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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

France is a nightmare

499 replies

Provenceinthesummer · 16/07/2022 07:36

And you think it is bad in the U.K. come to France and see what a country on it’s knees really looks like.

We arrived hoping for a relaxing road trip and holiday. Every service station is littered with rubbish, most of them they have run out of food, loo paper and filthy tables and chairs so there is nowhere to even sit.

We finally arrive at a five star hotel to find out the restaurant is closed every day for three days - apparently the French F&B crisis is worse than ours! No chef, no waiting staff. They couldn’t even provide a basic room service menu. Every restaurant in the area also closes on the same days which was helpful.

Fawlty towers ensues as we try to meet basic needs of water and resort to the mini bar nuts for dinner. The gardens and pool are a mass of wasps and flies and the baking heat makes it an unbearable experience. I have never been to a hotel with no food anywhere in the world !!

Parched, starving and exhausted we check out the following day and find a hotel with food - all good apart from the fact there is no air conditioning and it’s 36c minimum here. It’s also rated five star apparently. Sleepless, exhausted and dizzy from the heat we drive in the car to ‘cool down’ and after a few miserable sweltering nights we decide to check out to next hotel - which promises great things like air conditioning and actual food only to find out the housekeepers are now non existent, all have covid. The number of people coughing and ill around the pool and in the hotel is alarming. The food is so bad it’s made me sick every night, kids are now refusing to eat anything else apart from crisps!

I haven’t slept for over a week - now facing a 12 hour grumpy drive home, I developed a severe sore throat and shakes overnight and it’s 39c! We have paid a fortune for this ‘ holiday’ and I can not wait to get home!! 🤨

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Ohthatsexciting · 16/07/2022 07:37

France isn’t a nightmare

the handful of places where you booked or visited were shit

KangarooKenny · 16/07/2022 07:38

Sounds like a miserable holiday anyway, all that driving. Book yourself an AI to Greece next time !

Ohthatsexciting · 16/07/2022 07:38

Hope you didn’t talk in terms of “this country is a nightmare” if you were holidaying with children

Wallywobbles · 16/07/2022 07:39

All good in Normandy.

Provenceinthesummer · 16/07/2022 07:42

Ohthatsexciting · 16/07/2022 07:38

Hope you didn’t talk in terms of “this country is a nightmare” if you were holidaying with children

That is how they described it 😂

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luxxlisbon · 16/07/2022 07:42

Who only eats in their hotel?
And how are you blaming France as a county on wasps and a heatwave? 😂

I developed a severe sore throat and shakes overnight and it’s 39c

You clearly have covid, which you probably would have got in the UK too since the numbers are so high.

LilyMarshall · 16/07/2022 07:42

Ohthatsexciting · 16/07/2022 07:37

France isn’t a nightmare

the handful of places where you booked or visited were shit

This.

one holiday to France we went on as children was similar. The people we met were rude and the place was shit we stayed. Restaurants we tried to eat in the staff were rude. Everywhere we went was awful. We did drive down to Lourdes for a day to break it up.

my mum hasnt been back to france because of it.

borntobequiet · 16/07/2022 07:43

My friend just returned from a lovely holiday in France, wonderful food, lovely weather, nice people, made me want to go there immediately - but I avoid travelling abroad in the summer as I don’t enjoy the heat.
I think your experience is somewhat unusual.

QueenKit · 16/07/2022 07:44

Am in France for the first time since 2019. Not experienced any of the issues you have - no discernible difference from the previous times we have been here

JorisBonson · 16/07/2022 07:46

Jesus. You sound like my MIL, who will never travel outside the UK again because the last place we went to was too warm.

ClassSize2022 · 16/07/2022 07:47

Where are you? What regions? We head off this week so useful to know

Sswhinesthebest · 16/07/2022 07:47

It does sound like you have covid.

cestlavielife · 16/07/2022 07:48

Surely there was a macdonalds or supermarket or cafe in reach?

GnomeDePlume · 16/07/2022 07:48

I'm just back from a fortnight in Provence and can honestly say it was wonderful.

Hotels on the journey there and back had similar restaurant problems but we found restaurants elsewhere.

Provenceinthesummer · 16/07/2022 07:48

And this is why MN is so quiet what extraordinary responses. I’ll have the thread taken down.
we travel extensively to France and elsewhere in the world and it’s never been this bad. Expecting food in a hotel is not asking for a lot!!

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DuneFan · 16/07/2022 07:49

I just came back from a lovely trip to Northern France too. Good weather, food and service typically French (I.e. variable!), everywhere clean.

Stopped in Surrey on the way back, had a terrible meal at Pizza Express and our car was stolen so I'm much more anti UK at present.

Floella22 · 16/07/2022 07:49

I live in France.
I would never go to Provence in July or August.

I live in the Dordogne, the restaurants and bars are open, I can't comment on the hotels but they seem busy.
And where I live is immaculately clean.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 16/07/2022 07:49

I wonder where you were in France?

I've just been there and everything was fine, but expensive and NO MUSTARD!

(apparently the mustard seed comes from Ukraine)

Provenceinthesummer · 16/07/2022 07:49

Was in Provence, burgundy and alpine region. Hotels in route down especially struggling.

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slashlover · 16/07/2022 07:50

Does France not have shops which sell food?

PaperTyger · 16/07/2022 07:51

39!!
Where are you?how is it coping in the heat?

Floella22 · 16/07/2022 07:52

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles
Mustard is one jar per person in our supermarket.

slashlover · 16/07/2022 07:53

Also, were there not taps in the bathroom which you could have got water from?

Provenceinthesummer · 16/07/2022 07:53

If you are taking the tunnel the delays are significant. Pack lots of food and water and blankets so you can sit on the grass.

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squashyhat · 16/07/2022 07:54

Italy is wonderful. Sorry not sorry

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