We walk everywhere. Without a car, that’s a given, but then we intentionally chose a city where we could easily get to all of our daily needs on foot. A new hometown also had to have an efficient local bus system plus a train station that could give us access to other cities in France and all over Europe. The monetary savings were apparent immediately: no car payment, insurance, fuel, maintenance, parking fees, tolls, cleaning and detailing. No stress of fighting for a parking place, dings and scratches, parking or speeding tickets, theft. What we hadn’t considered were the health benefits and we just read about how to make that even better.

Thank you, Sally, for the link to an article in The Telegraph entitled, “France’s 20 greatest villages, ranked and rated.” British journalist Anthony Peregrine lives in Montpellier and has been reporting on France for over 20 years. His articles offer insights into French life, history, and travel as does this one we’re highlighting today. What I liked especially about this story is that he says it covers, “French villages that I get most excited about returning to.” Glancing down his list, there are a few that we’ve been to so we’ll add some photos from those trips with information about new locations to discover.

There’s an online travel information source called “Global Wanderlist” who describe themselves as, “We’re here to fuel your wanderlust with detailed destination guides, must-see attractions, hidden local gems, and travel tips that help you explore more and stress less.” As the company name suggests, they publish lists covering worldwide vacation spots to help you narrow down the choice of where to visit, when to go, plus some tips to make the journey even more enjoyable. They are headquartered in India so their Bucket Lists favor itineraries for that country with intriguing names like Mysore, Spiti, Sikkim, and Lucknow. As exotic as those sound, my attention was drawn to their recommendations for France.