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Global Travel Planning
France Travel Planning - Essential travel tips for first time visitors
Join host Tracy Collins in episode 37 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast as she chats with Jo Karnaghan from France Travel Planning.
Jo shares her top tips for first-time visitors to France, offering advice to help you plan an unforgettable journey. Discover tips on crafting the perfect itinerary, navigating the country, and avoiding common travel mistakes. Jo also shares budget-friendly advice, cultural etiquette, must-try foods, and her ultimate recommendations for first-time visitors.
Whether you're planning your first trip or your next adventure to France, this episode is packed with inspiration and guidance.
⭐️ Guest - Jo Karnaghan (France Travel Planning)
📝 Show Notes - Episode 37
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- Episode #4 - Tips for first-time visitors to Vietnam
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Hello and welcome to episode 37 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. This week, I'm joined by Francophile and travel expert, jo Carnigan, from France Travel Planning, to share her top tips for first-time visitors to France. Whether dreaming of the Eiffel Tower, exploring charming villages in Provence or indulging in world-class French cuisine, this episode is packed with practical tips and advice to help you plan your trip. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hi and welcome In this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm chatting with Jo Conaghan, a Francophile and the expert behind France Travel Planning, an invaluable resource for anyone planning a trip to France. You can find her at francetravelplanningcom and in a friendly France Travel Planning Facebook group which, at the time of recording, has over 50,000 members. Through these platforms, jo helps travellers turn their French travel dreams into reality. Jo shares her love of France, where it all began, and dives into key advice for first-time visitors, from crafting the perfect itinerary to navigating the country with ease and avoiding common travel mistakes. Jo's insights will help you make the most of your trip. We also discuss budget-friendly tips, cultural etiquette, must-try foods and our ultimate advice for first-time visitors to France. So whether you're planning your first trip or your next adventure to France, this episode is packed with practical tips and inspiration to make your journey unforgettable.
Speaker 2:I began by asking Jo about her love for France and how it all started. Look, I belong to that generation of Australian high school students where learning French was compulsory in high school. So my first real introduction to France was learning French and didn't really know anything much about France. I lived a very ordinary schoolgirl life down in Melbourne we lived at the time. But I started to really get into the culture, because to learn the language you also have to learn the culture, and so I learned.
Speaker 2:I ended up doing French at school for six years and spoke it reasonably well for a schoolgirl French, Yep and did quite well in all my exams. But then went off to uni, did completely other different things, didn't get to travel to France for quite a long time, but then I started travelling to France and remembered little bits I'd learned at school and just, I suppose, fell in love with it all over again and fell in love with the culture and the lifestyle and the food and the architecture and just everything about it. So I started taking French lessons again and I think you know I've just sort of become more and more immersed as the years have passed, and so it just seemed really natural to want to write about France and share what I'd learned from what is now over 20 and counting visits to France.
Speaker 1:Fabulous. I'm going to kind of put you on the spot here, Jo, and ask you what is your favourite destination in France? Where do you always have to go to? And I'm going to kind of exclude Paris from that, if I can.
Speaker 2:Oh well, it's always Paris, not because, to follow the cliche, paris is always a good idea, because it always is, of course. But look, I think wherever I haven't been is my new favourite place is my new favourite place. I went back to Lyon for the first time in a few years in the middle of last year and really enjoyed Lyon, because it's actually quite apart from the old town. It's actually not at all a touristy sort of town and it's very, very different to Paris, even though it's very different to Paris, even though it's depending on who you ask, it's either the second or third largest city in France, but it's completely different. It's got a real small town sort of vibe to it. I do also really really like Provence and the Cote d'Azur. I just love the water of the Mediterranean and I've also said, if I ever run away, you might find me in Collioure, which is a little town down on the Mediterranean, just north of the Spanish border, and it's just absolutely delightful.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds good. Well, we'll try and keep your secret safe so that nobody goes to look for you, jo. So I actually, when Doug and I got married, we spent our honeymoon in Provence, so it's got a special place in our heart as well, I have to say. But france is a huge country. There's this a lot to france, um, and so you know, anybody trying to decide when they're planning an itinerary, think about where to go it can be quite overwhelming. We'll talk about that in a minute. Um, but but if somebody's not been to france before and they're planning a visit, so it's the very first time. What are the key things that you think first-time visitors should know about visiting France?
Speaker 2:Look, I was actually going to say the first thing that comes to mind when you sort of say, well, what should people who are planning a visit know? And that is that France is actually quite a large country. I mean, obviously, for someone like me who lives in Australia it's not, for people who live in the US, it's not. But having said that, the distances to travel from one place to another are actually quite long, and to go from Paris to Nice, for example, on the train, is five and a half hours, and to go from Paris to Nice, for example, on the train, is five and a half hours. So, or it's basically an all-day drive on the autoroute. So you know, distances are great and I think a lot of people in my group really, really underestimate just how long it takes to get places and how big it really is, just how long it takes to get places and how big it really is. I think particularly American people almost think it's like a state of the US whereas it's actually big, and I think that is really, really important.
Speaker 2:I think the other thing that I think, the more you travel in France, the more you really understand, is that Paris is not France, paris is Paris. There is nowhere in France that is like Paris. And to think if you've been to Paris, you've been to France, is one of the greatest myths of all time. Because it is a big country. Everything is different in all the different regions. The architecture is different, even the language is different, the food is completely different, the way of life is completely different, the way people dress is completely different. You know, there's the way people dress in Paris, and then there's the way people dress in the rest of France, which is very local to where they live, and so I think that's one of the greatest myths about France.
Speaker 1:I have to say I absolutely agree, because I have the same say the same about France. I have to say I've got to interject there. I absolutely agree because I have the same say the same about London, absolutely the same, 100% about London. London does not represent the UK at all. London is London and I always encourage people to get out of London and explore more of the UK. There's a lot to see. It's smaller than France, for sure, but still there's a lot to see. So I think that's a great point. I lived in France. I lived actually on Lake Geneva, so on the French side of Lake Geneva, and my life there is a million miles away from a life living in Paris, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I think something that surprises a lot of people, particularly people who come from the US or come from Canada or Australia, is that you actually can get around France quite easily without a car. And you know, because for some of us, you book a holiday and you're you rent a car. It's part of what you organise, but in France that is just so not necessary. For much of what you do, what you need, and certainly in the cities, you absolutely do not need a car. And it comes as a great shock to some people that people can actually get around a city and live there quite happily without having a car to drive around. And you know, there's lots of reasons why having a car in Paris is a really bad idea, but you just don't need one. And I think that's something that I think is really important for first-time visitors to France to understand that you know if you are going from city to city, you actually don't need a car. No, take the train, yeah absolutely every time, absolutely so.
Speaker 1:If somebody's at the moment listening and they're planning an itinerary to France, they're thinking 2025 or 2026 is going to be our year that we visit. But they're starting to feel a bit overwhelmed because when you sit and start planning an itinerary anywhere, I think that you've not been. It's pretty overwhelming, but what tips would you share with somebody who's in that position, apart from, obviously, looking at your website and joining your facebook group?
Speaker 2:yes, oh, that's a given um, but I think I think the first thing and this is going to sound a bit obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people don't do it and that is get a map and look at it, just so you can understand the relationship of places within the country, where things are in the country. You know we get so many questions in the Facebook group about people who say they want to go to the south of France. But that's half the country. Where do you actually mean? Yes, which part? Yeah, which part, yeah, which part? You know and you know.
Speaker 2:So get a map, because I think if you get a map and you can actually look at the distances, that starts to really give an appreciation of my next tip, which is that you really need to allow at least a half a day in France every time you change locations and that's pretty true for many places in the UK and Europe, for that matter by the time you get out of one hotel, get yourself to the train station. Even a two-hour train trip, even a two-hour train trip, which in France, because the TGV trains can run at 200 kilometers and over per hour, can get you a long way it still takes you about half a day by the time. You're out of the hotel to the station, on the train, get to the next destination and get yourself checked in or at least your bags dropped off. That is four hours of your day gone, pretty much. And so I think I think again, a lot of people think, oh, it's only two hours on the train and so they think, oh, we'll have the whole day when we get there. Well, no, you won't. You. You've lost half a day easy for a two-hour train trip.
Speaker 2:So you've got to factor in all of those sorts of things, and that's not just true in France, it's true most places in Europe. I think the other thing that a lot of people try and do is that they try to see everything and they overschedule terribly, and one of the joys, I think, of France is finding your own special part of it, and that doesn't matter whether it's in Paris or whether it's in the tiny little village where there's no other tourists, or whether it's in a field with sunflowers but please don't go and stand in the lavender. It's such a boring cliche. Um, but you know, you've got to. You've got to give yourself time and space to find something that you want to linger over and just enjoy.
Speaker 2:And if you try, to see everything and you schedule every minute of every day to within an inch of its life. One you'll just be exhausted. One, you'll just be exhausted. Two you'll have a whole lot of tick-the-box experiences where you can say, oh yes, we did all these things, but you can't actually tell anybody about them or you can't actually take them in because you're so busy thinking about oh, we have to go here and we've got to be there, and oh, you know, I've still got five things we need to do today.
Speaker 2:And I just think that's such a shame, because that is not what I think anybody really intends to genuinely do on their holiday. And it is really tempting to want to see everything, you know, I think, particularly a country like France that is so popular and people know it, even though they've never been, because they've seen it on the television, they've seen it in films, they've seen it everywhere. And I just think you know it is really really tempting, but it's a temptation that you just need to try and avoid and I think those are all absolutely, um, excellent tips and and advice.
Speaker 1:Joe, is there any kind of common mistake, you see, in particular with first-time visitors to paris? Um, that you would say, uh, because obviously paris comes up all the time, it's like london, it's like everybody wants to go to Paris, everybody wants to go to London. So I kind of know myself what generally comes up in London. But is there anything particular for Paris? You would say, look, first time you're going to visit, avoid this.
Speaker 2:Look, I think the overscheduling is the biggest thing. I must admit I'm a great fan of the spreadsheet myself when it comes to planning itineraries and planning trips and what have you. But some of the itineraries I've seen on spreadsheets just are actually sort of marvels of project management, of project management. They are so detailed and you know literally every second of every day, to the extent that you know all the meals are scheduled with a restaurant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so. Not French as well, I have to say it is so not French and you know.
Speaker 2:but apart from anything else, what somebody in a Facebook group recommends for you to go and eat might not be nearly as inviting or as convenient as the little place on the corner near your hotel when you get there. So, if you've got everything scheduled and booked and itemised down to, we are going to eat dinner at this restaurant between 6.30 and 8, for every single day. You're shutting yourself off to so many unexpected. You're shutting yourself off to so many unexpected, special, potentially far more memorable experiences, and so I think in Paris, just being open to having nothing on your itinerary for a couple of hours or getting a recommendation from your hotel or somewhere, something like that, and being a bit more spontaneous, I think, is a really I think that that's my absolute, you know, sort of key thing for people Just relax and let the experience come to you rather than you rushing to the experience.
Speaker 1:I think that's excellent. That's excellent advice. I'm going to kind of follow on with that, because you mentioned about food and restaurants and, as I say, it's not particularly French to rush a meal or to over plan, really, in terms of how long you're going to be enjoying your meal. I know, when I lived in France, the lovely lady that I worked for, her nanny, she would spend days preparing a meal literally if we had a party and it was wonderful and it would last all day and all night, and it would be absolutely, it would just be the best thing ever.
Speaker 1:So, in terms of kind of cultural norms or etiquette tips because I often get asked this question because people don't want to make those faux pas he's a bit French what would you recommend? What would you say for people to kind of prepare themselves, because you know everybody will have watched Emily in Paris, or majority of people, I'm sure, will have watched Emily in Paris. It's so popular. But what would you say people should be aware of, so that they are and again, it's going to be different for Paris than it is for the rest of France, I would say but what would your advice be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, look. I think the first comment to make is that Emily in Paris is neither reality television nor a documentary. Yeah, it is a work of fiction on so many levels, but, having said that, there are some quite genuinely valuable lessons in there, I think, particularly for us Anglophones. I think one of the things we all need to be really conscious of, particularly in restaurants and on the trains and other forms of public transport and in public, is just to moderate our voices, because we tend to speak quite loudly and whereas if you sit quietly and listen to French people speaking, they tend to speak far more quietly than we do. And so, whether it's on the train or whether it's in a restaurant, don't be that loud tourist. Just moderate your voice a little.
Speaker 2:The other thing is that when you're in shops and restaurants and other sorts of public places, it's really important to greet the shop assistant or greet the waiter in a restaurant or a cafe, rather than just saying, oh, a table for two, or do you have these shoes, in whatever size? You need to say hello, which, of course, when you're in France, means you have to say bonjour, and even if you learn no other French words, you must learn bonjour and you must use it. You will find you will get much better service. You will find that the wheels will be oiled so much better if you can just do that. One simple little thing, and in restaurants in particular outside big cities, is that the kitchen times are pretty set and they're pretty rigid.
Speaker 2:So it's really hard if you turn up at a restaurant at a quarter to two, you might find the kitchen is about to close because lunch is between 12 and 1.30. That is when the kitchen's open. That's when they're serving. So, being conscious that not all the meal times are actually quite rigid compared to, again, what we might be used to when you're in places like markets unless it's clearly a self-service market stall don't pick up the produce, don't pick up the goods. The person behind the stall counter will serve you and oftentimes they will ask you when you're planning on eating whatever it is you're buying, particularly if it's fresh food like fruit or vegetables. Don't be afraid to pick up to ask for something that you don't know what it is, and ask them how to cook it, because they'll be able to tell you exactly what to do with it.
Speaker 2:And I've experienced some really fabulous things that we can't buy here in Australia, such as wild asparagus. I didn't even know it existed, let alone what it looked like, let alone how to cook it or what it would taste like, but I was at the market. I saw it there. I asked the stallholder what it was. She told me. I said oh yes, how do you cook it? She told me we bought a bunch, we cooked it and it was fabulous. So people will serve you if you make the effort to be served.
Speaker 1:Is there any particular food or drink that you'd recommend people try? Because I think there are certain expectations in terms of when people go to France they think, oh, I'm going to have frog's legs or I'm going to have snails or whatever that you usually hear about. But are there things that you recommend that people should consider trying? It's like I say if people come to Scotland they should try haggis, you know.
Speaker 2:It's surprisingly hard to find frog's legs. Yeah, um, now, even in paris it's surprisingly hard, and it's often more touristy restaurants where you will see it. I couldn't. I I do recall, I think, the last time I had frog's flakes, and it was over 30 years ago.
Speaker 1:I would say the same for me actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Snails I've had more recently. I do think I think oysters are worth a try because they're quite different. I'm a huge fan of duck confit, which is a duck leg which is slow cooked in duck fat so that it's almost poached in the fat and it goes incredibly soft and succulent and juicy and delicious. And then it's pan fried so that the skin goes unbelievably crispy. You don't need any coating or any bread or any anything on it and it's so crispy and that's my what I have every time I go to France. That's my one must-have dish a nice duck confit.
Speaker 2:I think you obviously need to try some bread and some pastry, Don't? Everyone gets a bit hung up about which is the best bakery to who has the best croissant. It doesn't matter, Just buy. There's literally a bakery on almost every corner. Go in the morning, find one that's got plenty of French people in it and buy something from there. And then the next day go somewhere different and try somebody else's, because they will all be slightly different, and then you can work out which one you like best.
Speaker 2:But do try some baguette, do try a croissant, do try some other pastries. Even if you're not a true sweet tooth, French pastries might look incredibly rich and incredibly sweet, but they're actually often quite light and often not overly sweet. Even the chocolatey ones, the chocolate can actually be more savoury or bitter rather than really sickly sweet. So even if you're not a sweet tooth, do try a lemon tart or something chocolatey. I think the other thing you can never go wrong if you're eating in a restaurant or a cafe. You can never, ever go wrong if you choose the plat du jour or the menu that will be written up on the board, called the four moules, which is the sort of the set menu for the day, because it will be fresh, it will be well priced and it will often be quite local to the area.
Speaker 1:So I know you mentioned Duck Coffee there and a few things that you enjoy when you're in France. So I'm going to ask for a bit of an insider secret from you here, jo, because I know you've written an Ultimate Paris address book, so I know that you've got lots of information people can buy there if they're going to be visiting Paris. And is there a particular restaurant that you enjoy, and I'm saying just where is it in Paris and what particular thing do you always order when you go there?
Speaker 2:Look, I don't have a particular restaurant. I've got a few things that, because there's just so many, you don't, I just feel as though it's a shame to limit yourself just to the one I'm fairly liberal in where I choose to eat. There's certain styles of places that I particularly like. I love going for afternoon tea in Paris. It's one of my absolute favourite things to do. You go to a five-star hotel and you know, let's face it, hardly any of us can afford to stay there, and most of them have multi-Michelin star restaurants. That Michelin star restaurants that, let's face it, most of us can't afford to eat at either. But if you plan ahead and budget for it, most of us can afford to go for afternoon tea in a five-star hotel. And even somewhere like the Ritz has a afternoon. In fact they have a choice of two different afternoon teas in two different locations. The afternoon tea at the Maurice is very good as well. We went to the Creon last time, which was very sort of small and luxe, sort of small and luxe. Afternoon tea is a really really good way to taste a whole lot of different things, both sweet and savoury. So I really love afternoon tea.
Speaker 2:The other sorts of places I love to eat are just local places with big terraces out the front, and I don't mind if I sit inside and watch the people on the terrace or if I sit on the terrace and watch the people on the terrace.
Speaker 2:But I like that sort of very casual style of eating and drinking and people watching. And places like that are great because you don't have to order three courses and four different wines and be super organised and to have booked a table. Most of them will have their kitchens open all day, particularly in Paris, and so you can turn up for a light dinner at 5.30 and people won't look at you as if you've got two heads. If you only want to buy, have a salad and French salads are fabulous, they're huge and really, really tasty but if you just want to have a salad, you know you can sit there for an hour and a half over a salad and a glass of wine and it doesn't cost much. It's unbeatable, people watching and it is a quintessential French experience, so I love those sorts of places oh, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:We're busy planning a trip to France in March, I think, so I'll be looking forward to that. I do love French salads and just sitting in just I don't know, just the feeling of being in France is really unbeatable. It's so lovely. Now you mentioned a little bit about kind of prices and affordability. So do you have any kind of budget friendly tips, because we're all kind of tightening our belts these days and exchange rates and things like that, so have you got any tips to save money when you're visiting France?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, because you know, even those of us who travel regularly still, and even though I do like to go for a nice afternoon tea and things like that, you know we've got a plan for all of that sort of stuff. So don't underestimate getting lunch. At a supermarket. You can buy quite decent salads that are in little kits that you can make up and they'll have a fork and everything, or sandwiches you can go to. Many bakeries sell pre-made baguette sandwiches. Bakeries sell pre-made baguette sandwiches. The absolute classic French sandwich in inverted commas is a jambon beurre, which is a great chunk of baguette, anything up to about a foot long, liberally slathered with beautiful French butter and then with ham in it. And that's easy and it's cheap and it's still very, very authentic. As we talked about earlier, french salads are big. They're not the little sort of accompaniments or side salads or starter-type meals that many of us are used to. They are a meal in themselves and with some bread that will come and which you won't need to pay for, you can actually have quite a filling lunch or like dinner.
Speaker 2:And I think when people are travelling around France, there are two websites that I think are really handy to know about, and the first one is Gites de France, which Gites, for those who don't know are little self-catering, usually cottages or apartments, often in quite rural sort of settings where you can stay. Sometimes they'll serve bread and breakfast, sometimes it is literally all self-catering. They are a fabulous, money-saving way to travel around the country. And then the other one is there's a hotel group of independent hotels called Logis de France, which is usually two and three-star family-owned hotels, quite small, they don't have big marketing budgets. They often have fabulous restaurants that are quite well-priced and they're really authentic, good quality and extremely well-priced hotels, again in small towns and more rural settings.
Speaker 2:But my other big big thing is, if you are travelling by train around France, do book your TGV long distance trains well in advance, because it is just like booking a plane ticket. The tickets are cheapest when they first come on available for sale. Don't wait until the week before because even if you can get a seat, it will be twice the price. So everything you can book in advance. Book in advance because you will absolutely save money.
Speaker 1:That's perfect, jo. So I have to say it's been great to chat to you about France and and I'm going to invite you on to talk more, and I think we can talk specifically about Paris would be really good as well, I think, at some point and also to talk about, I think, favorite five experiences in Paris or in France generally. I think that's a great, great thing to share again, because looking at experiential travel and, and you know, kind of immersing yourself, which obviously is something that you do when you, when you go to France now, I always end the podcast with the same question, and you may have already covered it before, but but I always end with this, so we're gonna, I'm gonna ask it what is the one tip that you would share with someone visiting France for the first time? The most important, important thing.
Speaker 2:Learn a few words of French Hello, goodbye, please, and thank you. It makes all the difference.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Thank you so much, Jo, for coming on the podcast. It's been great to chat with you this week, Thanks.
Speaker 2:Tracey, I've loved talking to you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks again to Jo for sharing her expertise and tips for visiting France. You can find information and links to Jo's website and Facebook group in this week's show notes. If you'd like to leave a voice message about this episode or any other episode of the Global Travel Planet podcast, you can do this via the SpeakPipe link in the show notes, which will be found at globaltravelplanetcom. Forward slash, episode 37.
Speaker 1:Next week I chat with guest Helen Foster all about Tokyo, japan. So don't forget to join me for that exciting episode and subscribe to the Global Travel Planet podcast via your favorite podcast app so you don't miss that or any other of our fabulous episodes this year. That just leaves me to say until next week, happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always happy global travel planning, thank you.