France

[sunnylyon]

Hi, I'm planning on a trip from July 23-Aug 24. I'm currently learning French, so I would love to be able to improve my French by immersing myself in the culture. So my plans are either to fly into Paris and and explore the rest of France OR fly into London (the flights there are cheaper, and I've been there before and loved it), spend a few days there, and then take the train to Paris and explore the rest of France. The problem is that besides Paris, I don't know where else to go in France. My bigger problem is that I want to buy an open-jaw flight ticket soon, but I don't know where would be a good place to fly out of France. To help you guys out, my main interests are taking long walks in beautiful landscapes, architecture, museums, paintings, and learning about new cultures (food, music, etc.). I don't drink, so there would no wine tasting. Any suggestions?

[kayling05]

Well, there are so many different places in France. You can do day trips out of Paris as well as spend some nights away. For day trips, there's Versailles palace, Monet's estate at Giverny.
For spending time out of Paris, I would check out Strasbourg, Alsace, in eastern France; Normandy for all sorts of things-- a d-day tour from Caen, the Bayeux tapestry, Mont St Michel; castles in the Loire Valley; the Riviera and southern France.

You may even want to spend some time in western Switzerland (Geneva) or southern Belgium (Brussels) where they also speak French.

As for flights, sometimes you can get good deals flying out of Lyon as well as Paris, but you could always go ahead and book a round-trip to London or Paris (whichever you choose) and then book a cheap flight such as on easyJet, Ryanair, etc. (after you pinpoint your route) from your final destination back through London/Paris.