Visiting France in the Winter
January 9th, 2007 | 
Author: Most people have their holiday in France during the Summer but in many ways that’s one of the worst times to come.For a start, France largely closes down in August so you can often find places closed. Those that are open are very crowded as the majority of the French take their holidays from mid-July to the penultimate week in August so you’ll often find hotels full during that period and, of course, the prices are at their peak too.
The Winter in France is quite different. Prices are lower and most places are open so you won’t have any problem getting somewhere to stay and, naturally, the flight prices are a good deal lower. One thing that does close is the hotels, usually from October to March but there remains a lot of availability as the number of tourists drops substantially. One that doesn’t is the Auberge Mas Camps which is open all year and has an ideal location between the mountains and the sea.
Isn’t it cold? In the central, northern and mountain areas, yes it is. In the south it’s cold in the evenings but it’s frequently t-shirt weather during the day and indeed I’m writing this in a t-shirt whilst thinking about getting the shorts out, right in the middle of January! Don’t go by what the locals are wearing as you often see them wearing heavy Winter clothing when the temperatures are in the high 20s.
You’ll also find that the villages and towns are a good deal more French in the Winter too. The absence of tourists makes quite a difference and, especially if you’re considering a purchase here, it’s definitely worth a visit over the Winter period.
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I could add to this that in the winter, the french will be a lot nicer with tourists !!! I live in Paris and all the tourists going around the place in summer tend to give me headakes… (but then, you people make our economy work so you’re welcome !) However in winter, I tend to think tourists are more “enlightened” and have decided to avoid the crouds to visit the country. I always enjoy chatting with tourist on the banks of the Seine river in the “low season”. But in summer, I really get tired of having people walking around, forgetting that english is NOT the official language in Paris, and not understanding why nobody will help them if they don’t make the slightest effort to speak a word or two in french…
If you visit France, don’t forget the french people are very proud of the french language and that we feal insulted when tourists expect us to speak perfect english.
You get a totally different category of tourist in the Winter.
What happens is that in the Summer basically everyone goes on holiday so you get a considerable number of people coming who don’t speak French or don’t speak it well. We as embarrassed at our poor French as the French appear to be about their “poor English”. However, I find that for the most part what the French count as “bad English” is really rather good.
Don’t forget that us anglophones have the problem everywhere in the world that, unless we speak the local language very well, people will almost always reply to us in English. This makes it much more difficult to practice a language when we’re learning it than it is for those who don’t have English as their first language.
Yes, it’s handy for people to reply to us in English but it has the side-effect that a growing number of English speakers just don’t see the point in learning any foreign language. Even when I started my French degree it was quite a long time before my French reached the level when people didn’t automatically reply to me in English, particularly in Paris.
So, to improve our attempts, please let us struggle on a little in French. Conversations with a little English, a little French always seem to work and it improves the language ability of both parties to the conversation.
“So, to improve our attempts, please let us struggle on a little in French. Conversations with a little English, a little French always seem to work and it improves the language ability of both parties to the conversation.”
Thats a very good point ! I’ll try using more french when tourists speak to me in english, but I’ll only do it in the low season… because I’ll let you imagine how long it would take to start a conversation in both language during the summer season when at least five tourists ask me for directions or anything else during summer ! ;o)
I think you’ll be surprised at the response from most Brits if you encourage them to carry on a little further with their French. Remember that many of those that come to France are quite different from tourists elsewhere in that they are interested in France and French culture.