France is easy to travel
around. Restaurants and
hotels proliferate, the
lower-budget ones being much
cheaper than is most other
developed western European
countries. Train services
are admirably efficient, as
is the road network -
especially the (toll-paying)
autoroutes - and
cyclists are much admired
and encouraged. Information
is highly organized and
available from tourist
offices across the country,
as well as from specialist
organizations for walkers,
cyclists, campers and so on.
There are all kinds of
pegs on which to hang a
holiday in France: a city, a
region, a river or a
mountain range, physical
activities, cathedrals, châteaux.
And in many cases your
choice will determine the
best time of years to go.
Unless you're a skier, for
example, you wouldn't choose
the mountains between
November and May; nor at
this time would you head for
the seaside - except for the
Mediterranean coast which is
at its most attractive in
spring. Climate, otherwise,
need not be a major
consideration in planning
when to go. Northern France,
like nearby Britain, is wet
and unpredictable. Paris
perhaps has a marginally
better climate than New
York, rarely reaching the
extremes of heat and cold of
that city, but only south of
the Loire does the weather
become significantly warmer.
West coast weather, even in
the south, is tempered by
the proximity of the
Atlantic, subject to violent
storms and close thundery
days even in summer. The
centre and east, as you
leave the coasts behind,
have a more continental
climate, with colder winters
and hotter summers. The most
reliable weather is along
and behind the Mediterranean
coastline and on Corsica,
where winter is short and
summer long and hot.
The single most important
factor in deciding when to
visit France is tourism
itself. As most French
people take their holidays
in their own country, it's
as well to avoid the main
French holiday periods -
mid-July to the end of
August, with August being
particularly bad. You can
easily walk a kilometre and
more in Paris, for example,
in search of an open
boulangerie, and the city
seems deserted by all except
fellow tourists. Prices in
the resorts rise to take
full advantage and often you
can't find a room for love
nor money, and not even a
space in the campsites on
the Côte d'Azur. The
seaside is the worst, but
the mountains and popular
regions like the Dordogne
are not far behind. Easter,
too, is a bad time for
Paris; half Europe's
schoolchildren seem to
descend on the city. For the
same reasons, ski buffs
should keep in mind the
February school ski break.
And no one who values life,
limb, and sanity should ever
be caught on the roads the
last weekend of July or
August, and least of all on
the weekend of August 15.
