France is a nightmare

[Provenceinthesummer]

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!! 🤨

Sounds like you should never leave the nirvana that is Britain.

I don't really understand why so many people chose to go to France, especially by car

We go in our camper van and it's really really good for that. Almost every town and village has a little aire de camping car, often free - sometimes you even get free electricity. And it feels welcoming - the UK, England in particular, can be quite hostile to campervans.

Also really nice campsites, cheaper than the UK, better weather, better food, lots of outdoor swimming.

Love Spain as well but at present, time and fuel prices make France more practical.

🤣🤣🤣

I never get the love of France. Paris is a complete shithole (quite literally in places). The Loire valley is okish, but there’s loads of places both here and abroad which are substantially better.

The food is poor and basically left to starve if your vegan.

There is a culture of unhelpfulness and arrogance.

No doubt the multitudes will be along espousing they old it’s the land of milk and honey kind in a minute, ignoring the dire social and political situation over there. Fuck knows what they’re on though.

Yep - love a Novotel - pool, decent food, good bar and family rooms

Sound like you've had a crap time OP - with bad hotels - sorry you had a shit holiday

I went to the Dordogne in May and it was lovely - no issues with services or food - toll roads are just expensive - but optional - I suck up the cost

If you don't like services pull off into a town and find a place to eat - also MacDonald's are everywhere if you are stuck

I love France - I don't think anywhere hasn't been effected by Covid and the current heatwave - but I'm going back next year

"No doubt the multitudes will be along espousing they old it’s the land of milk and honey kind in a minute, ignoring the dire social and political situation over there. Fuck knows what they’re on though"

A decent wine, nice steak, a BBQ, grapes, cheese and croissants?

She can relax in style, eat lovely French food unless there are no staff on the TGV and have a bottle of Champagne in true French style. What's not to love about France.

On a serious note, the TGV is wonderful, really fast. And it's air conditioned.

Oh an Eurocamp - way better than hotels!

You want to have the thread taken down because we won't agree that the entire country of France is a nightmare because you couldn't get dinner in your hotel and you were hot...in a heatwave?

And you think we're the odd ones?

Paris last weekend was a delight.
clean, litter free and all the restaurants open. There were even a few waiters smiling ang cracking jokes - and you don't see that very often in France.
Eurostar was busy but organised. Sorry you've had a bad time but please don't dis the whole country.

And yep - you've got Covid - sore throat is now listed as prime symptom

But the media did warn us of staff shortages in hospitality a couple of months ago they said Europe was having exactly the problems with recruitment we are

I suppose at least you'll be able to look back on it and laugh at how crap it was OP. But not yet.

Good luck with the journey back, I assume you will be back giving us updates despite the Covid and the shit and the horror.

I was in France recently for the first time in a while. Stayed in a hotel. It wasn't like that at all.

I am so sorry you're all poorly now. It's no fun away from home @Provenceinthesummer

Sounds absolutely disgusting! Hope you’re ok, you may have covid or some other illness now. Get home safe and rest. Then make the online complaint emails. Whereabouts in France were you?

We once got a buffet lunch in a service station in Italy. It came to fifty euros for two of us! I nearly cried. Greggs might be shit but at least it's affordable.

We are currently in France and it's hot but fine. Weird post.

The food is poor and basically left to starve if your vegan.
There is a culture of unhelpfulness and arrogance

The food is some of the best in the world! I agree it must be shite if you're vegan but that's self-inflicted.
I've almost never found people to be anything other than friendly and courteous. Smile, use a bit of basic French and remember to greet and you'll be treated pleasantly in return.

We once got a buffet lunch in a service station in Italy. It came to fifty euros for two of us! I nearly cried. Greggs might be shit but at least it's affordable

No idea how you managed that, its easy to eat very well for little money in Italy. You went to the wrong place!!

I am sorry OP that you have such a rubbish holiday. Poor you, poor kids and poor DH. I hope your drive back is better.. .

Your hotel experience sounds terrible as does not being able to find places to eat.

We once drove to the French alps in our car in the winter during a very cold spell some years ago.There was snow the entire length and breadth of France. It was frightening at times.

Our young DC was very sick the whole time. Food was OK but the whole experience left a long memory.

I vowed never to go by car again to France. It is indeed a HUGE country in comparison to the UK.

I hope you get back safe and sound OP. It sounds like it's been very very stressful.

As for waiting staff etc, in France there are no zero hours contracts like we have here so every person who is hired must be allowed paid holiday time, a pension etc - they have a full and proper contract (how it used to be here).

So for that reason it's more expensive to hire staff because can't pay them a shitty wage or fire them for someone who will accept less - hence less staff generally.

All this means that there's a lot of unemployment and a lot of places somewhat under-staffed.

Those that do work though know they are very lucky to have a job and usually do a great job and work very hard from what we've seen. Sometimes the waits in restaurants can be very very long though but this is mostly the reason why.

Sounds absolutely shit and don't worry OP it's completely fine to say so . MN only likes slagging the UK off, mainly England, everywhere else gets a free pass...well except Dubai, which also is ok to drub on MN because lots of common British people go there.

We are going to Wales, decided against anywhere needing flights this year, I knew it would be a nightmare. Love it there and it never seems to get overwhelmingly busy so hope that's still the case.

I last went on holiday there with our kids in 2008. I found people really unfriendly. Food very expensive and shit. Wish we had just driven further south and gone to Spain!

French service station toilets have been awful for the last four decades that I have been travelling there. They are the only.places where I still see hole-in-the ground toilets. They do have the advantage of being plentiful and I only stop at the picnic ones which are usually nice (apart from the toilets...). Generally France has improved it's public toilets immeasurably since I first started going there but services seem to be the exception.

I was there at Easter and had no trouble with restaurants but I imagine things are busier now. It must be unpleasant to have Covid when away from home in the hot weather but I'm not sure how France is to blame. There is plenty of Covid in the UK!

Sounds like the OP is Brexitier who hates anything European, especially French! and/or desperate to talk up the shit hole that is the UK.... perhaps will NC and tell us all they waited 4days in an Ambulance for AE in France ????

Just spent 3 weeks there, 2nd visit this year, stayed in several hotels and BnB s around the South and West of the country.

My DD is there now and having a great time.

What struck me was how clean it was, very well stocked supermarkets and excellent restaurants.... its also cheaper than UK - overall, a surprise, as its usually dearer.

What is different is opening times, often Mondays and Tuesdays are quieter as staff need a break after a busy w/e, shops shut at 8pm and at 11 or 12 on a Sunday.