Invitation To France, Vignettes-0

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These books describe our travels through Europe during nine visits, from 1970 to 1995. Our manner of travel is different than most, and a major portion of each of our trips through Europe was made in a small recreational vehicle. We are tourists and sightseers, and the RV is an especially convenient way for us to travel and see the most for the least amount of money, and in the least amount of time.

The RV and a campsite make a convenient, quiet, comfortable place to spend the night so we are rested and ready to sightsee again in the morning. Whenever possible I park the RV in a place where the view from our dining table is as grandiose as can be imagined. Those views are not accidental, they are carefully selected. Lunch right under the Eifel Tower, within the arms of the Louvre, next to the Brandenburg Gate, in the shadow of Mont Blanc, across the Danube from the Parliament Building in Budapest, next to the rail of a ship as we sailed the Adriatic from Italy to Greece, right below the Parthenon in Athens — ah, the convenience of the RV.

Our trips could have been made in a car, a bus, or the excellent train system in European countries. Hotels, Inns, Bed & Breakfast’s, pensions and restaurants are available in towns and villages, large and small, but for us the RV means quiet, convenience, our own bed with a familiar pillow and blanket, and we don’t have to pack and unpack our clothes every day.

There is no way we could have afforded our nine trips to Europe if we had to pay for hotels and restaurants, plus rental cars or train tickets. Fuel is expensive, but over the years we have averaged driving only about 115 miles per day.

Introduction

Our travels in France have been a thoroughly enjoyable experience — it’s truly an exciting and beautiful country. The towns we’ve visited, the sights we’ve seen, the people we’ve met. … presents our vacation adventures, travel anecdotes, snippets of history, and our enthusiasm for travel in France.

… what we find of interest is not time-dependent. … the Romans constructed an amphitheater in Nimes in 50 AD; the Abbey at Mont-St.-Michel dates from the 1000’s; … Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was completed about 1345; … so what we saw during our 1995 trip hadn’t changed in any important way since the first time we were in France, in 1970.

We have visited, or at least driven through hundreds of cities, towns, villages and places of scenic beauty in France; many hundreds are yet to be visited.