Report of a French trip.

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

Yes, back at home. We rested, unpacked the small luggages we took with us, filled the refrigerator with fruits, vegetables and yoghurt, cleaned the house and washed the dirty clothes... and I think I am ready to go back to work on Monday... there is only one problem that will absorb my relaxed soul and put me back into an emotional chaos:Political Election held on Sunday and Monday.
I will talk of it later... as for now, I'd love to tell you what has been this vacation like and what are my thoughts about France, French and surroundings.

Gotta start by telling you that I have only visited Paris before facing this road trip in France, that means we only had our Lonely Planet Guide and the images of some magazines and some of the most deep-rooted preconceived stereotype of the whole Europe.
I must say that I didn't expect to see such beautiful and vast landscape. The spring was blooming with all its most vivid colours. Wisteria covered most of the white-stone country houses, tulips all around, ranunculus, orange, yellow and red poppies, and all sorts of wild flowers...
Fields were planted with young corn plants and wheat but most of the landscape was simply vineyard. Kilometers and kilometers of vineyards. The southern you drive, the smaller are the vines. In the south, expecially in the Camargue region the Mistral wind is very strong and the vine are smaller so to be less exposed to the wind. In that area, the fruit-trees and the vine are protected by lines of tall trees (poplar or cypress) on the sides.
Camargue is incredible! It's right at the River Rhone delta and it is a wildlife national park. It's flat and it's a mixture of marshland and water. Here we saw lots of flamingoes and wild white horses browsing on the same fields of the black bulls of Camargue. It is very impressive.
Arles, Saint Rèmy en Provence, Aix-en-Provence... everything recall Van Gogh and Gauguin and Art in general. Colours and squares and buildings... it's all about that time. All about those pictures. Yellows, purples, violets, light blues, oranges, greens and black... black of the olive trees trunks and of the vines. All tortuous except for the walls of the white stone country houses.
I really loved those places. The weather was our friend. White light of the april sun. Everything was slow... connected to the ground and the earth. It's still a rural area.
Then Montpellier which I really, really liked. An elegant but fun city, a mixture of new town IN an old town. Bars and restaurant everywhere. A very jolly city!
Carcassone was our middle age taste... with a lunch dinner that costed like a suite in a lux hotel:-(
Then Toulouse la rose. In Toulouse I found a little of Bologna... it's a red brick building city, just like Bologna, site of an important University and therefore crowded with young people and pubs.
There we went to visit "la cité de l'Espace"-all about Space and Astronauts... and the site of the Airbus where they assemble the super new Airbus380 and where we sat into the Concorde n.1. It was pretty interesting to me... since I won't probably get to work with any of those big aircrafts like A380 and since I'll never get into a Concorde again.
On the way back home we stopped in Nimes with its beautiful Roman Anphiteather, then Cannes with its fancy-like Boulevard and Montecarlo with the super riches houses.

Well, the trip was great. Andrea and I had a lot of fun by using the McDonald's wireless connection by parking our car right next to the restaurant and things like this.

But I have to say something about people, food and drinks.
-I agree with the fact that French are not the most friendly ever... but it may be because we are Italian... and there are historical issues not to mention the sport issues like the Soccer World Championship Award that we proudly won against them hihihihi :-)
-Other than this... French coffe is one of the worst thing I have ever drink. So now I know that every country claims it coffe to be the best. Italians think their espresso is the real coffe, American know their coffe is the best of the world, the same do the south Americans, and Turkish coffe or the Greek coffe is the best of the world... but, even if French have tradition of famous Cafés, places where they drink, eat and interact with others... those places shouldn't be famous for their coffe.
-French brioches are totally butter. I think they use just butter and probably some flour but mostly butter. That means I don't like French brioches.
-Le café au lait has nothing to do with our cappuccino.
-French cuisine is terribly heavy. Heavy in butter and garlic. They cook ducks or other meats in its own fat. Garlic is simply everywhere, they do not eat anything light or simple... meaning that around day 6-7 I was dreaming of a fresh iceberg salad or fruit salad.
We mostly ate sandwiches and salted pie that I love but that were like a brick on the stomach. I had nightmare everynight... even if I didn't have a whole dinner and just a sandwich.
I have to say that I don't eat a lot of meat because I cook for a vegetarian and I don't want to prepare 2 dinners but I have to tell you I stored a lot of meat in my organism that I can last for the whole year.
Remember, France is not a place for vegetarian. Andrea had its hardest time ever to eat. Every salad had ham, chicken or bacon in it. He ate the all time some Sandwich a l'italien (mozzarella and tomatoes) or tart aux trois fromages (3 cheese pie).
-French wine doesn't taste so much better than the Italian one. And I won't add any other comment to it.

Of course it's not all so bad as I painted it. We had a great trip also because:
-their roads are great,
-their hotel chains are simply the best I have ever been in whole Europe: cheap, clean and with all the comforts.
-they are super family friendly or at least they are a lot more family friendly than Italian.
-their cities are very clean and bloomed.
And all the good things I wrote above.
Now... time to rest a little more... I'm still on vacation until Monday morning... and I have to save my energies to face the election battles.. and to be prepared to see the Psycho-Dwarf (Berlusconi) smile again on all the tv, newspaper and magazine.