Ariane Jenkins wrote:

> This was our first trip, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Erik isn't
> quite certain he could live there.... I guess it would depend on where. As
> much as we enjoyed Paris, I'm not a big city sort of person. There are
> aspects of bigger cities that I like, but the noise, traffic and crowds get to
> me after a while. And out in the country, there's a definite lack of sushi
> bars. <g>
>

And why would you want sushi bars when their is so much good food?

The first two times I went to Paris I found restaurants very expensive, but I was a
typical tourist and sticking to the main tourist areas. The last time I was there
we went a little further afield and found much better food for about half what we
had been paying.

The countryside over there is beautiful at this time of year. My last two trips
there were in May, and on the last one we rented a car and wandered aimlessly
around France after Denmark, Germany, Holland and Belgium. We came in near Lille,
visited Vimy Ridge and, because it was raining, got in the car and drove until we
found the sun. That was in Reims. The fields were yellow with blooms. We found that
hotels and meals in that area were about half what they were in Paris.

On a previous trip we had a rail pass, came into France from Italy and stayed in
Nice for a few days, then back up to Paris on the TGV. The south had some
magnificent scenery and I would like to get back an explore that region some time.