What's Northern France like?

[Wildman]

Originally Posted by bnordgren

... So far we're just building vocabulary...

That approach sucks!

[sasho]

Originally Posted by bnordgren

A few weeks ago I did buy the "teach yourself french" software by instant immersion. I'm picking up fragmented words here and there, but my 40 year old brain is more comfortable with the 3 years of german I took in high school (and never used again) than the new language requiring different sounds that I'm trying to jam in there now.

You gotta switch to drinking wine It's easier to understand and speak French that way. Non of that Moose Drool $hit

[bnordgren]

Originally Posted by bartvanrth

Hi Bryce,
When you go west (coast of Normandy & Bretagne" try to avoid weekends (if possible) because many people who live in Paris go there to escape the city in weekends, so many traffic on coastal roads in weekends. No fun at all. Almost everywhere 50km/h restriction and many speedtraps. But it's a must-do because it's very beautiful. Now when you go east, let's say direction Verdun - Reims - Colmar, that's real bikers paradise. No traffic, less tourism, cheaper, authentic, twists and mountains, casttles, small forgotten villages.... Go to Michelin.com and look at the map. Zoom in. The roads marked with a green line are very nice scenic roads. Take those.

Since I'm only going to have weekends: West bad. East good. Got it. Your description of what lies east is exactly what I'm looking for.

Originally Posted by bartvanrth

If you don't mind camping and the weather is nice take your tent. :-) I've been travelling for years all around europe. France is the easiest country to camp because you have nice and cheap community-campings (camping municipale) everywhere. Most of the camping municipales are at walking distance of the village. Most villages have bakery (croissants!) and nice terraces. People in the country are less arrogant than in Paris. They're very sociable and biker-friendly.
If you need more information don't hesitate to ask. Have fun!

Sweet! Poking around on the internet, I was starting to get the impression that "camping" in france involved swimming pools, showers, and electricity (!?). Seemed more geared to RVs than tents. I'm going to burn the words "camping municipale" into my brain. Mmmmmm...croissants....

[bartvanrth]

You can have a look here http://www.camping-municipal.org/
Click on the map. Good area's are : Bourgogne (south east of Paris), Champagne-Ardennes, Lorraine. Don't take the campings with only one star. All the rest will be good and cheap. Since those campings are run by the community the reception might only be open for few hours in off season. In that case don't worry. With a bike you can easely pass the gate, put your tent anyway and check in later.

[John933]

Originally Posted by bnordgren

Sweet! Poking around on the internet, I was starting to get the impression that "camping" in france involved swimming pools, showers, and electricity (!?). Seemed more geared to RVs than tents. I'm going to burn the words "camping municipale" into my brain. Mmmmmm...croissants....

Be careful of camp site's. I got stung at one, it said out side pitch 7 euro's a night. Turn's out they wanted money to put a tent up more for the bike park. And two euro's for a gate key per night just to go in and out. I never got an answer to what do I get for just 7 euro's. Sound's like it was just the space. Which I could not use.
John933