france (not paris)

I suggest Marseilles too, for un certain vibe de Genet.

I recommend Brittany - it's lovely. Specifically, a beautiful little place called Huelgoat.

The Dordogne is lovely too - big rolling hills and valleys and old crumbling towns and a nice ride up the river if you can get one. Might be a little remote to explore without a car though (and frankly terrifying with one for that matter).

(also we might be in Paris next weekend)

thanks for all the tips

when is cannes, the festival i mean? that would be a riot...

My village:
http://www.arcouade.com/images/ste_marie.jpg

Carcassone and Villefranche le conflet are good if you like pyreneen fortress towns and should be fairly quite at this time of year, although there is the danger of screaming hordes of brits and their brats abroad.

royan is nice

i think, since i don't have a car, that provence is the best bet--i can stay a few nights each in avignon and/or arles and/or aix. and from any of these towns i can take buses out to see some of the countryside, etc.

any comments on the youth hostels in these places? or maybe someone knows of especially cheap but reliable hotels near the centers? i read some dauntingly negative things about the hostels in aix and avignon. i guess i could pay up to 30 euro, maybe a bit more, for a hotel room but if the hostels are standable i'd prefer them.

thanks again for all the advice. one day i'll see the rest of the country, just don't have the time or money right now...

I like the Basque bit, but I am also biased. It looks like Madchen's village, only with more colours and bigger noses.

friend and myself heading to south of france for easter i think, wondered if people had any tips for towns to check out. we're flying to bergerac or biarritz and going to go to san sebastian at some point, and probably other places too.

anyone been to sarlat-la-canéda? looks pretty. are there other areas or places we should check out?

i dont have any tips, but oh man so jealous of you going to san sebastian, the foods meant to be amazing

yeah am reading about it now, it's a bit of a rushed organisation to the extent that it's only dawning on me how fun it'll be. i am so psyched for endless fish and anchovies and stuff...

yeah my friends went last year + said that it was crazy the quality of the tapas at pretty much every bar you go into.

outside of paris i've only been around carcassonne/pyrenees region, heading there in october again all going well.

Food in Lyon also amazing, cheap. And a nice little town, kinda like a miniature Paris.

that username, i want it

I spent a week a few kilometers from Sarlat-la-Canéda five years ago (in a village called Castelnaud). It was wonderful---castles over the Dordogne, absolutely fabulous food, caves. We visited the caves with prehistoric painting in Lascaux which is pretty close to Sarlat, 20 minutes or so by car. A little further away, maybe 40 minutes by car, is Rocamadour, which is a town built into a side of a mountain, and a medieval pilgrimage site, really gorgeous. I love this region & will happily return many times.

i think my favourite region has to be Gazcony

i was reading about gazcony in the hundred years war this week!

top region

http://i.imgur.com/RrZHxiI.png?2

wish i had some dope poitou wine to drink to the health of paul gazcoigne this week

of course if you go a little further along the coast you enter Gazque territory

Any specific restaurant/bar recommendations for Lyon, Toulouse or Marseille? Somewhere that you personally vouch for? I know Lyon the best but still haven't managed to do a traditional bouchon (always not feeling like a heavy dinner).

In Marseille (where I lived for a year): at the higher end, Une Table au Sud (i went shortly after he got his Michelin Star). At the lower end, Chez Etienne, where the supions are astonishing. The pizza and steak are great too.

Mmmmm Chez Etienne seems great. It's up that hill/lots of stairs??? (whatever that neighborhood is)

In the Panier, but easy to get to from the tram

I was only there for a day last year, the stairs were fine. It was an interesting walk. We ate at some place by the port (recommended), on top of a hotel that had outdoor seating. My spouse who only eats fish, accidentally ordered a huge squid ??? He was disappointed and I had to eat the mystery seafood.

Well supions are squid like fish (really, little cuttlefish) but the preparation at Chez Étienne is divine.

The old port has a lot of touristy fish places but once I ate there on a boat and it was worth it.

This was, I think, a large squid cut into long strips and grilled. We described it to our friends in Gigondas and they guessed it was a large squid. I can't wait to go back. I thought Marseille was amazing and was sad we were only there for the day. Granted, we will be there at the end of the month so hopefully the weather won't be too drab.

It’ll be nicer weather than Paris! It’s sunny there like 300+ days a year.

We are trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to go to Nice for 2-3 days (have never been). We have some days to kill between Lyon and Toulouse so figured we could stay only in Marseille.

keep thinking about this door we stumbled across two years ago in languedoc

https://i.imgur.com/aUpefH6.jpg

#justfrenchthangs

Je suis Jean Lafitte. Ceci est ma porte.

had the best oysters of my life at toinou in marseille

This is the stupidest comment I realize, but Marseille has one of the nicest starbucks I have ever been in. Maybe because no one was in it. I have been to Marseille twice since this last post and still didn't make it to Chez Etienne. Either closed or we couldn't locate it.

did you go to Nice?

No, still have not been. We do this route of Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse a lot and try to fit in something new but then we get lazy, sleepy and just want to be easy. Although we did do San Sebastian in July as the new Spain thing.

I did get tear gassed during the world cup when we were trying to get sushi in Paris so I guess that counts as a new thing.

im going to nice in may, its gonna overlap-ish w the monaco grand prix & the cannes film festival btw o_o

Man who slapped Emmanuel Macron gets four-month jail sentence

A French court has sentenced a 28-year-old man to four months in prison for slapping France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, in the face.

Damien Tarel was quickly arrested after the swipe that caught Macron’s left cheek with an audible thwack on Tuesday, as the French leader was greeting a crowd.

Okay, I don't know much about the French legal system, and I'm all for a speedy trial, but is this normal? Sentencing the same week as the offense?

shame he’s probably a fascist because it would have been really cool

The dude is indeed a fascist but I nonetheless recommend the video.

xxp yeah it's called "comparution immédiate", it can be used in certain cases (and the accused has to agree)

really disgusting piece from National Pinhead Radio, about Le Pen's campaign of "unity and inclusion"

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/08/1091769547/french-voters-will-decide-whether-to-give-macron-a-2nd-term-this-weekend

not that abysmal foreign policy takes are a rarity at NPR, but i do find it particularly offensive that these gullible, mediocre non-journalists feel the need to provide cover for fascists by implying that the FN can be "de-toxified," to use EB's phrase herein

Did they go to any diners in the French equivalent of Ohio?

Seeing a disconcerting number of Zemmour posters around Normandy but not Le Pen? Were there Zemmour Bros who wouldn’t vote for the lady(?)?

No? She got 4 times as many votes he did in the first round.

Almost 5, I should have said.

im going to nice in may, its gonna overlap-ish w the monaco grand prix & the cannes film festival btw o_o

― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 2 April 2019 bookmarkflaglink

I will be in Nice next week for a yoga intensive.

Does anybody have any recommendations for places to eat out? Not sure I will be seeing much of it tbh..

Sorry I copied the msg below to ask how was it at that time?

whats good in lyon

eat at a bouchon in the old town
check out the programme of gigs at le transbordeur
that's all I got

Anyone know what’s happening in New Caledonia

whats good in lille

Loads! Any particular sort of thing you’re after?

Thanks. planning on going with a friend for 3 days in Sept/Oct. What are some good cafes, restaurants, museums, touristy things?

Museums:

The Palais de Beaux-Arts is a good strong provincial art museum, not vast but worth it imo. They have a nice little Botticelli and a dicey Van Gogh. It’s right in town.

The Modern Art Museum (LaM) has a small decent (slightly random iirc) permanent collection and some of its temporary shows are outstanding. Set in a cute little sculpture park. Bit of a faff to get to on public transport (CityMapper covers Lille now btw and I found it vg the other weekend; the travel cards are chesp iirc)

La Piscine is a delightful gallery / museum in (you guessed it) a former public swimming baths in Roubaix (a suburb a tram ride away). Their collection is not really for me but it’s always a great pleasure to visit.

Other touristy bits: not terribly far from LaM is the Villa Cavrois, a luscious, meticulously-restored big art-deco house, super-lovely if that’s your thing.

People say the trip up the bell tower is good, but I’ve never done it: you have to book and also heights, bleh. You won’t be able to miss the bourse on the grand place and that’s good because the book market in there is worth a few minutes.

I find myself having a wander around the pleasant few streets of the old town, have a good modern beer in La Capsule (I always expect them to be snooty, they never are) or more of a trad brown bar thing at l’Illustration. You won’t struggle to find bars around there. I really like Jaja, amazing wine + cheese/charcuterie planks, most convivial, book or turn up early.

Lille’s not terribly touristy so even the restaurants that look like tourist traps (ie most of the old places that call themselves estaminets) aren’t terrible IME. We got slightly caught out the other week by trying to eat at just-gone 2 on a Sunday - lots of places looked open but weren’t. We wound up going up the rue Gand, lined with estaminets and eating in the only one we found open - les Ptiots. I was fully expecting a sad, poor experience but they were v nice and the food (carbonnade, Welsh) vg. Eat a Welsh! Ham sandwich drenched in a cheese/beer sauce. Yum!

More refined dining to be found in and around the rue des Bouchers. My absolute favourite restaurant in town (god knows my knowledge is hardly comprehensive) is Brigand over by the Palais de Beaux-Arts, not cheap but not expensive, excellent in all ways except they don’t open on a weekend which is when I’m usually there. We went early on a Friday once just to get a visit to Brigand in. It’s one to book, again.

The market at Wazemmes is a good bet for lunch, there’s some decent eating and drinking around there too, I’ve limited experience with the area around the south end of the JB Lebas park (which might be called Moulins) - and I was there to see a show - but I’m told it’s worth a wander.

That last paragraph is describing two distinct areas btw, shoulda had a full stop not a comma.

Oh I should add that my absolute 100% favourite thing to do in Lille is to visit the Chapelle Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux on the unpreposessing, awkward-to-reach outskirts of the not-very-exciting suburb called Hem. The building itself is plain and small but I absolutely love the stained glass in there. http://histori.hem.free.fr/images/ste_therese/mur-NORD-gauche.jpg

Anyone know what’s happening in New Caledonia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsa1Cdg1egE

Short primer on it here. The Azerbaijan meddling accusations are...unexpected

Thanks so much Tim!! That's so helpful.

Pleasure.

If anyone has any Dijon tips, I’m all ears.

Here's a 20 minute thing I made with old friend James H about our surprisingly eventful 1991 school trip to France. You can read or listen but listening is best. Sorry for the self-indulgence.

https://centuriesofsound.com/2025/07/23/2-4-la-promenade-de-la-vie/

This is the only surviving photo of me on the trip, it was taken by another child (I dunno who) while I was asking them not to. The other photos from the trip are of items in the Normandy landings museum (all useless because I was using my flash on the glass), a few close-ups of crab cages and a close-up of a teacher getting off with the coach driver (detailed in the link)

https://i0.wp.com/centuriesofsound.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2.4-La-promenade-de-la-vie.png