Nothing like a little -40 weather to make you want to get up and leave, eh?

Well, overall, I’m against hitch-hiking – not in particular due to France, but just in general.

I had planned a trip loosely around the Da Vinci Code that included a bunch more, but included a quick run through Andorra, Rennes-le-Chateau, and a chaotic 12 hours in Paris seeing all the sights you can (non-stop walking and picture taking).

To your trip, it seems to be a pretty good mix of smaller and larger places. You can never see a whole country in a day and you’ll always end up missing something, so as long as you enjoy your trip, you’ll be fine.

Aix is a fairly big place, big enough to have cafes, clubs, and beautiful water fountains. Les Deux Garçons is one of the more famous ones, from what I gather. There is no shortage of stuff to do, including museums, and walking past the expensive shops in the Mazarin quarter… very cool narrow streets there.

The Abbey of Saint Maximus is supposed to house the bones of Mary Magdalene near Mount Saint Baume which is near Moissac-Bellevue. It may be worth a neat sidetrip there if you can. Provence, overall, is beautiful.

If you go through the alps, take the Mont Blanc pass – I think it’s around 10 miles long, the longest underground pass in the world, and it’s a nifty experience, with fantastic views of the mountains at both ends (we spent over half an hour on the French side just taking pictures of glaciers and peaks).

While in Italy, we passed through the north western area (Turin) and found it very nice at that time of year (July) but the weather would be cooler at this time of year, obviously.

Some people like the "random" trip, where you plan on going to a country and figure out what you do after you’ve gotten there. You can try printing out the pages for the countries you plan on passing through in case anything changes, and let us know how things went afterwards!!

What do you think?
N…

Tell me about it! This weather made me leave for Mexico for the past two years.

Thanks for your reply, I agree with you for the hitch-hiking so is there a way that I can do all these stops (like a train pass for a week or by numbers of stops) It’s 4 stops, Paris, Fontainebleau, Lyon and Arles.

So when is your next trip?

Ren

Well, there is one pass that will let you both drive and take the train (convenient if you want to get around…) – it gives you three days of train travel and two days are car travel.
http://www.raileurop…

Unfortunately, most of my train travelling in europe was with my dad and he paid, so I never really knew the cost.

My next trip… hmmm… well, I’d love to take a long weekend and hop over to Bermuda, but I’ll probably take another trip to europe in the next year… maybe Scotland, Sweden and France…

Cheers,
N…………..

Hey it’s good to know there’s a couple people from ottawa here

Quick question for you two; what did you pay for airfare? I just booked my flight to amsterdam on expedia.ca and it was $800. I’m flying out of montreal on april 13th, a quick stop in London for a few hours and then amsterdam, return on July 7th. This price seemed pretty good compared to other prices i’d seen, what do you guys think?

This site is great! I’m learning so much and getting a good idea of how my trip is going to shape up, bought my backpack and now i’m so excited!

peace n’ love
-Bodhi

That fare sounds around right. I’m sure you could find cheaper on a charter flight, but I’m 6’7" and typically don’t fit in the seats very well.

I paid somewhere around the same for a flight in and out of Paris last summer. Had a blast – we rented a car, instead of really backpacking, but slept in it most of the time… it was… fun? ha!

Cheers,
N….

whoa thanks for the quick reply nimiety! i’m used to browsing forums where I’ll post and check back every hour, pullin’ out my hair ‘cause nobody is replying and the thread is slowly sliding to the bottom of the stack! haha

So charter flights aren’t prized for comfort I guess? hehe i’m not 6’7" but I’m still considered tall at 6’1". only been on one flight before (to mexico) and I was about as comfy as one could expect on an airplane. Airplane sleep leaves somehting to be desired though that’s for sure.

peace
-bodhi

Try being 7’1.5" for 12 hours on a plane from Western Canada to Europe =) Ouch!

I paid 600$ for Air Transat from Montreal to Paris…I am smaller 5’6…but my boyfriend is 6’3 and we just paid a little more ( 30$ ) so he could get a seat more comfortable. Sorry for my slow reply
I know how you feel.

So bodhi where did you go to Mexico? I’ve been to Acapulco and Cancun…Sooo nice not to freeze your ass for a few weeks. I got and all inclusive since I was younger and single at the time… and a little scared. Now I’m ready for a backpacking trip Dominius, where are you from in Canada? Nimiety thanks so much for your advice, your trip sounds great, Scotland is a place I definitely want to visit one day!

Renee

I’m from Vancouver, you? I’ll be making two trips to Europe between April and September Whereabouts are planning to backpack your trip?

Ahh…dont mention Acapulco….i hate it Acapulco…was there last year!….Cancuns a blast though.

When r u planning to go?

hehe sorry to mention acapulco again canadianjohn…but Katou, it was acapulco that I went too. Like you it was all-inclusive, it was my high school graduation trip with all my friends from school so we naturally got ripped off by the travel company but it was still a blast. I loved mexico, and i speak a little bit of spanish so it was so incredible having drunken’ conversations at three in the morning when we were buying hotdogs wrapped in cheese and bacon haha. Or the domino’s pizza delivery guys…mmm goatcheese pizza!

I am from Aylmer, Quebec 5 min from Ottawa but was born in Edmonton Alberta. I don’t remember because we move to Aylmer when I was 2.I’m flying to Paris stay for 3 days then we go down to Lyon then Arles, Aix en Provence and to Italy then we go back to Paris At first I wanted to go to Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, France. in two weeks.
I realize that it is crazy but I love traveling so much it is as if I can never see enough.

I agree for Acapulco, I had a great time but it is not the best place in Mexico. (Except for the amazingly nice weather) I love Cancun it’s beautiful and a real party place.CanadianJohn when did you go to Cancun? Where did you stay? I met a few crazy Canadian there and I had a great time. Did you go see the Mayan pyramids? I did and there breathtaking! My friend really like Domino’s pizza but I didn’t have the chance to try it I guess I’ll have to go back to try it. So where are you guys all going?

Any of you speak a little French? Moi oui et je veux apprendre l’espagnol cette année. I also want to learn Spanish, I no a little bit but not enough to understand a conversation. So I want to read more about your past trips Nimiety, Bodhi, CanadianJohn and Dominus.

Ren..

Where are you from Canadianjohn?

Heh… on my las trip to Europe, I went with my brothers, one of whom speaks some spanish. Every time we’d stop for directions in France, since we were taking some tiny backwoods routes, he’d try to be cocky and offer to speak with the locals, but he barely speaks french, and kept slipping into spanish without realising it!

"Oui, monsieur, una momento, por favor?"

I speak french very well, and had to keep from laughing my head off! It’s the one bad thing of speaking multiple languages: I flip between spanish and italian without noticing sometimes too.

I started putting my trips up at http://www.worldtrav… where I post more frequently, but it’s tough. My dad was in the military, and we’d gone over once a year for 5 years straight, so it’s hard to remember which trip with castles was in which country in which year. I’ll take some time to sort it out in a month of so.

Et, Katou, bonne chance avec votre espagnol!
N….

quote: Heh… on my las trip to Europe, I went with my brothers, one of whom speaks some spanish. Every time we’d stop for directions in France, since we were taking some tiny backwoods routes, he’d try to be cocky and offer to speak with the locals, but he barely speaks french, and kept slipping into spanish without realising it!

"Oui, monsieur, una momento, por favor?"

I speak french very well, and had to keep from laughing my head off!

lol that’s pretty funny! I check your site and you did travel alot. let me know when you post some pics ok. I don’t think I would ever run with the bulls! to extreme for me

Sorry havent been in here for a while…

umm..I was in Cancun the summer of 02 and ofcourse we stayed at Oasis cancun(when it was still good)

As for Acubullshit, i was there xmas of 03, so a lil over a year now!

My fav place down south is Varadero(Sorry Americans)

And i’m from Toronto Ontario!

John