Tag: Americans in Carcassonne

Life in France, Travel in France & beyond

Aix-en-Provence + the Calanques

Both of us were convinced that we’d already visited Aix-en-Provence, most likely on a quick visit to the area years ago. We’d been on a sleepless overnight flight from NY to Paris, a speedy train south, and still under the influence of jetlag early the next morning, a rail trip out into the countryside of Provence. As always, we took lots of photos but it was only upon returning to the US while reviewing our vacation pictures did we realize that we’d been to Arles and Avignon but not to that third “A” town, Aix. To remedy that, we scheduled a return stay in Marseille as home base with a bonus boat ride to the National Park of the Calanques.

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Dealing with government, Life in France

The cost of catching the flu

If you watch the TV show “House Hunters International” you may know the name of one of the presenters, Adrian Leeds. You would certainly recognize her signature red beret, glasses, lipstick, and outfit as she helps property buyers in Paris and Nice find the ideal—or compromise—new home. We’ve been following her since that first show in 2006 (now over 50 episodes) and used her book “Good Value Restaurant Guide” on every trip to Paris before moving to France. When our friend Sally sent us a link to one of Adrian’s newsletters, or Nouvellettres®, with just the short message, “Did you see this?” we were of course curious about what might be inside.

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Travel in France & beyond

Voiron and Clelles

We live between two mountain ranges, the Pyrenees to the south and the Black Mountain to the north but we are seldom in either because there aren’t any rail tracks to take us there. If you saw last week’s blog post, you’ll know that we were spending the week in Grenoble, a city that is sometimes called the Capital of the Alps. Given that we were in the middle of one of the world’s most famous mountain ranges, it made sense to see where we could go by train. Although I can’t say that either of us knew anything about the towns of Voiron or Clelles (featured photo above, across the top), at least thanks to France TV we had an idea of the beautiful scenery we could expect to see.

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Life in France

Countryside trial run

We’ve spoken several times about an organization called Accueil des Villes Françaises or AVF for short that is kind of like a Welcome Wagon for new arrivals in about 250 cities across France. Thanks to our local branch we’ve taken numerous French language courses, volunteered to lead English conversation classes and given the chance to learn painting, dancing, bridge, and cooking. For physical activities there are groups for exercise, historic walking routes, and hiking. The common thread through all of these is that you get to meet local people who are either new themselves or have lived in the area for a while and are anxious to help others settle in their city. This works well for city-dwellers and it appears that now there is a similar group for people who are moving into the countryside.

Le Bugue
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Life in France, Travel in France & beyond

A monumental deal

Many internet sites agree that in France there are approximately 45,000 châteaux, a category that can include castles, manor houses, large estates, and smaller fortified residences. The French government has a formal, legal classification of Monuments Historiques that includes some of these châteaux plus, perhaps, another 40,000 historically significant churches, abbeys, prehistoric sites, Roman ruins, bridges, and fortifications, for example. Narrowing that down further, there are about 100 of these properties across the country that are managed by the Ministry of Culture’s Centre des Monuments Nationaux, and thanks to friends and blog readers J & D, we discovered a pass that gives us entrance to most of these, some of which are accessible by train.

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Travel in France & beyond

The Périgueux bonus

When we make longer trips by train, we often have to (or choose to) stay overnight in a city along the way. Such was the case when we went to Greece and stopped in Italy and to Ireland with a hotel night in Cherbourg near the ferry port. Even when traveling within France, since Paris is truly a rail hub, the capital is a likely spot to make a connection and thus a prime breaking point for the journey. In all of these cases, the cities where we’ve spent a night or two were not the final destination but were certainly not a waste of time. In fact, just the opposite, and we’ve even returned to some of these in-between cities to spend more time there to see what they have to offer. For us, that’s a bonus, which is exactly what we found in Périgueux. 

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Dealing with government, Life in France

Passport, ID card, birth certificate

Out of context, if you’d heard today’s blog post title abruptly spoken it might seem that somebody was in big trouble much like a police officer asking for your driver’s license and car registration. However, for those who’ve recently become French citizens, this trio (and more) represents the official welcome package to their new national identity. In June 2021 I submitted my request to become French and in February 2025 my wish was granted. Immediately I applied for the documents mentioned above and within a month they were in my possession. Still, I was hoping for an official ceremony and, sure enough, the invitation for that arrived a month ago, summoning me to the Préfecture (federal building) last week.

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