Welcome to Travel in France Tips. To look at a closer geographical area of France, you will find a drop down menu on the top right, for mobile phone users it’s at the bottom, (“Area of France” – “Select Category”). The drop down is categorised West, North, East, South and Centre, followed by the region, followed by the city. You will also find a section for restaurants, castles and for annual events. On the top menu you will also find a blog, used for personal chatter when I usually go to some place to discover. There is also on the right the next three events in France, plus the ability to see all upcoming events. The events are major events, not small local ones.
This site deals with all of France, except Paris. If you are interested in more information about Paris, check out Colleen’s Paris for an insider’s view.
Each photo at the top of a post is just a header, but you can click on it for a bigger version. Usually a clickable map follows which can be zoomed in & out and you can click on icons on the map that will bring you directly to the page containing the pertinent info. Any photos below the map can be clicked on for a bigger version (if your screen is big enough). All photos are mine (unless stated otherwise) and they are copyrighted. Use of the photos are governed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Any comments, criticism, applause – we would love to hear it. We thrive on comments! Below each post is a comment box (although you need to go through a simple registration process, it can be as a “guest” so the email can be false. If you plan to return with comments, then register properly), please let us know what you think of the site, the article, the photos, the information, etc. And yes, there is advertising on this site. I’m trying to keep it to a minimum, but the site needs to pay for itself.
Here are the latest 10 updates on the site, and below that is a map with the cities covered so far:
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You will see map marker clusters in the map above. The number indicates how many articles are to be found in that cluster area. CLICK on the cluster for the map to zoom in to show you the map markers in question, or more clusters.
Remember that an icon on the map above can hide others icons. If you are interested in a particular area, zoom in (using the “+” on the map) and dragging your mouse to your desired location.
Here are the recent articles:
Trouville-sur-Mer, Lower Normandy, suffers from a perceived lack of glamour because of its more famous neighbour, Deauville (known for its casino, conference centre and international star-studded film festival). But they have nothing to be ashamed of. Big and long white sandy...
Transport Getting There Train: There is a train link between Paris and the shared railway station of Trouville-sur-Mer and Deauville. There are several daily direct (and ones where you need to change) trains. Fastest time is 2 hours. Trouville-sur-Mer/Deauville railway...
If there is one place in France where you are automatically silenced, it's the Omaha beach cemetery. This is the place where US soldiers who died during the World War II D-Day are buried (not all of them, "just" 10,000)....
Transport Getting There Getting there is quite complicated unless you have a car or are on a tour. The closest motorway is the A13/E46 which brings you into Caen from Paris. From there you will need to take the...
The Mont St. Michel is France's second most visited monument, second only after the Eiffel Tower in Paris. With over 3 million visitors each year, it is no wonder United Nation's UNESCO put it on their World Heritage Sites. And...
Transport Getting There By car, the A84/E3 motorway (autoroute) comes about 10 kilometres away and it's well sign posted. TIP: If you reserve a hotel (or restaurant) make sure you get the access code for the barriers into the area....
The Jardins Suspendu, in English the Hanging Gardens is a vast garden on the heights of Le Havre overlooking the city. The whole garden area is built on an old fort. The building of the Fort de St. Adresse...
Transport Getting There Getting to Fecamp requires your own transportation. There is a railway station, but the majority of arrivals/departures is done via bus which can take a long time. There is an occasional train, but it only goes as...
Fecamp was, and probably still is, a large herring fishing city. Several herring smoking factories were located alongside the docks, but all have now disappeared. But to remember the days that tons of herrings were brought to the shores and...
For many people who like their liqueur cocktail drinks, Benedictine is no stranger. On its own, with brandy (called B&B) or used to spice up deserts (like crepes), Benedictine started its long life as a medicinal drink. The drink was conceived...
Fecamp is a small coastal city with an active fishing fleet. The fishing fleet is central to the city, since the fishing boats have been going to Newfoundland for over a century to fish for cod, and another large portion of...
Le Havre, founded in 1517 by King Francois I, is a coastal city on the west of France, in the Normandy region. It is France's 2nd largest harbour (after Marseilles) and Europe's 5th biggest in terms of container ship movements....
The harbour of Le Havre is France's second largest, second after Marseilles, and the biggest in France for containers (and Europe's 5th largest). Every day you can see many big cargo ships arrive or depart from this port. In fact,...
Transport Getting there Ferry: From Southampton and Portsmouth direct to Le Havre, or from Newhaven to Dieppe and then the A29 to Le Havre. Click here to read more about the ferry station. Air: There is an airport, but there...
Montlucon is located almost at the exact centre of France. It has traditionally been associated to the royal Bourbon family. The city itself, dominated by the Bourbon family castle is very medieval looking & feeling with many narrow streets and...
The beach of Le Havre is the prime destination of the city's inhabitants and for many who come from as far away as Paris. As is the case with most of Upper Normandy, the beach is made out of pebbles,...
Of all the things to see in Le Havre, this is probably the number one item. Le Havre is not a touristy city with a lot of monuments, but the Saint-Joseph church is special, very special. The St. Joseph church...
My name is Mike Werner, Dutch, lived in 22 countries and finally settled with my Irish wife in France.
I worked several jobs, the last one for 10 years as a motorcycle, travel & tourism journalist at EssayHelpCanada.
Jules Achille Noël, born Louis Assez Noël (1815-1881) was a French landscape and maritime painter who worked primarily in Brittany and Normandy. His style was compared to Eugène Isabey and he won the praise of Baudelaire. Here are his works dealing with the city of Le Havre.
Charles-Louis Mozin (1806 - 1862) was born into a family of musicians, Charles-Louis Mozin studied with Xavier Leprince. Primarily a painter and lithographer of coastal landscapes, harbour views and seascapes, he exhibited at the Salons in Paris between 1824 and 1861. Along with Eugene Isabey and Richard Parkes Bonington, Mozin was one of the first artists to paint landscapes depicting the beach and fishing port of Trouville in Normandy, which he discovered around 1825, and where he settled in 1839. He also travelled in Germany and Holland, where he frequently exhibited his work between 1840 and 1850. Landscape paintings by Mozin are today in the museums of Amiens, Honfleur, Rouen, Toulon, Trouville, Versailles, and elsewhere, while a number of views of Paris are in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris.
Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray (1820 – 1884) has been called "the most important French photographer of the nineteenth century" because of his technical innovations, his instruction of other noted photographers, and "the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture making."He was an important contributor to the development of the wax paper negative. Gustave Le Gray was born in 1820 in Villiers-le-Bel, Val-d'Oise. He was originally trained as a painter, studying under François-Édouard Picot and Paul Delaroche. He lived in Italy between 1843-1846 and painted portraits and scenes of the countryside. Le Gray exhibited his paintings at the salon in 1848 and 1853. He then crossed over to photography in the early years of its development. He was a successful portrait photographer, capturing figures such as Napoleon III and Edward VII. He also became famous for his seascapes, or marine. He spent 20 years in Cairo, Egypt, but there are few works from this period. Here are his photos he made in the port city of Le Havre, Normandy.
© 2020 — Mickel Werner
