Foreign Perspectives

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

We’re at one of the crossroads of Europe so find that people are stopping here enroute for another major tourist site somewhere in Europe.

It’s very common for people to be coming from Paris enroute to somewhere in the Valencia or Alicante area as we’re pretty much at the half-way point and quite convenient for the motorway exit.

Going the other way, it’s almost always Avignon that people are heading for. OK, Avignon is nice but there seems to be more to see in Nimes, there’s the Pont du Gard, Arles and, for the nature lovers, the Camarge, all around two to three hours drive from here. And those are just the highlights because there are lots of other places to see in that area.

So why’s it always Avignon that they go to?

Simple. It’s got the biggest “name”. It’s why people go to Paris or to Rome or London. They usually start off with places that they’ve heard other people talk about or have seen in films or on TV.

Those coming the longest distances are the worst for this. Both Australians and Americans will almost always start with the “big sights” and, in many cases, only ever go to those “big sights” and thereby miss out on the real culture of the countries that they visit. Visiting in this way means that they are constantly surrounded by their fellow tourists hitting the “big sights”.

I’m not saying that they shouldn’t visit the big sights, but that needs to be balanced by visits to other places around the country. It’s much better to spend a few hours going round a small museum exhibiting a broad range of art than try to get round the Louvre over a day and thereby find that you get to the point of thinking “oh hum, another Matisse”. For that matter, probably the best place to see as Monet did doesn’t have any of his paintings at all!

Popularity: 6% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

We seem to be getting more and more popular with the Spanish looking for a short break outside Spain.

As we’re within two hours drive of Barcelona, it’s an easy trip for them yet it’s a very different area than they’re used to. For one thing Barcelona is a very active city whereas we’re in a very quiet area. However, people tend to like to get away somewhere “different” for their breaks and although we’re right beside Spain the local culture is very different.

But then it’s always been like that. So we’ve no idea why we’ve started picking up Spanish guests in increasing numbers. They all love it though!

Popularity: 6% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Although we’ve been living in the Languedoc-Roussillon for getting on for four years now, we’ve only seen the Pont du Gard for the first time yesterday.

How come? Well, the Languedoc-Roussillon region is really strung out and the Pont looked a long, long way from us. In fact, Wendy didn’t believe that it would only take us a couple of hours to drive there yet, as usual, the Mappy was just about dead on.

The perfect time to arrive at the Pont is in the early afternoon as you can see. That has the light falling on the aqueduct just about perfectly.

As you’d expect there are loads of water based activities on offer around the area yet strangely it doesn’t seem overlly touristy as the relatively few tourist shops are confined to the visitor centre complex which isn’t visible from the aqueduct itself.

We’ll be running up a full article shortly for Whole Earth Guide but don’t wait around for that if you’re in the area: just go!

Popularity: 8% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!