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Mont Saint Michel is certainly a fantastic place, however I must admit that I got a bit bored of walking around the cathedral after about the 20th empty room of
by robotmay 9y ago
Mont Saint Michel is certainly a fantastic place, however I must admit that I got a bit bored of walking around the cathedral after about the 20th empty room of pillars ;)
Unfortunately a lot of monuments/castles in France suffer from that feeling of emptiness; I assume they were cleared out during the revolution. Your best chance of seeing interesting things as well as interesting buildings seems to be to look for privately-owned/smaller castles that are open to the public. I went to a particularly nice one a couple of years ago where I believe the tour guide was a member of the family who owned it, and they had a fantastic collection of old furniture, art, weapons etc. And the biggest holly tree I have ever seen (we're talking castle-wall height).
It's something we kinda take for granted in the UK. We have a lot of ruined castles that are obviously pretty empty, but if it's got a roof it probably has lots of old stuff to see inside too.
I do like the number of castles in France though; there's always something to see nearby. It's fun to be in a place with so many historic buildings, like here in Wales (~600 castles)!
- jcelerier 9y ago> Your best chance of seeing interesting things as well as interesting buildings seems to be to look for privately-owned/smaller castles that are open to the public. Some very nice ones are the Chateau d'Abbadia (https://www.google.fr/search?q=chateau+d'abbadia+intérieur&tbm=isch https://www.google.fr/search?q=chateau+d'abbadia+intérieur&t...) ; Dampierre-sur-Boutonne has some original stuff preserved too (https://www.google.fr/search?tbm=isch&q=dampierre+sur+boutonne+château+intérieur https://www.google.fr/search?tbm=isch&q=dampierre+sur+bouton...)
- sametmax 9y agoCastels are nowhere close to the most interesting things to see in France. "Le puy du fou" (https://www.puydufou.com/fr https://www.puydufou.com/fr), "le palais idéal du factor cheval" (http://www.facteurcheval.com/histoire/palais.html http://www.facteurcheval.com/histoire/palais.html), "le gouffre de padirac" (https://www.vallee-dordogne.com/grottes-et-gouffres/le-gouffre-de-padirac/visiter https://www.vallee-dordogne.com/grottes-et-gouffres/le-gouff...), la via ferrata de peille (http://peille.free.fr/index.php http://peille.free.fr/index.php) or "la cité des sciences" (http://www.cite-sciences.fr/fr/accueil/ http://www.cite-sciences.fr/fr/accueil/) are exemples of much more exotic, fun, interesting and unique things to do in France. Stop doing the things they tell you to do on TV. Cheese and wine will only take you so far.
- mieseratte 9y ago> Castels are nowhere close to the most interesting things to see in France. Not everyone comes from a land with "boring" castles everywhere.
- sametmax 9y agoThe great thing is that, since you have them everywhere, you can go on visiting one great castel and one great church. Then do something else. See the giant mechanical elephant in Nantes, hire a guide for "la vallée des merveilles" in the Mercantour park, play petanque and try pastis with old persons in Marseilles, kayak in "les gorges du verdon", bath naked in Saint Selon or break a leg in a the snow of Auron. It's a really cool country once you forget the stereotypes of food, sex and strikes. I mean, I do have food while having sex during strikes, but frankly you can do that anywhere.
- acqq 9y ago> I mean, I do have food while having sex during strikes, but frankly you can do that anywhere. Bonus points for irony! Of course, where I live the strikes happen almost never, not to mention my partner‘s apparent willingness for sex as „almost never“ too.
- robotmay 9y agoActually I go to France for traditional music events and festivals in Berry/Auvergne (I play diatonic accordion), I just happen to particularly like going to castles and my partner is an archaeologist :)
- alphakappa 9y agoThank you for these examples. I visited the links but I am not entirely sure what I’m looking at (sorry, this may also have to do with being a non-French speaker). Would you be so kind as to provide your thoughts on what’s the interesting bit about these places?
- 9y ago
- toyg 9y ago> I assume they were cleared out during the revolution. When you assume... "It was under the reign of King Louis XI that Mont Saint-Michel became France’s version of Alcatraz. Transformed into a detention center, it took in prisoners until 1860." - https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/france/mont-saint-michel/history-mont-saint-michel https://www.pariscityvision.com/en/france/mont-saint-michel/...
- robotmay 9y agoAh ha, thanks! I must admit that I always skip the guided tours where possible so I might have missed out on that info while actually there.