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!! 🤨

@cakeorwine sorry, quoted you quoting.

Bloody French!

The bloody cheek of them to partir en vacances en famille in July instead of keeping 5 restaurants in 5 hotels open. One would think their priority should be the economy and not their families.

Bloody French!
The bloody cheek of them to partir en vacances en famille in July instead of keeping 5-star restaurants in 5-star hotels open. One would think their priority should be the economy and not their families.

I just can't get past the selfishness of the OP with a Covid-stricken family planning to stop off in a restaurant.

Ça donne envie!!!

How awful for you Provence and I hope you enjoy being at home. Many of us spend ages saving up for and anticipating our holidays and expect to have a nice time. Sounds like an expensive and miserable experience.

This made me laugh 😂

Classic Mumsnet!

That is a good point, given that OP said

Its really selfish to come to the pool with so many kids and babies and be coughing everywhere and clearly ill

My goodness sounds like you have covid now and a crap hols. France was gorgeous got home yesterday. Glorious weather, pool to ourselves as AirBnb house, multiple restaurants in walking distance but little town so blissfully quiet.

All the French super friendly but we do speak French. Prices for lovely high end gastro/bistro food cheaper than the rather naff local pub at home.

Think you were unlucky - we were in south west coast and an island. Bliss

I do not believe the hotel food made you sick each night, something else is going on!

so sorry to read this - we had a similar experience with a hotel in July 2019 pre covid but luckily we were able to drive to a town and eat in a cafe. All the hotels' chefs were on holiday for July and August. It took a long time to find a cafe so hope you experience was just bad luck and will not put you off returning to France.

Sickness is often a precursor to testing positive....

@ClaudineClare some people don't let hypocrisy get in the way of a good vent.

There's a heatwave, it's Bastille weekend, everyone in France is experiencing the same problems as everyone else post Covid. No rail strikes in France yet, limited flights, not quite as bad as UK but everywhere still overwhelmed by Covid understaffing of tourist facilities. Sorry you had a bad holiday but France is not on its knees. Maybe next time stick to something easy like Cornwall?

Apologies to seasoned travellers but I wanted to warn anyone planning a driving holiday through France in August the first weekend of the month is when Le Tout Paris (plus other big cities) depart for their holiday homes on the coasts the motorways can be horrendous. The last weekend of the month is the big return. Similar conditions.
In addition, August 15 is a national holiday for the feast of the Assumption and the weekends near then are also hellishly busy. We were once completely stopped on the A6 Autoroute du Soleil southbound for about four hours just due to the weight of traffic. (And our ignorance). Lesson learned.
I love driving on French motorways at other times, so much nicer than many of ours. And no HGVs allowed on Sundays, generally. We should do that too.

I live in the West of Scotland and we have been driving to France for over 15 years now, just back from a week in a villa in the south West. Loved every minute even the travelling. If it was your first time driving then it doesn't sound as if you were truly prepared.

@Perfect28

Why aren't the kids in school?

Judgey and ignorant. Funny enough schools are the UK break up at different times, they dont revolve around England. Scottish schools always break up the end of June.

You seem surprised. The country has some of the biggest shitholes I’ve ever been to, Paris and Marseille being two of them.

@Ohthatsexciting

The irony...

If you travel in France you know to always take a toilet roll and toilet wipes as the service stations are so busy they always run out. Toilets off of main motorways are bad some even have squat and drop so avoid the toll free road services if you can. Sounds like you have caught Covid. The temperature is hot all over Europe ATM. Could you not find a supermarket for basic food if restaurants are closed. My sister went last week and she commented that her favourite restaurant was closed 3 days due to staff having Covid and no other staff available. She bought good at supermarket and made do on these days.

Do you think you spend more time travelling than you spend at the location you are travelling to?

I love driving to Europe - this is from Northern England - but the miles and time do add up!

The “lovely little place” will be a hotel surely? Not a packed restaurant. OP and her Covid ridden, dry heaving, shitting kids will be keeping well away from other people (aside from the nice receptionist and the people cleaning the hotel room, bringing food etc?)

😂

The best trip I’ve had to France was driving through it to get somewhere better. I’m sorry you’ve had such a shit time and had a hard time from the professionally offended of MN

We have checked in and room service is on the way! No one is very hungry except dh. A shower and a glass of rose and two paracetamols and feeling not quite so awful. It’s cooler here than I feared after looking at the bbc news. Very disappointed it hasn’t been the best holiday tho 😞

I don’t know why we are being sick, but only dd positive atm. We will make sure she has contact with absolutely nobody and praying we are well enough in the morning to traveL home. Dh already grumbling about the price of it all.

FYI dh and I both speak French relatively well, and are very polite so it isn’t a lack of manners, simply that the staff all looked dog tired, fed up and under appreciated, and unfortunately the service deteriorated and other guests started complaining loudly and moaning not unreasonably and it seems like a vicious cycle. They need much more help, but can’t magic staff out of thin air. It did look understaffed everywhere we went. This has not been our experience in France pre covid.

Dh cheerfully suggesting the train next year instead, seriously!!

Good. FWIW recommend short showers for the Dcs then tucking them up all snuggly in bed.

Plus at least another glass of rose.

Hope things are a very great deal better tomorrow.