Nobody spoke English and there was nothing to do

[AdoraLovesCake]

Sorry, this might sound like I am complaining when obviously in another country they won't speak much English.

I decided to go to France this summer as a single pregnant mum with a 1 year old and a 5 year old. Fortunately my friend and her 3 year old son decided to join us.

I booked in a place, by the beach in Northern France, I had been to when I was a young adult, I remember it being quite touristy but very kid friendly. Photos of the place looked like a touristy city where people would speak English.

I speak quite a lot of French and was teaching bits to my oldest daughter so she could ask for a crepe or say please and sorry and simple things like that, under the expectation that most people would speak English. My 1 year old can only speak a few words, so I am not going to teach her French. My friend speaks French well too, and her son also learnt please, thanks, sorry.

We arrived to find a really untouristy place. We unpacked and looked around the town for fun kids stuff. There was nothing. By this time I was exhausted, with an overexcited child and a screaming baby. So we hunted for a cafe or restaurant. Nothing. We went into a small bakery, asked in French for some stuff then asked in English, "Are there any children's playgrounds here?" The baker looked blank at us and soon there was about five French men shaking their heads and repeatedly telling us, "Me French"

So we left and went to the beach. No kids on the beach, just a couple and their dog. Thankfully they let the children stroke the dog. No places to buy ice cream, buckets, spades, balls, paddle boards or anything.

The next day we took the bus, still nobody spoke English and still, towns bare of tourists and kids, beaches bare of anyone and anything.

Thankfully the kids took it quite well, it could have been a whole lot worse. It's just that the research I did made it look good. Maybe I didn't do enough? Maybe I shouldn't have used my memory from 20 years ago? Maybe I should have taught my kids more French?

xxx Cora

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it.

It does sound like a bit more research would have been good, things do change a lot in 20 years and maybe the main tourist destinations are now further along the coast. I find google maps really helpful in finding areas where there are lots things to do as well as just googling things like “where to visit with kids in France”.

I don’t think teaching your kids French would have made any difference though, there’s a limit on what a 5 year old will learn anyhow. We’ve had lots of holidays in France and my kids barely know any beyond “pain au chocolat” - sadly!

If you speak quite a lot of French, why didn’t you ask in French ‘are there any children’s playgrounds around here?’

Did you not research ?

Thanks @minipie Thanks for understanding and I'll use google maps next time!

@fecojem I asked it in English first, nobody understood and by now my youngest daughter was sobbing so it was difficult. My friend did try to ask it in French, didn't meet with a different response.

I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for from the thread? I certainly think you could have done a great deal more research. Surely as you were putting together an ittinerary, you would have realised that there was a lack of things to do for children or a limited number of eateries etc in that location? I also can't see that teaching your children more French would have helped, unless you had planned for them them to sip beaujolais and converse with the locals as part of their holiday entertainment. If you and your friend could speak French well, that should have got you by in terms of asking for advice on things (perhaps your French is not as good as you remembered either!). Maybe consider something like Eurocamp or a hotels with activities next time, or if you can, drive and then you can take board games, beach bits with you to make your own fun.

In fairness I don’t think you should have expected the people there to speak English.
If they were to come to UK would you expect everyone to speak to them in French?

Did you not have mobile data? Google translate, Google maps and well, just Google tbh would have sorted you out.

I understand that you were surprised by lack of touristy oriented activities, but it sounds you managed, 1 and 5 years old are able to see many things as exciting without paying for a paddle board.

What was the issue with limited English in that place? You and your friend speak French and children were too young to do much on their own, so no real language barrier...

I dislike holidaying in France for this reason. I’ve been met with blatent rudeness when I’ve struggled to make myself understood in French. I can’t be doing with it. I’ve never encountered that attitude anywhere else.

@AuntieMarys I did do research but I could have done more, it was all a bit last minute.

@Bs0u416d Eurocamp is a good idea thank you. I did bring games, that's what we did for 4 days, I just expected there to be other things as well.

@Andante57 You are right. I should have expected less.

@ditalini We had internet some of the time, it was very on off. We used it some times but a bit of a hassle.

@ZiriForEver Thankfully we did manage. Kids behaved very well.

@LegendsBeyond I'm sorry about that. We didn't have rudeness just, "je ne comprends pas"

Next time I will book a eurocamp and look on google maps. It was all last minute and my baby brain.
thanks :)

You went to France and expected the locals to speak English ? It also sounds like you didn't research your holiday properly.

Can I recommend Great Yarmouth?

Also Trip Advisor.

It’s such a weird French thing to act like you can’t possibly understand someone speaking less than perfect French. I lived in France, speak French better than most French people speak English and they bloody love acting like they can’t understand a word I’m saying if i mispronounce something or get a gender wrong. It’s baffling.

Whether or not people spoke English here seems neither here nor there. And certainly you kids speaking some French seems an odd thought. You picked a poor holiday venue which in this day and age seems fairly astounding. I’m struggling to think of all these completely empty beaches in northern France in august but seems you found them …

Next time google” [place] stuff for kids”. Or even better” [place] Mumsnet good for small kids holidays. “ It’s all fairly straightforward really.

Unless you’re going to an English speaking country you can never just assume people will speak English. It sounds like you speak passable French but didn’t know how to ask about playgrounds in French, so why would you expect somebody with only some English to know playground vocabulary? Even if people do speak English when you’re abroad you can’t assume it will be fluent or that the vocabulary will cover everything!

Really it sounds like the issue was you didn’t do enough (any?) research. Of course not every French seaside town will have shops selling paddleboards, neither does every UK beach! It takes 30 seconds to google a town/ place to see what is available locally, if you’d googled ‘things to do with kids near [town]’ before you want you would have seen there wasn’t much available or found anything that was.

Not everything is touristy, not every touristy place will be kid friendly, not everywhere remains unchanged over the decades. You went on holiday without doing any research and for some reason just assumed it would be touristy, clearly it wasn’t. This is nobodies fault but yours! Next time maybe take some time to find out what a place is like before you actually turn up there and don’t just assume it will have everything you want/ need.

I think most people will put it effort to understand and help you if you do the same first - so I'd have asked in French first, even if it was broken French, and then if English was needed, they could have started to reply in English; or I'd have politely asked if they spoke English and then repeated the question in English.

It does sound like you didn't do enough research, and perhaps your expectations were out of line with what was there. Places can change quite a lot over time.

But I'd also not travel to Europe and expect to be talked to in English; really. There have been several reports that European opinions of England have dropped due to Brexit, and it wouldn't be surprising if places stopped being quite so welcoming as a result. If you holiday outside of resorts, you're relying on people's goodwill to talk to you in English, and not everyone will.

What was the town? How did you get there - did you have a car? I'm trying to think of where on the north coast would be like this in August.

The title of this thread is why we can't have nice things.

You can download French from Google translate so you don't need internet. Expecting English to be spoken anywherebut particularly France is silly. Just make sure you have the means to be understood.

And a French place with no cafes or restaurants sounds odd too!

Thanks all. I was planning to just go to Somerset but DDs had been promised France before I got pregnant.
I did do quite a bit of research but honestly I did rely to much on memory and assumptions.

No tourists and no English spoken sounds like a perfect French holiday destination!

also OP, like I said I have lived in France and been on holiday there loads - I STILL get caught out by things being closed and touristy places mysteriously shutting down. I remember a holiday which was also on northern beaches and being surprised by how quiet it was and that there was absolutely nowhere open for food. It’s a learning curve! I now buy loads of snacks when I’m in France because I’ve been practically reduced to tears on a Sunday trying to find something to eat (in a city!).

I’m ok at speaking French but find it so disheartening when they reply in English. It sounds like you made the most of your situation & learnt a lot about what to do next time.

Thank you !!