeah, exactly.
Beachside Local Connections
Cas: And you know, and again, in terms of meeting the locals, I had to pay money to a VRBO host, for whatever reason. So I was giving him cash, and I didn’t have enough. I couldn’t get out enough. I think it was cash under the table or something.
Annie: Mm-hmm. Probably.
Cas: So I went to… he and his family were staying there in the flat above.
So every day I would go with the money, but we became friends, so every day we would go to the beach. They had younger kids, 12 and 10 or something, and I’d help them with their English and I’d meet them at the beach, and then we’d have dinner, and they’d invite me to dinner, and then it was just one, you know, a whole week of we were friends.
Annie: Yeah. That’s wonderful that you’ve made friendships like this. You’re just a friendly person, I guess.
Cas: What can I say?
Annie: Yeah, that’s how you are. That’s how you are.
Pickpocketed in Paris
Annie: One of the things you mentioned in your writeup is that you had a very [00:27:00] bad travel day in Paris when your wallet was stolen.
And it’s good to bring up unfortunate events as well, and I’d like to know what happened and how you got out of that pickle.
Cas: Oh, it was terrible. Yes, it was terrible. Again, I can’t remember whether we were talking about light, traveling light, but I didn’t. I had my big, huge, absolutely huge suitcase and a big probably seven kilo, nine kilo backpack as well as a handbag. So, and I was getting through the turnstile, so…
Annie: Oh, you were on public transportation.
Cas: Yes. Yes.
So I was really preoccupied with trying to get all of this stuff through the turnstile. I don’t think I even noticed on the train that I had lost my… I don’t think I lost my purse. I don’t think I lost my purse, but they had taken every card that I had. And luckily I didn’t have much money, because I usually kept cash in [00:28:00] my suitcase, which nobody theoretically is going to take.
So I had nothing apart from the… Luckily, I think I had 300 euros.
Yeah. So that was lucky, and I just… I got into, and it was a hotel at near, what is it? Gare du Nord, which is not ideal. Again, not ideal, but they were lovely. Well, because it was cheap, so you know. When you’re traveling for four months, you want to do as cheap and as comfortable as possible.
And I just burst into tears once I found out. I think when I got there, I found out that I had nothing, and I just got there and promptly burst into tears and said, “I have no money. I have no cards. I’ve been…
Annie: Robbed.
Cas: Stolen, robbed.”
Annie: Did you have your passport? Did they take your passports as well?
Cas: No. No. No, no, I think … No, that was in my suitcase. My clever way of looking after things is in my suitcase.
Annie: Well, yeah, when you’re traveling you have to put stuff somewhere, but it’s good [00:29:00] to put things in different places just in case you… Yeah.
Cas: Yeah, so when I talked to one of my girlfriends about that, she said, “Oh, I always keep them separate.” And I thought, “Oh, of course, yes.” So now I do. And in fact, I traveled with a Frenchman to Italy, which is another whole story. But he only had one card. He was very proud of himself having only one card.
He didn’t have a credit card, and then he went to about four different auto tellers to try and get cash. You know how you go, one doesn’t work, and you go to the next one, and the next one doesn’t work. I did try and tell him, “Stop, stop,” because it… So for the rest of the journey, he was trying to get money back from his bank in France. No.
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: No. Should’ve listened to me.
Annie: Yeah, he should have. I mean, it’s good to have more than one, but it’s also good to protect them.
Recovering Cards and Cash
Annie: So, eventually you figured out a way out of this.
Cas: Oh, sorry, out of it. The [00:30:00] hotel staff were very… I mean, I was just desperate. I didn’t know what to do, and I probably didn’t have enough money on my phone. I can’t remember. Anyway, they let me ring my bank in Australia, and it was some, Monday was some French public holiday, so that was even worse.
And basically my bank wired me money, and because I was traveling, I was heading down to Montpellier, they had to whatever, express post a new bank card to me, which they did. So again, I threw myself on the mercy of the French people in a hotel. I guess it was lucky that I was in a hotel that time.
Annie: Yeah, yeah.
Cas: Even if it was Gare du Nord.
Annie: Yeah. Yes. Well, Gare du Nord is very, very busy, and so, necessarily there are a lot of cheaper hotels. There are a lot of… The whole world is at Gare du Nord. The lovely people and [00:31:00] the not so lovely people.
Cas: Yeah, and I can remember saying to them, because I knew it was not the ideal part of Paris, and I remember saying, you know, “Is it okay to walk around here, da, da, da, at night and whatever?” And she said, “Mm, don’t turn left. Just go right.”
Annie: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there’s probably areas that are best avoided, yeah.
Phone Safety and Theft Tricks
Annie: Yeah, so nowadays, I think it would be a little bit easier to navigate a situation like this. If you can protect your smartphone, you’re probably going to be okay. Nowadays, the biggie is if your smartphone gets stolen, because you have everything on there.
Cas: You’ve got your life.
Annie: You got your whole life on there, so be extremely, extremely careful with your cellphone. Just zip it up, put it away, don’t bring it out in situations where there are a lot of people, and not necessarily scary-looking [00:32:00] people, because you don’t know what pickpockets look like, okay? They might be your run-of-the-mill French person.
So, if you’re in a crowd, it is best to keep everything zipped up. And if you are traveling and are tired and are arriving in France, perhaps consider taking a taxi instead of public transportation, especially if you have luggage, because that’s when you’re vulnerable. Like, I’m sorry, but you’re tired, you’re jet-lagged, you have a lot of stuff, and I don’t care how with it you are, you might be distracted and be robbed.
Cas: Totally agree. And I think I was traveling from Versailles to Paris, and I have a feeling someone said there’s some known theft places along that route.
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: But I agree totally with everything you say. Absolutely.
Annie: On the train, you know, if you’re on an RER or a Metro or any [00:33:00] train, the easiest trick in the book is they just, they come in and they look at the people who are standing near the doors, and they will grab something and run out just as the doors close, and you’re on the train. There’s nothing you can do about it.
It’s happened to me in Spain, and I was very lucky, one of the people on the train saw it happen, started yelling out in Catalan, because this was in Vilanova i la Geltrú. She started yelling out to the security people who were on the platform. They had security on the platform, and they chased the guy, and they chased him, like, a mile, and then eventually he just tossed my laptop and kept running, but they brought back the laptop.
I was so grateful. It worked. It was dinged, but it worked. I was so grateful because that was so stupid of me. It was obvious I had a laptop, because I was waiting for the train, so I brought it out. I was looking at some files, [00:34:00] and then I put it back, and then the guy just knew I had a laptop, you know, and he wanted my laptop.
It was a cute laptop. It was a very nice laptop.
Cas: Well, how lucky to get it back. How lucky. And you do, you get distracted. Traveling is difficult. I mean, you know, it’s great, but it’s difficult. You got a lot going on. I was just thinking, I left my handbag on the train at Strasbourg, and I thought maybe I could get it back.
Anyway, the station people helped, you know, came down to the platform with me.
I got the handbag back, but not the money.
Annie: Right. Well, that’s okay.
Cas: Yeah. Yeah. You live and learn. But it is, you get distracted.
Travel Mistakes and Backup Plans
Annie: The very first tour we did with Elyse, with nine people, at the end, I was so tired, I left my camera on a bus. I put it down next to me, and I almost fell asleep. As a matter of fact, it was… I thought I had put it in my bag, which was between my legs, and it [00:35:00] wasn’t in my bag. It had fallen next to the bag.
And when I left the bus, I left with my bag, but the camera stayed behind. And it was a heavy camera, I should have noticed, but I did not. And I noticed too late. Eventually, I got it back. Two weeks later, I got it back because somebody turned it in. A Good Samaritan turned it in to the lost and found in Paris, and my daughter was going to Paris for a business trip, and she picked it up.
So, I have been robbed, I have left things behind. I’m not immune to this at all.
Cas: Exact- and you’re French and you speak the language, yeah.
Annie: Yes, and I’m aware. So it’s good to have strategies. Like before you head out on your trip, have a strategy. What if I lose this? What if this gets stolen? How will I cope? Like, make a plan for maybe have photocopies of your cards in your suitcase, or at least jot down your card numbers, jot down important phone numbers.
I don’t know [00:36:00] about you, but I don’t know any phone numbers by heart anymore.
I remember my parents’ phone number when, from when I grew up. I can remember my in-laws’ phone number, you know, neither of these numbers are used anymore. They’re completely useless, but if I had to dial a number to call my daughter or my husband, I’d be like…
Yeah, so have them written down somewhere because you will need it. Have your email password, your Apple password are the two big ones that you need. If you lose your phone, Apple’s going to need you to log in to find your phone, so you have to know those passwords.
So there’s a few things like that that are really, really important, and it depends on how you conduct your business, you know, your phone, how do you get around.
But think it through before you go because some things might happen.
French Food Favorites
Annie: So it’s really interesting because you gave very specific recommendations, and I’m going to do a guest notes page for what you sent me [00:37:00] because it’s really very detailed, you know, about some hotels you like, places you stayed, restaurants you liked.
Of course, restaurants change hands, and so it’s, you know, it’s not as important to know.
Favorite French Foods
Annie: At the very beginning, you mentioned you like France because of the food. So what are your favorite French foods? I want to know about your favorite French foods.
Cas: Oh gosh, chocolate. Can I say chocolate?
Annie: Sure.
Cas: Chocolate and cheese. Like I said, when I first came to France, I thought that Australia… So what’s that? 2004 or something. I thought Australia had a wide variety of cheese, you know, more than coon cheese, which is no longer called coon cheese, you know, cheddar.
And then I came to Paris.
Annie: Okay, I didn’t know what Coon cheese was. We don’t have that one in France.
Cas: Oh, it’s cheddar. Yeah, it’s just packaged, processed.
Annie: Okay, I like cheddar. It’s good, cheddar’s good, some cheddar’s really good.
Cas: Well, that’s what I grew up on. But then you come to [00:38:00] Paris and there’s 200, you know, different cheeses, and it’s like, my God. My God. I had no idea.
And then, you know, the chocolatier, with all their beautiful, beautiful fillings and this, that, and the other. Anyway, I was amazed, absolutely amazed.
Apart from that… apart from that, I just like the way it’s presented, because I’m not really a great meat eater.
You know, the asparagus… Like, for example, the spring, the white asparagus. We came in spring last time. Oh my God, that was superb.
So, you know, just the way things are presented.
And using… See, in Australia we can probably get most things most of the year, you know? But it’s all refrigerated. It’s picked green, picked early, and transported, put in the fridge and transported, whereas the focus on regional specialties and [00:39:00] seasonal specialties is fantastic.
Annie: Right.
Cas: You get the best food.
Annie: Well, Australia’s complicated because it’s so big. You probably have all the climates on the continent, but you have to get the stuff to the right place. It’s got to be complicated to get all this food around. France is much, much, much smaller. We’re a teeny-weeny country.
Cas: But the other thing is people focus on their regional. Even within France there’s different regions, so people focus on their regional specialties and what’s in season and what’s available. So sorry, Annie, I can’t really think of anything that I’d particularly love.
Annie: Right. But you do like the variety. Do you cook for yourself when you’re in France, or do you… since you have apartments…
Cas: Mm, occasionally, you know, eggs. No, not much.
Annie: You go out?
Cas: Yeah, you go out and you go to the market, and you might pick up something that they’ve got all ready, and you bring it home for tea or, you know, [00:40:00] a little picnic dinner.
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: Bread. The bread. The bread is another favorite.
Finding Great Restaurants
Annie: So, how do you pick a good restaurant in France?
Cas: By looking at how many French people there are, I would say.
Annie: Mm-hmm.
Cas: And again, as I said in my notes that the… What is it? Menu fixe, the lunch menu?
Annie: Le menu, yeah. Le plat du jour est… plat du jour, yeah.
Cas: Which is cheaper, of course. It’s going to be cheap, and good, and good quality and, you know, the chef is making a lot of it. So yeah, I think that’s always good to do. And the soups.
Annie: Yeah. So most French restaurants, if you go and you’re going to get the plat du jour, you’re not going to have a lot of choices. So it’s whatever the chef is making that day, and they usually have… You can also order ‘À la carte’, but that’s going to be significantly more expensive typically. And also, the other thing to know is that very often when you get the Le plat [00:41:00] du jour’, or ‘Le Menu du jour’, it’s not going to be huge quantities.
And so you will probably want to have an appetizer, a main, and a dessert. Most people will have all three because the main is not going to be this ginormous platter that has, you know, 3,000 calories. It’s going to be your main course, but it’s not going to be huge. So most of the time I will order the appetizer and the main.
Sometimes you have a choice of the main a meat or a fish.
Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it’s just the whatever meat they’re serving that day. And then you decide later if you want the dessert. And you can expect a meal like that these days in 2026 to cost between 20 and 24 for all three.
Cas: Things have gone up.
I can remember 12 euro last time I was there, but that could’ve been the…
Annie: Yeah. So for €12 anymore, you don’t get very much. You will get [00:42:00] perhaps just the main dish and no wine. But you could do that if you have a small appetite and you don’t want to eat a ton. And it used to be that they would almost always include wine in your main meal, but that’s become very unusual. Most people still get the house wine, but that’s an extra charge, because overall, French people just drink less wine, quite a bit less than we used to.
Cas: And I think the other thing that’s different and that I, that is noticeable for us anglophones is the time. You know, that French people, we allow an hour or so and have three courses, and we talk, and we enjoy ourselves, and time goes nicely. Not this idea of half an hour or coffee break and get going.
Annie: And you’re out of there.
Cas: I love it.
Annie: Yeah, yeah.
Cas: I think the French know how to live well. That’s what I love.
Annie: That’s true. That’s very true.
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Things Not Enjoyed
Annie: So [00:43:00] you did mention one thing that you didn’t like when you were in France. You took a day trip in Corsica, an inflatable along the west coast of Corsica. Tell me about that.
Cas: I was really racking my brains to think of something I didn’t like, Annie.
But it, we happened to take a company because I’d heard that this National Park was fantastic, Scandola, which wasn’t really anything much, and it was meant to have fabulous seabirds and fabulous marine life. And the company that we chose, however we chose it, the guy, The Captain, didn’t have any English, so we knew nothing.
Whatever he was pointing out, we had nothing.
And plus, it was freezing. I think it was quite summer, but on these little inflatables, you had the wind from the sea. It was freezing. So it was a bad day.
Annie: Yeah, that was not a good… Yeah, and it can… it can happen. You can have [00:44:00] some, you know, some bad day, and you do have to dress for the weather, of course.
Cas: Which I said in the hike along the, what is it? Britannia?
Annie: La Bretagne, yeah.
Cas: Dinard, Dinan, somewhere. And I decided to go for a hike, and I didn’t take woolies, it was black. The clouds were black, but I persisted, and then it rained, and I didn’t have a raincoat, and I didn’t have woolies, and I had to keep going. And in it…
Well, I sort of had this feeling that people would pick me up. In Australia maybe, or maybe in the past, people would pick you up if it was raining. But no one did, and I just kept walking, and it was very pathetic. I got to a lighthouse, some lighthouse, and then I begged them, I begged them to take me into town. It was terrible. I’m a real optimist, you know, and, you know, she’ll be right. She’ll be right, and it wasn’t at all.
Annie: Yeah. Oh, well, you know.
Cas: Yeah, [00:45:00] you live and learn. Maybe. Maybe you learn.
Power Banks and Phone Prep
Annie: You mentioned a phone charger. Always have a phone charger.
Cas: Oh, it’s a phone bank. Yeah, I mean, I have a phone cha… what do you call them? Power bank.
Annie: Yeah, you need a power bank anymore. Even if it’s a brand-new phone, have a power bank because… And a cable, of course.
Cas: Yeah, walking around. The maps take a lot of… what do you call it? Charge.
Annie: Your photos, your… everything sucks up. A brand new iPhone, mine’s not that old, it’s a year old or something, I have to give it a charge if I’m using it heavily, and if I’m taking photos and listening to a podcast or a book or something all day long, I have to charge it, give it a, you know, a short charge midday.
Arles Cocarde Festival
Cas: Oh, I know what I want to, if we’ve got time, I want to talk about Arles.
Annie: Aha!
Cas: The cockade.
Annie: Oh, that’s right.
Cas: Yeah, and Bidache.
Annie: Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Cas: Yes, so Arles. So I stumbled into that. I was visiting Arles because I hadn’t [00:46:00] been there, and it happened to be the festival, the Cocarde d’Or, which is, I think, the 1st of July or something. There were bands and tubas and dancing and stuff. And they were saying they had a bullfight. And I knew that I would never go where there was blood, but I was assured it wasn’t.
And so it was this… So they have young steer with, you know, the big camarguais, I think, the big…
Annie: yeah
Cas: Cows, cattle. Yeah, big horns. And then there’s maybe 20, 30 raseteurs. I looked it up. Raseteurs, young men in white who have to try and get a cocarde, some sort of ribbon from the back of the bull.
Annie: Yeah
Cas: It was probably 30, 35 degrees, so it was very hot, and it was in a coliseum.
Yes, Arles coliseum.
I’m sure it wasn’t very nice for the steer [00:47:00] in the heat with all these men trying to jump on them, but it was very exciting. It was very, very, very exci… Even though I didn’t know what was happening, was very exciting. And at one stage, yes, I think I sent you the video.
There was a man got flipped. You know, he got too close, and the bull flipped him.
Annie: Yeah.
Cas: And another time, the steer jumped the barricade, so that was pretty exciting because you saw everybody run.
Annie: Yes.
Cas: Yeah, it was an, a… What would you call it? A spectacle. It was certainly something I’ve never seen before.
And again, if people are there at the time, definitely, and that, you know, they can cope with the animal welfare aspect, I would certainly go there again.
Annie: They’re not killed, but they are definitely annoyed a lot and… yes, yes, yes, made very mad, so that they will take it out on the people. But it… it’s better [00:48:00] than killing them, I guess. You know? Yeah.
Cas: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, you have to admire the young men or the young or the men who put themselves…
Annie: Who do this.
Cas: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought that was, they were pretty impressive. And actually before they started, there was a whole parade and, you know, the… what do you call it? Miss Cocarde d’Or and, you know, people in old-fashioned costumes.
You know, it was a whole, whole deal.
Annie: Yes.
Basque Village Spectacle
Annie: And let’s mention briefly Bidart as well.
Cas: Mm-hmm. So again, I stumbled on that. I was at the Peyrehorade, in the Basque Country at a market, and they– There were these flyers. And so they were advertising a spectacle, which was tiny, tiny, tiny village with a ruined castle, chateau, I guess, and they had the history of France.
So they, again, they had fabulous costumes, [00:49:00] they had fabulous music, and they had a narrator, again, from Queen of Navarre. Queen of Navarre, Henri something or other…
Annie: Probably the fourth.
Cas: Who I don’t know what he did with her, but they met, and on it went from there.
Annie: Kind of a historical…
Cas: …overview. And there was dancing and there were horses, there were cavalier, cavaliers, chevalier, the Crusades. It was amazing. Like to think that a little village put it on, I…
Annie: All right.
Next Trip and Farewell
Annie: Well, it’s time to say goodbye, but honestly, that was a lovely conversation. Thank you so much for sharing so much of your love for France. Do you have a next trip planned?
Cas: Yes, yes, yes, September. Yes. And we’ve changed our itinerary because we listened to Annie and Elyse talk about the Lot.
Annie: Aha. Very good. Will you come through Toulouse?
Cas: Oui, oui, oui.
Annie: Well, [00:50:00] let me know when you’re here. If I can, I’d love to meet up and we can have a drink together. That’d be lovely.
Cas: That’d be fantastic
Annie: Merci beaucoup, Cas. À bientôt. Au revoir.
Thank you Patrons
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, Rick McGurk, Teresa Perdue, and Roberta.
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 access to more of the rewards. And to support Elyse, go to patreon.com/elysart.
If you’re [00:51:00] planning a trip to France and want expert help, I do itinerary consults.
I can also take you on a custom day trip around the southwest of France in my electric car. I did two of those this week. Shout out to Janice and Lynn. And I have eight self-guided VoiceMap tours of Paris. And when I say VoiceMap tours, VoiceMap is the app. I write the tour that goes in the app, and it’s a GPS self-guided tour.
Podcast listeners get a discount on these VoiceMap tours when you buy directly from my website, which also means more of your money reaches me instead of going to Apple or Google.
And again, everything is at joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
The Louvre Heist 2025
Annie: Let’s talk about the Louvre heist. So let me bring it back to something that happened in Paris last October 2025 that honestly still boggles my mind.
So on October 19th, 2025, the Louvre was robbed in broad [00:52:00] daylight with the museum open and full of tourists. Eight minutes, that’s all it took. A group of men dressed as construction workers, wearing safety vests, climbed out of a moving truck, got into the Galerie d’Apollon, and walked out with the crown jewels.
Eight million euros worth. The guards did the right thing. They pushed the tourists back and didn’t try to be heroes, which is sensible given that they had no idea if the thieves were armed. They weren’t, as it turned out.
Now, here’s the part that gets me. These were not Ocean’s 11 style masterminds, okay?
They used angle grinders, the cheap kind, under €200, The kind that you would buy at Bricomarché, or Castorama, or Leroy Merlin, or something, to cut through glass that was designed to resist axes, hammers, and [00:53:00] bullets,but not angle grinders.
They’d apparently practiced, and get this, they stole a truck from a rental company which they had delivered specifically to a town called Louvre, in the Val d’Oise. We have many things with the same names in France, as in many countries, I suppose.
A journalist who’s been investigating this thinks that was deliberate, a little wink to the universe.
I have to say, that detail is almost funny, almost.
Four men have been arrested. They’re all from Aubervilliers in their mid to late 30s.
One of them is apparently well known on social media for posting videos of himself doing wheelies on his motorbike in Paris.
Not exactly laying low. His nickname is Doudou Cross Bitume. Doudou Cross Bitume, all right. Which tells you everything you need [00:54:00] to know.
Two of the suspects admitted to being there, but claim they were hired by mysterious men with Slavic accents who approached them in a park two days before and offered them 15,000 euros and supposedly didn’t even tell them they were robbing a museum.
Investigators don’t believe a word of it. Who knows? I… I don’t know.
And the jewels, still missing. Nobody knows where they are. A journalist named Patricia Tourancheau just published a book about this called Le Casse du Louvre, published by Seuil, if you want to dig into it further.
She’s the one who dug up most of these details. So next time you visit the Louvre, and I know many of you have it on your list, you can walk through the Galerie d’Apollon knowing it’s now probably the most scrutinized room in all of France. They’ve definitely rethought the security since October.[00:55:00]
But I wish they would make progress on finding out what really happened and recovering the jewels, obviously.
Pollinarium in Paris
Annie: Here’s another thing interesting happening in Paris that you might not expect. The city has created something called a pollinarium, which is basically a special garden designated to track and study pollen, the stuff that makes many people miserable in the spring, me included.
And this matters because in France, about 30% of the population suffers from pollen allergies, and that number could rise to 50% by 2050.
so what they’ve done is gather about 17 of the most allergenic plants found in the Paris region in one place, in the Parc Floral.
The idea is to monitor exactly when these plants start releasing pollen so they can warn people in real time and help them adjust their treatments.
Yeah, that’s one of the problems. I end up taking [00:56:00] an antihistamine most days because you never know. You never know when it’s going to hit you. But this is also educational.
The garden is open to the public, and you can actually learn to identify the plants that trigger your symptoms, which is pretty useful. But of course, every part of the world has different plants. It’s not going to work possibly where you live. Now, here’s the part that’s a bit concerning. Allergies are getting worse, and it probably has to do with warmer winters because that means longer pollen seasons, and pollution makes things even more intense.
In fact, pollution can break pollen into smaller particles, making it much more irritating and widespread. So while spring in Paris is beautiful for a lot of people, it’s also getting harder to enjoy. The takeaway is if you’re sensitive to pollen, it’s a good idea to be prepared because allergy season is starting earlier and lasting longer than it used to.
If you want a short recap of [00:57:00] what came out this week in France travel, news, new episodes, what I’m paying attention to, sign up for my free weekly newsletter at joinusinfrance.com/newsletter.
And my thanks to podcast editors Anne and Christian Cotovan, who produced the transcripts.
Next week on the podcast
Annie: Next week on the podcast, bring out your cape and your sword. We’re talking about Alexandre Dumas with Elyse. Adventures await, my friends.
Thank you for listening, and I hope you join me next time so we can look around France together. Au revoir.
Copyright
Annie Sargent: The join us in France Travel Podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent and copyright 2026 by Addicted to France. It is released under a Creative Comments, attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.[00:58:00] [00:59:00]
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Episode PageCategory: Off the Beaten Track in France