Earlier we wrote a post about the cost of visiting different countries that ranged from 7€ a day in Laos up to 300€ and more in the Caribbean. Western European vacations fell somewhere in the middle and blog reader Rich took on the challenge when he saw that in France the price would be 178€ for food and a place to sleep. His enthusiasm inspired today’s subject that revolves around finding a good deal or making them ourselves. Because all of our US to France vacations always started and ended with nights in Paris, that’s where we got our introduction to the words “good value”. 

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.

It’s not often that the word little (petite) is used in the same sentence with Carcassonne. After all, with 3 kilometers (nearly 2 miles) of double walls surrounding it, we’re more likely to see descriptions including “Europe’s largest medieval walled city” or “giant fortress”  or even “most formidable fortified city”. That reputation has attracted up to 3 million visitors during an exceptionally busy year, half of whom were from nearby Spain. Historically, it’s that proximity to our former adversary, now ally to the south that required the construction of those protective walls. In fact there’s a string of fortifications along the French/Spanish border that provided security to this area for hundreds of years, including one in the village of Camon, also known as “La petite Carcassonne”.