Five Things You May Not Know About France

by Christine Cantera

Christine Cantera is a writer for the France Travel Guide at BootsnAll, the indie travel guide. She lives in the Languedoc and loves to tell people about the lesser-known areas of her adopted country.

1. France is a lot smaller than you think.

France is roughly the size of Texas. You can travel from one end to the other in just a few hours on the TGV, France’s high-speed train network. So if you’re trying to figure out what to do in Paris for a 10-day vacation, think outside the City of Light. You can leave Paris in the morning and be in Bordeaux, Lyon or even Nice by lunchtime!

2. France is more culturally diverse than you think.

French officials work tirelessly to promote a national identity, but the French people have other ideas. Regional dialects, cuisines, cultures and traditions are still going strong. From the Celtic influences in Brittany to the North African cultural wave in Marseille to the Basque flavors in St-Jean-de-Luz, France literally offers a world of culture within its borders.

3. France is more geographically diverse than you think.

France has three distinct mountain ranges, volcanoes, lush forests, dramatic limestone cliffs, and both sandy and rocky beaches give way to three different bodies of water. This winter I left Paris bundled up and avoiding snow flakes, and arrived in Montpellier where I sipped coffee in the sun feeling toasty a sweater and scarf. You can hike in the Pyrenees and surf in Biarrtiz on the same day.

4. France has influenced your palate more than you think.

While I’m not knocking wine and cheese – I consider it perfectly acceptable to think of these as their own food groups – and while Paris is rightly one of the culinary capitals of the world, it’s when you step outside the city that you experience the astonishingly good meals that make foodies swoon. If you’ve ever wanted to eat quiche Lorraine, coq au vin, duck confit or foie gras in the places these dishes were invented, France is your country. The same goes for Champagne, Dijon mustard, calvados – things that cannot go by any other name, because that’s where they come from.

5. The French are not as rude as you think.

This complaint has ebbed over the last 10 years or so, but I still hear it every once in a while. And, yes, there are rude French people; however, I think you’ll agree this character trait is not limited only to France. What is true, however, is that they are a bit more formal than, say, Italy, and they tend to bristle more than other Europeans at being assumed to speak English. But, here’s the secret – if you learn a few French words and phrases, the French open up like flowers on a spring day and you’ll find they’re generous, funny and shockingly kind.