30 reasons to love France
Posted by Admin 20.07.2010 | 0 Comments
1. Feeling the warm summer breeze in your hair as you cycle through fields of golden sunflowers in the Loire valley.
2. Champagne: drink it at St. Pancras, drink it on the Eurostar, then drink it in the eponymous region, surrounded by the vines that provide us with the world’s best bubbles.
3. Strolling through the heart of the old town of the ‘pink city’ Toulouse, to the sound of an accordion.
4. Going green? By holidaying in France your carbon footprint couldn’t be smaller – unless you stay in Britain.
5. Its museums are dedicated to subjects as diverse as chocolate (in Biarritz), corkscrews (Ménerbes) and comic strips (Angoulême).
6. From the wide and empty expanses of sand in Normandy, to the white and sandy idylls on the Ile de Ré, beachlovers are spoiled for choice – and don’t forget the charming beaches surrounding the inland lakes.
7. The iconic chariot that is the Citroën 2CV – it’s hardy, it is only two horse-power and it celebrates its 60th birthday this year.
8. Paris – from cocktails at the Ciel de Paris restaurant on the 56th floor of the Tour Montparnasse, to the catacombs beneath the Place Denfert-Rochereau, it has everything anyone could ever want from a city.
9. It gave the world Michelin stars and the dozens of world-famous chefs who earn them.
10. What other country has towns called Condom, Brest and Largeasse and thinks nothing of it?
11. You can spend five hours sitting in a pavement café watching the world go by and the waiters will simply befriend you, rather than moving you on.
12. Watching the setting sun over Mont St-Michel in Normandy, the orange sky reflecting from the still shallow water that surround it.
13. It gave us Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix, Yves Saint Laurent, and a host of famous fashionistas to model their wares – including the now first lady Carla Bruni.
14. The fact that in the countryside, men really do wear berets, even today.
15. The Gallic shrug; it means so much without a single word.
16. Standing among fields of deep purple lavender and breathing in its heady scent in the Luberon, upper Provence.
17. Two-hour lunch breaks – all the shops may be shut, but if you can’t beat them, join them in their three-course meal, complete with two different wines and an intense café noir to finish.
18. Watching the arcade wing of Château de Chenonceau rise out of the morning mist over the river Cher in the Loire Valley.
19. Its 800,000 hectares of vineyards provide us with hundreds of wines, each boasting a different ‘terroir’ (that untranslatable term that denotes a wine’s character).
20. The magnificient Millau Viaduct that hangs over the Tarn valley; its white pylons towering up into the blue sky. It’s the world’s highest bridge and an awesome sight – from whichever angle you approach it.
21. Spirits: from the well-known cognacs of Remy-Martin or Martell, to the lesser known whiskies of Brittany and the various eaux de vie (fruit brandy) unique to nearly every village in the country.
22. Standing in the Musée d’Orsay and taking in the magnificent works of Monet, Cézanne, Manet, Renoir and Degas, among others.
23. Snow-capped peaks in the Alps and Pyrenees, extinct volcanoes in the Auvergne, rocky outcrops of Corsica and the rolling hills of the Gers, it’s a country that offers every kind of landscape.
24. Searching out the French jazz scene in the cellar bars of Paris.
25. With Roman architecture such as the Pont du Gard and the amphitheatres at Nîmes and Arles, who needs Italy?
26. Feeling utterly alone as you watch a golden eagle soaring above you in the Mercantour national park.
27. It gave us cinema and 60 years later directors such as Francois Truffaut and Luc Besson showed us it could be an artform and not just entertainment.
28. You can stay in everything from a chic chateau to a gypsy caravan, from a tree house to a yurt.
29. Spotting wild horses and flamingos in the Camargue.
30. There’s no better place to sink your teeth into a warm croissant with creamy butter and sweet strawberry jam.