If you can ride mouseback, and we are sure that you can, you will be able to visit 44 places in France on this web site. Lists of them can be accessed by clicking the alphabetical categories at the right of this page.
France is an extremely interesting country, for a number of reasons. In size it is smaller than the state of Texas in the United States, but that still makes it one of the largest in Western Europe. And in our opinion, France is much more varied than the others. Like the United States there are many administrative units: regions, like US states, within which there are departments, like US counties. Within these there are provinces. There is no official list of provinces, but they occupy some sort of administrative space between departments and cities/towns.
You do not have to travel far in France for everything to change—especially the food, which is deservedly wonderful pretty much everywhere, and the look of the buildings and streets. Much of France was spared the devastation that befell other countries in WWII, especially Germany. Also, France is large enough to be geographically very varied and pretty with plains, mountains, river valleys, gorges, beaches, as well as the different climates that go along with these differences in terrain and in latitude. Finally, France is very rich in leftovers from previous residents, the Neanderthals and cave painters who lived there so long ago, the Romans who built there extensively, and those who lived in and built cities and towns in medieval times. Indeed, France is very rich in places in which important historical events have occurred. We have listed 33 of them spread over four pages. Last but not least, France is where the first structure we now identify as gothic cathedrals were built. Indeed the very first cathedral was built at St. Denis just north of Paris. Once the rest of Europe saw its spacious and soaring nave that let in so much light, many more were built. Those in France remain among the most beautiful. You can investigate some of them by seeing the photos we took and by following the links we provide to other sources of information and photos of these awe-inspiring structures. All of the attractions listed in this paragraph are some of the major reasons we always love to return to this engrossing country.
We find that the people of France are as friendly to people from other countries as are the people of other European countries. In our experience, Paris is an exception to this. We have encountered a bit of coldness--perhaps formality is a better word-- on the part of waiters and others who are in the service industry, a sense of bothering them more than they would like. But we rarely encountered this in any other part of the country.
The next three pages are alphabetical listings of the 44 places we have visited with a short description of each. When you click on a place you will be taken to a section of the web site about it with links to our photos, letters and other things of interest related to it.
