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!! 🤨

Sorry you are having a shit time OP (and a bit of a roasting here), it can't be fun.

I must admit I was wary of opening the thread as I'm off to France next week. I suspect loads of people are and the fear of having a similar experience might be contributing to the posts on here.

When are you attempting the drive home? I think the best you can do is be as prepared as possible for it and take it easy. Keep us updated with the exploding Americans!

...also my major take home from this thread is to consider taking my own mustard

One kid has covid, the other is being sick. We have barely eaten or slept in over a week, the temperatures are stratospheric.

You knew that catching covid was likely.
You knew if you caught it you’d be poorly.
You knew the world is still recovering or dealing with the effects from covid.
You knew it was going to be hot.

You’re acting like you’re this all came as a shock to you lol or that it’s somehow France’s fault when this would be the same anywhere.

Obviously it’s not ideal but there’s nothing worse when people around you are moaning about things they can’t control. It makes the experience even worse.
If you start having a more positive attitude then the others around you will too.

As you say imagine if it was pouring with rain and you had a thunderstorm the entire time getting wet and cold.

Wow, just wow. Do you always kick people when they’re down or just when you’re hidden behind a keyboard?

I don't think I have ever enjoyed a holiday in France fully, there's always something. We try not to go there these days. Some of those issues would be fine if you were self catering. Why did you not just go to a supermarket and get food? Some supermarkets (like Auchan) do really good food in their cafes so you could even have hot food but even so, what's wrong with cheese and baguettes? Surely better than just nuts. My parents bought a caravan to avoid staying in overrated French hotels after my dad came home with ringworm from the sheets in a b&b.

I love the French toll roads. Yes they cost a fair bit but they are divine to drive on ime. I once drove mid morning on way to the Ardeche for half an hour with not a single car in front or behind me. It was my favourite driving experience EVER. Kids asleep in back and Bruce Springsteen CD on full blast. I think nostalgically about it regularly and it is in my top 3 holiday experiences 😁

I think we are so self absorbed in this country and hyper focus on negatives we don't realise many countries are also struggling with shortages, high prices and poor service. Covid and the war in Ukraine has been devastating around the world.

Exploding Americans are literally boiling over after screaming for a solid 15 minutes about rubbish service, no vegan menu, terrible air con and at the end the guy at reception shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t speak any English 😂😂😂😂😂 bloody priceless

Sounds a nightmare, hope you get home safely @Provenceinthesummer , sorry to piss on your parade but make sure you stock up on petrol and supplies when you get back through the tunnel
50 mah limit on the moterway leading to horrendous traffic jams

France has always been a dive. We drive through it as fast as their bastard over zealous police allow in order to get to better places. Germany, Spain, Switzerland etc.
You can’t pay me to stay there!

A bit like this?

Apart from that someone has reversed into our car over night and I am past bloody caring now. Dh is now ranting and red faced. It’s going to be s long long journey home.
DS is a worrying shade of green - seriously I am trying to keep my sense of humour in this situation!

Wow, just wow. Do you always kick people when they’re down or just when you’re hidden behind a keyboard?

How am I kicking someone when they’re down?

I’m doing the complete opposite and trying to help her get back up by putting a positive spin on her experience.

I live in France and can't say I've noticed any of the things you describe other than the heat, which is currently the same in the south of England.

You're probably struggling to eat in your hotel because France has an amazing restaurant culture and no one in their right mind wants to get room service in their hotel.

I have friends in Charente and Gascony, and they're not having any problems apart from it being incredibly hot.

They go shopping at the crack of dawn, and stay indoors in the middle of the day. They're both very thankful that they live in old houses with thick stone walls! All essential services are running fine, they say.

I'm sorry your trip was so shitty, OP, but it sounds as though you were dreadfully unlucky.

I had the "empty autoroute" experience on one trip.I found it unnerving, for a few miles I started to worry that the road had been closed and some joker had removed the signs or something.

It was almost eerie.

It’s only a small scratch and slight dent ffs. Dh is overreacting

Oh I would pay good money to see that.

No vegan menu. 🤣

Of course not, you idiot, you're in France. If you want a vegan menu, go on holiday to California or Brighton.

I am not sure dismissing an entire country when you’ve travelled down a narrow part of it is helpful.

Of course not, you idiot, you're in France. If you want a vegan menu, go on holiday to California or Brighton

Ici un salade.

I'm sorry you're having such a miserable experience OP. Especially as it's costing you a lot of money. Hopefully you can look back and laugh at some stage in the future - "Remember that awful holiday we had in France when we couldn't find any restaurants, the hotel had no air con and then, to top it all off, we caught Covid". But now is not the time and you're still facing a 12 hour drive home.

Unfortunately, Covid is still having a big impact on tourism. We're seeing it here in Ireland too. The headlines in recent weeks have been dominated by stories about cancelled flights, horrendous queues to get through security at Dublin airport, lost luggage etc. I'm sure there are a lot of tourists complaining about their nightmare Irish holiday.

I think posters are taking exception to your description of France as a country on its knees when it's simply a case of the tourism industry trying to recover after a very difficult few years - a problem many other countries (such as my own) is facing.

Nobody can control things like the weather and insects so it is unreasonable to complain about those things.

I hope you make it home safely and all recover well from Covid. Please don't delete your thread. It might encourage other posters to do a bit more research into their own planned holidays. Basic things like, does my hotel have air con?, is the hotel restaurant open at present? is the restaurant open 7 days or just weekends? At a minimum, they might throw a few loo rolls into the car for the service stations.

OP it’s only the UK specifically England that is fair game for a lovely broad brush slagging off on mumsnet!

Why are there 50mph limits? In U.K.?

Extinction rebellion? I can’t find any info on that

"hope you make it home safely and all recover well from Covid. Please don't delete your thread. It might encourage other posters to do a bit more research into their own planned holidays. Basic things like, does my hotel have air con?, is the hotel restaurant open at present? is the restaurant open 7 days or just weekends? At a minimum, they might throw a few loo rolls into the car for the service stations"

And to think about what a drive to the South of France would look like

It is a long journey. Especially if you come from places in the UK that are far from the Channel Ports.

I'm in France right now, having travelled to Paris from Munich for the run up to Bastille day. Everything has been perfect, tbh.

Now I'm in the Loire valley and again... perfect. Yes it's hot but if you plan accordingly it's not a big deal. Everywhere is spotless. Sorry you've had a bad experience, not sure where you went wrong. I never stay in hotels though.

I've been visiting France every year for quite a few and have never encountered anything like that. Even the notoriously snooty Parisiens were really lovely and helped us when ds and I were struggling with bags in the Metro.

I find a smile and courtesy goes a very long way in this country.