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!! 🤨

penny I feel bad for the waiting staff they look ready to drop in their long trousers and jackets and very long hours in this intense heat. Lots of whinging guests.

You are having a rotten time OP. And while I think it’s perfectly possible to have a rotten holiday anywhere, I have had several in France.

Such a shame as many parts of France are absolutely beautiful, so much interesting history and culture.

But… I have had truly appalling food and service in Paris, Brittany, Dordogne and many other places in between.

Our most recent trip was very difficult. Some magical moments but our teen DD has declared she is never going back.

Ah - it was Bastille Day on Thursday- I wonder if this has contributed. Like coming to the UK on a bank holiday - everyone on the move, out for lunch, etc.

I am shocked at €100 for tolls and hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for the solidarity orange and sorry your holidays were crap.

😂😂😂
"How very dare you have different experiences from me & disagree!
I shall flounce!!"

Sorry you've had a shit holiday op. I haven't been to France in a while so can't offer any opinions on that.

What I would say is as this is MN you were always likely to get snarky responses by criticising another EU country. Now if you'd had the same experience in the UK and said similar - like it's evidence of how crap the country is, a majority would have agreed with you!

Hope you are able to get back home soon!

I’m in France right now and can confirm it’s hot and sunny. I’m not in the hot south and we are very comfortable on a campsite in an area with lakes for swimming.
It’s true that the hospitality industry is struggling with staff - some restaurants don’t have enough staff to cover seven nights . Covid isn’t helping.
Apart from Dijon mustard super markets are stocked so we are experimenting with other meat sauces!
We are having a wonderful holiday.

Thanks, a bit worried about covid and the drive to be honest.

Tell the hotel you will take a room for 4, that 2 of your kids will sleep in one bed, that's what we did when the kids were younger if we needed an overnight bed on our long drive, when rooms are scarce. We would never ever contemplate a 12 hour, so we would do an 7 hour, with the second day a shorter 5 hours. Also it's best to avoid travelling on Saturday. Today will be hectic up or down the motorways. Oddly because we are hopeless at setting off early we sometimes missed the peak traffic jams as they were gone by the time we arrived. We also always drove between 12 and 2 when everyone pulls in to eat. Can you tell us which is your route back, from where to where.

Just back from a few days in Normandy. Lovely hotel, good food and service in all cafés, friendly and polite people. Would relocate there in a shot if I could.

It's going to be a very long drive from the South of France to Scotland. With a sick family.

How long are you planning to take? We have travelled from Yorkshire to the Med several times - and I know it's a long journey that we like to break up. No 11 hour drives per day for us.

My family just had a wonderful 8 days in the Alps. Lovely restaurants, kind people. Yes it's hot, it's summer. Go out in the mornings and stay in after 13h till early evening.

I'm just back from a long weekend in Paris, not one problem with restaurants or any of the other problems you seem to have found.

I think you were overtired from driving, stressed with the kids, grumpy from the heat and just found fault with everything from there on in. The West and North coast of France can be cooler in summer, would suggest you try there in future and not Provence which is known for its summer heat.

As for the Covid or whatever illness you have, the cases are exploding everywhere at the moment, why are you surprised some of you have caught something?

I am fully blaming dh for this. When our flights were cancelled he said no great shakes showed me the route on our computer at home, ‘a straight road’ he said. No need to cry that our holiday plans are in tatters with no flights. We can easily drive, it will be fun!!! The kids can enjoy the views and see the country and how hard can it be. It didn’t LOOK far but by god it’s a huge country.

Packed up now, sick bags at the ready!

Sorry you’ve had such a shit time OP. We look forward to a holiday so much, it’s gutting when it doesn’t work out.

My worst ever holiday was in France too, for similar reasons, and even though I know we were just unlucky I must admit it has (unreasonably) put me off going back!

Hope you get back safely.

Sorry you had such a shit holiday. I'm not a fan of the south of France or the people who live there.
All fine up north here in Brittany, even more so as there are no tolls - which every French person would agree are ridiculously expensive since they've been taken over by private companies. Lots more people use the RN now.
Our local Super U has even managed to source dole mustard from Poland, OK its not Dijon but at least I can make my own vinaigrette

Do you have medication with you to help bring your DD’s temperature down? A supermarket should have bottled water and hopefully one of you is well enough to drive home, though it is a hell of a way.
The motel type chains are usually clean and comfortable enough for an overnight stop en route.
Bonne route.

I would definitely avoid the South West coast - Arcachon at the moment as there's a huge fire raging.

We were in the Vendée last week and it was very hot. Predicted 43 here further south next week. Brittany is generally the coolest place in France if you're looking to avoid v hot weather.

Well - it is a straight road, but yes, it's a big country.

The tolls can be expensive - and I guess the fuel must be expensive as well.
You can avoid some tolls on the way back. There are Premiere Classe hotels to stay in which are good for cheap and cheerful accommodation

www.premiereclasse.com/en-us/

Just don't warn them about the Moroccan toilets !

On one of our picnics our children had an urgent need to pee, so they went over to some trees, came back telling me about rats ! I bring my 2 favorite pillows, plus beach towels in the car. Kids use the towels as blankets due to the air con and we use pillows and towels as cushions when we have a picnic. Also handy is a few fly swatters, particularly good for the wasps. Towel can be good in the back for shade from the lower sun in the evening.

I don't agree with the poster who says to avoid the toll roads. They are worth every penny as the network is fantastic.

France isn't a holiday.

Italy is a holiday. Spain is a holiday. Croatia, Germany, Portugal, all holidays.

France is simply a venture into hostile territory.

Boring food, people who hate you, and some quite nice countryside.

People who enjoy holidays in France don't know what happiness looks like. That's why it's so popular on Mumsnet.

Haha 😂

If the drive seems too much you can put your car on the TGV. Incredibly expensive but if you’re desperate……

Doesn't make it any cheaper, but if you do drive through France, it's much less stress to get a subscription for the motorways so you can use the automatic toll gates. Firstly, it means you don't have to have your handbag ready to pay every time. Secondly, it avoids (if you're driving alone) that awful rushed jog around the car after paying, hoping that you'll get back before the barrier shuts, because they're mostly only set up for left hand drives. And thirdly, if there's a queue then you're generally in the shortest one and it moves much more quickly. We've got a subscription where you only pay for the months you use, pay nothing for any other time. It costs 10€ upfront for the delivery of the little box that you stick on your windscreen, and then 1.70€ a month for any month you use (first 12 months free). If you travel regularly in France then they have other offers which give you a discount on the toll price, but if you're only there occasionally then I find this a really good offer.

Also, don't forget you need to display your emissions rating in the windscreen if you drive through any of the low emissions zones. They're in the biggest cities permanently and in a load of other places when there's high pollution.

Oh OP! That sounds just miserable. We are flying home from Provence tomorrow and everything has been just lovely. What part of Provence are you in? We thought that everything felt so normal here compared to home. Few references to covid, restaurants busy, shops busy, no closed down shops like at home.

I think the long drive and the sick kids have made it tougher on you. Safe journey back home. Hope the children are better soon. Fly to Italy next year and don't torture yourself. Xx

I’m in Scotland and we are three weeks into the school summer holidays already.