Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:26 pm  

WIZEB wrote:

'Get stripped, you're picked'.

"déshabille-toi, je te veut"

pronounced 'dezzabee twa, jerteveur'

good luck

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:52 pm  

"Un jambon est un biere s'il vous plait"

Twenty years ago next year me and my brother did our own Tour de Bretagne on bicycles with a tent and the above was the full extent of our French, we didn't even take a phrase book, in fact our kid didn't even take his passport

We survived, but the diet was a bit boring, apart from the beer bit.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:18 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

"Un jambon est un biere s'il vous plait"

Twenty years ago next year me and my brother did our own Tour de Bretagne on bicycles with a tent and the above was the full extent of our French, we didn't even take a phrase book, in fact our kid didn't even take his passport

We survived, but the diet was a bit boring, apart from the beer bit.

the mind boggles JC ! how did you get in and back without a passport BTW ?

next visit ask for "une galette complète et un cidre SVP" - deeelicious !

(nb:cider is the national drink of Brittany and galettes are savoury pancakes)


great place for a holiday though and easily reachable from the UK of course and not too bad this time of year with a good climate and not too many tourists like down south

recommended places in Brittany ? well, Quimper is brilliant and Vannes is good but if you want a more seaside destination go for la Baule which is great for kids - for the more romantic on the forum take the missus to Pornic which is a nice fishing town type place - guranteed leg-over and great fish restaurants

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:48 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

"Un jambon est un biere s'il vous plait"

Is it?

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:52 pm  

Dally wrote:

Is it?

not quite, but who cares ?

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:54 pm  

sanjunien wrote:

not quite, but who cares ?

The French, one assumes.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:17 pm  

sanjunien wrote:

the mind boggles JC ! how did you get in and back without a passport BTW ?

My brother was a world traveller when we cycled Brittany in '93, he'd literally only just returned from hiking all the way around the world for 18 months, you could say that the air turned blue when we got to the ferry terminal and he realised that he didn't have his passport with him.

Luckily it was 1993, the world wasn't as paranoid as it is now, we were on bikes at the ferry terminal and they let all the cyclists board first so he just got himself into the middle of a group of bikes and rode straight through the passport check at Portsmouth, when we got to St Malo the next morning there wasn't a soul to be seen on the dockside to check documents

recommended places in Brittany ? well, Quimper is brilliant and Vannes is good but if you want a more seaside destination go for la Baule which is great for kids - for the more romantic on the forum take the missus to Pornic which is a nice fishing town type place - guranteed leg-over and great fish restaurants

I took the family on holiday to Benodet a few years ago and so of course Quimper was on the agenda, beautiful old town, and because the family all wanted to just lie on the beach I had a fantastic two weeks of driving myself all along the south coast visiting all sorts of villages, Concarneau, Pont Aven, had a great time.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:46 pm  

Wilde 3 wrote:

Looking for somewhere to go in October (middle 2 weeks) - beach holiday, all inclusive.

Want good weather so thinking Cape Verde or Dominican - is Egypt hot enough?

Went to Dom Rep last July, hotel was nice but the place itself is a bit rough, much prefer Cuba with part stay in Havana.

Egypt should still be hot in October. I am going to Red Sea on Monday for 2 weeks, temps are high as 42 at the moment

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:49 pm  

Mike Oxlong wrote:

Anyone been to the west coast of Canada, Vancouver or Vancouver Island?? Looking at staying in a log cabin on the island if possible, for a week and do a load of outdoor sports stuff and whale watching if possible.

Long time ago, spent 3 weeks in Vancouver and a week in a place called Esquimalt on Vancouver Island, absolutely fantastic if you like wild life (Orcas are numerous). A place I have always wanted to go back to, but never made it.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:38 am  

rover49 wrote:

I am going to Red Sea on Monday for 2 weeks, temps are high as 42 at the moment

Are you mad?! I hope you'll be scuba diving or visiting sites most days because it'll be way too hot for a sunbathing holiday. Egypt and Turkey (and Arizona) are the hottest places I've been and even the locals tell you not to go in August!

Loved Egypt for the diving and the cheap beer. Hated Egypt for the Egyptians, won't be going back for that reason. You've not been hassled until you've done Egypt.

You get out of a taxi at your hotel and taxis nearby zoom up and start beeping and shouting at you, even when they've seen you just arrive. Go into some of the shops and they lock the door behind you. We walked past one shop in Sharm and the owner started following us down the street "why you no buy my things" - he got pretty abusive "you f*cking English", etc until we got stern and told him to fook off back to his shop. The females in the group were pretty scared and none of us did any more shopping after that.

I realise they are a culture of traders but the sooner someone educates them that if they backed off,Western Europeans would be MORE likely to shop.