Ah, La France!

Since I was a kid I have been going to France quite a lot. It has been quite some time since I have been there, but in the past I used to go a lot. I have been in Menton and Monte Carlo twice with my parents, then I went to Strasbourg and Colmar on my second year of middle school and then again to Avignon and Provence (Les Baux, Saintes Maries De La Mer, Le Colorado Provencal, etc). I really liked each place but the thing is I kind of got tired of going to France simply because I did not have the chance to go else where, so during high school I went to Switzerland, Denmark and Hungary. Up to this day I went to other European places like Germany, Spain, Sweden and The United Kingdom.

But back to Strasbourg, we went to the Parliament, we saw the cathedral and we walked around the city. I really liked it because it was the first time for me being able to see a very different style of buildings and pretty much everything.

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This is the Notre Dame Cathedral in the city center.

The Cote Azur is pretty similar to Italy, but Alsace is definitely not so I was really amazed. Colmar is also a very cute town, it counts almost seventy thousand inhabitants and is really close to Germany, but also Switzerland and Luxembourg. When we went it was March and all the flowers were starting to blossom, there were canals everywhere and the atmosphere was great. We felt like if we were in a fairytale. I do not remember much of that because it has been years and I sadly lost the pictures I took as well. I used to have a digital camera and I do not remember where I saved all the pictures, I hope I will be able to retrieve them in the future. Between Colmar and Strasbourg there is also a little village called Ribeauville, of which I sadly remember only few things.

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Avignon is the place where back in the fourteenth century the Pope had his residency. From out hotel we could see the Palace and the view was really nice. As for our trip up to Alsace, we also rode a bus all the way to Provence, which is not that far anyways. The town of Avignon is really nice, but I guess that what really stick to my memory is Les Baux because it is a very nice little village. What is interesting is that I read on the internet that only around twenty-two persons live in the upper part of the commune, but it does not matter because it records over one million visitors per year. I say that it is nice because it is very unique, there are lots of shops of homemade things and decorations. Another place that I really liked is the Colorado Provencal. It is basically a desert of yellow sand and red rocks. It is really cool to just walk around there and run around.

We also went to the Camargue National Regional Park, which is basically famous for the flamingos that inhabit it.

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Saint Maries De La Mer is also a very nice town, but what makes it good is that it is by the beach.

So, here is a list of French places I have been to:

• Monte Carlo;
• Menton;
• Colmar (and Ribeauville);
• Strasbourg;
• Avignon;
• Saint Maries De La Mer;
• Le Colorado Provencal;
• Camargue National Regional Park;
• Les Baux.

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This is basically why in the past few years I kind of forgot that France even existed, I wanted to explore the other European countries before going back to France. I know there are lots of other interesting places, like Paris (of course! ) and the Normandy region (my sister has been there studying so she recommended it, she also brought back to Italy some cookies from there and they were so good! ), just to mention some of them. If I have to pick one of the places that amazed me the most, I would probably say Colmar, and the Colorado Provencal is definitely the second.

- Cristian

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