FRANCE
SuperSaver Hotels
FRANCE
The sheer physical diversity of France would be
hard to exhaust in a lifetime of visits. The
landscapes range from the fretted coasts of
Brittany to the limestone hills of Provence, the
canyons of the Pyrenees and the half-moon bays
of Corsica, from the lushly wooded valleys of
the Dordogne to the glaciated peaks of the Alps.
Each
region looks and feels different, has
its own style of architecture, its
characteristic food and often its own patois or
dialect. Though the French word pays is
the term for a whole country, local people
frequently refer to their own immediate vicinity
as mon pays - my country - and to a
person from another town as a foreigner. This
strong sense of regional identity, often
expressed in the form of active separatist
movements, as in Brittany and Corsica, has
persisted over centuries in the teeth o
centralized administrative control from Paris.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the
French
countryside is the sense of space.
There are huge tracts of woodland and
undeveloped land without a house in sight.
Industrialization came relatively late, and the
country remains very rural. Away from the main
urban centres, hundreds of towns and villages
have changed only slowly and organically, their
old houses and streets intact, as much a part of
the natural landscape as the rivers, hills and
fields.
The nation's legacy of history and culture is
so widely dispersed across the land that even if
you were to confine your traveling to one
particular region you would still have a
powerful sense of the past without having to
seek out major sights. With its wealth of local
detail, France is an ideal country for dawdling;
there is always something to catch the eye and
gratify the senses, whether you are meandering
down a lane, picnicking by a slow, green river,
or sipping Pernod in a village café. There is
also endless scope for all kinds of
outdoor activities, from walking,
canoeing and cycling to the more expensive
pleasures of skiing and sailing.
If you need more than urban stimuli to
activate the pleasure buds - clubs, shops,
fashion, movies, music, hanging out with the
beautiful and famous - then the great
cities provide them in abundance. Paris,
of course, is an outstanding cultural centre,
with its stunting contemporary buildings and
atmospheric back streets, its art and its ethnic
diversity. And the great provincial cities like
Lille and Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille
and Nice vie with the capital and each other,
like the city-states of old, for prestige in the
arts, ascendancy in sport and innovation in
urban transport.
For a thousand years and more, France has
been at the cutting edge of
European development, and the legacy of
this wealth, energy and experience is everywhere
evident in the astonishing variety of things to
see: from the Gothic cathedrals of the north to
the Romanesque churches of the centre and west,
the châteaux of the Loire, the Roman monuments
of the south, the ruined castles of the English
and the Cathars and the Dordogne's prehistoric
cave-paintings. If not all the legacy is so
tangible - the literature, music and ideas of
the 1789 Revolution, for example - much has been
recuperated and illustrated in museums and
galleries across the nation, from colonial
history to fishing techniques, aeroplane design
to textiles, migrant shepherds to manicure,
battlefields and coalmines.
Many of the
museums are models of clarity and
modern design. Among those that the French do
best are museums devoted to local arts, crafts
and customs like the Musée National des Arts et
Traditions Populaires in Paris and the Musée
Dauphinois in Grenoble. But inevitably first
place must go to the fabulous collections of
fine art, many of which are in
Paris, for the simple reason that the
city has nurtured so many of the finest creative
artists of the last hundred years, both French,
Monet and Matisse for example, and foreign, such
as Picasso and Van Gogh.
If you are quite untroubled by a need to
improve your mind in the contemplation of old
stones and works of art, France is equally well
endowed to satisfy to satisfy the grosser
appetites. The French have made a high art of
daily life: eating, drinking, dressing, moving
and simply being. The
Pleasures of the palate run from the
simplest picnic of crusty baguette, ham and
cheese washed down by an inexpensive red wine
through what must be the most elaborate takeaway
food in the world, available from practically
every charcuterie; such basis regional dishes as
cassoulet; the liver-destroying riches of
Périgord and Burgundy cuisine; the fruits of the
sea; extravagant pastries and ice-cream cakes;
to the trance-inducing refinements - and prices
- of the great chefs. And there are wines to
match, at all prices, and not just feel
inadequate in the face of all this choice, never
be afraid to ask advice, for most French people
are true devotees, ever ready to explain the
arcane mysteries to the uninitiated.
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Location:
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Western Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay and
English Channel, between Belgium and Spain,
southeast of the UK; bordering the Mediterranean
Sea, between Italy and Spain |
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Background:
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Although ultimately a victor in World Wars I and II,
France suffered extensive losses in its empire,
wealth, manpower, and rank as a dominant
nation-state. Nevertheless, France today is one of
the most modern countries in the world and is a
leader among European nations. Since 1958, it has
constructed a presidential democracy resistant to
the instabilities experienced in earlier
parliamentary democracies. In recent years, its
reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have
proved central to the economic integration of
Europe, including the introduction of the euro in
January 2002. At present, France is at the forefront
of European states seeking to exploit the momentum
of monetary union to advance the creation of a more
unified and capable European defense and security
apparatus. |
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Natural hazards:
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flooding; avalanches; midwinter windstorms; drought;
forest fires in south near the Mediterranean |
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Languages:
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French 100%, rapidly declining regional dialects and
languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican,
Catalan, Basque, Flemish) |
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Currency:
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euro
(EUR)
note: on 1 January 1999, the European
Monetary Union introduced the euro as a common
currency to be used by financial institutions of
member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became
the sole currency for everyday transactions within
the member countries |
London England
Rhein River
Germany
