I just booked a flight to France, what do I do?

[LouDeeter]

With a year to prepare, I'd read some fiction that takes place in France, plus watch movies, documentaries, travel shows, that sort of thing. For books, a light series to read that will have you wanting to spend time in small towns is the Martin Walker series about Bruno, the town policeman, who loves dogs, horses, women, wine, and food. Study French history and geography. By summertime, you will have your itinerary. Come back to the forum then for some final travel tips.

[Octave]

Originally Posted by LouDeeter

With a year to prepare, I'd read some fiction that takes place in France, plus watch movies, documentaries, travel shows, that sort of thing. For books, a light series to read that will have you wanting to spend time in small towns is the Martin Walker series about Bruno, the town policeman, who loves dogs, horses, women, wine, and food. Study French history and geography. By summertime, you will have your itinerary. Come back to the forum then for some final travel tips.

Great call. A Year in Provence (and others, by Peter Mayle) captures the qualia of spending time in France as an expat extremely well. Required reading atmo.

[weisan]

Octave pal, thanks for the book recommendation, I will check it out.

I also intend to make contact with you at some point later when the travel dates come closer.

[velomateo]

My wife and I just returned from Paris, and flew Norwegian. Flight from LAX was long, but the service was “good”. They seem to have a young fleet, we flew on a 787...comfortable and quiet.
We stayed in Paris for the entire two weeks. Had a wonderful time exploring the city on foot. I have basically no French, but did use the Doulingo app to learn some words and phrases that were helpful.
Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

[weisan]

Mateo pal, what are some of the things you enjoyed the most in the two weeks you spent in Paris?

[velomateo]

We saw all the sites, but I mostly enjoyed just being in the city. We walked everywhere, with only a couple trips in the Metro. We would cover about 7 miles a day.
One of our favorite neighborhoods was Montmartre area, near the Sacre’ Coeur. When there we would hit Les Fistons, a cafe’ that had great daily specials. It’s an area that is home to a lot of artists, and not as busy as the city below.
The Eiffel Tower was totally worth it, in my opinion. We pre-bought tickets to the top on-line. The view of the city is just amazing and really shouldn’t be missed.
Going to the bakery (boulangerie) or to the market, and interacting with the locals was fun. Trying to complete a transaction in French was a challenge for me, but I got more confidence as time went.


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[weisan]

Thank you for your response.

[Louis]

My apologies if this has already been discussed above, but Weisan, how's your french? Given that you have quite a while until the trip, you'll have enough time to put some effort into learning or improving it, if you're so inclined. There are lots of options out there, and I don't have any particular insight into what's best for your situation, but it might be worth looking into.

Have fun planning and doing the trip.

[weisan]

how's your french?

Never been better!


$Fc&@k###^^€<~#€£*_$hit...

Please excuse my French!



Thanks for the reminder, Louis pal, others have mentioned about it earlier also.

I am having fun with an app came Duolingo. Using it alongside another app called Translate.

I will be fine.

I have time.

But more importantly, I am not "shy".

I know seven other different languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew, Malay, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese) At varying degrees of competence.

But the idea that one should "not only know English" is not new to me.